Online Registration Open for Annual Luncheon

Online registration is open for the Annual Advocacy Luncheon.

Honoring Volunteers

Our next MDVAN meeting will be Thursday, April 23, 2009, 8:30-10:30am
Our topic will be: Honoring Volunteers
The meeting will be held at:

HAVEN, 2550 Telegraph Road, Suite 111
Bloomfield Hills, MI  48302
[southwest corner of Telegraph & Square Lake Road]

* Continental Breakfast will be served*

Cost: free for members, $10 for non-members

Discover ways to honor or appreciate your volunteers!

If You Want Volunteers, Ask

By Merle Benny

Now is the perfect time to recruit volunteers. Many people are out of work or working fewer hours. They may want to use their extra hours to do something they care about or to explore a career change. Others may want to volunteer because they are concerned about those suffering in these difficult economic times.

I’ve been a volunteer chef making dinner for 50 once a week. I’ve slept in more churches and synagogues than I can count. I’ve organized fundraisers, planned trips, made phone calls and cleaned bathrooms. Why? Because someone asked.

There are several fundamental reasons that people volunteer. Generally they get and stay involved because:
· They know you
· They understand and believe in your mission
· They have a connected to you or someone in the organization

But you will seldom get volunteers without asking for them. When you care about your mission and ask people to join you, you generally get just what you need – and then some. Your “ask” could be a general call for volunteers, like an announcement in a newsletter. Or it could be more specific, like asking a friend to help you out. Not surprisingly, the closer you get to the one-on-one ask the better results you will have.

Another key to success in recruitment to be specific about what you want. The more specific the request the better the results. When we want something we tend to downplay it. You need someone to cover the phones for three hours every Tuesday but you ask. “Do you think you could spare an hour or two, just this once?” We all do it, but the truth is, asking for exactly want you need works best.

Here’s a great example of this. Good Grief is a new organization providing services to children who have lost a parent. They need facilitators to work with the children. In the past year and a half they have trained about 80 facilitators and each one of them made a big commitment: they paid for their training, gave up four full days to be trained and they agreed to serve for one full year. That’s a lot to ask but the organization has had no trouble getting volunteers because their mission and the need have been clearly defined and communicated.

Find Volunteers

Potential volunteers are all around you. Hopefully, you are continually building your circle and sharing your mission so you have a large pool of possibilities. I suggest a regular Tour to build your circle of friends. Be sure you are keeping track and encourage (and make it easy for) everyone else in your organization to keep a list of volunteer candidates.

When you have a volunteer use him! There is nothing worse than asking for volunteers and not using them. Be sure the need is established and you are ready to go before you ask. Having a regularly scheduled volunteer training will help! The training could start with a Tour so everyone shares the same understanding of your mission and goals, then do the job specific training.

Here’s another insight: Volunteers tend to look like the recruiter. Well, not exactly but if you want young volunteers, train a young recruiter. If you want diversity, have diverse recruiters. Want upbeat; make sure your recruiters are enthusiastic.

To summarize, the key points to remember when you are recruiting are:

1. Know precisely what you want
2. Identify potentials volunteers
3. Ask!

In addition to cleaning toilets I have also had the honor of serving on selection committees and facilitating training. I was pleased to be asked to do these jobs. To be asked can be an honor. Think of the times you have felt honored to be included in something, even if it meant a commitment on your part. Everybody likes their talents to be appreciated – if you are asking the right person to do the right job than you are showing your appreciation and respect when you ask for their help.

Once you have a volunteer, take good care of her. Show appreciation, celebrate and give her more opportunities! Turn all your volunteers into ambassadors for your organization. That’s how you grow and succeed, even in tough economic time.

Merle Benny is a published author and has recently released The Winner’s Circle, a practical, easy-to-use program for nonprofit success and growth. It can be found at Nonprofit-Champion.com.

With over 25 years marketing and management experience, as well as being a lifelong volunteer, Merle now works exclusively with nonprofits to help them grow and succeed. Her creative solutions for nonprofit organizations have included events, websites, videos, branding, annual reports, brochures and development. She provides free ideas, tips and tools for nonprofit leaders at: http://www.Nonprofit-Champion.com

This article may be freely distributed if the author information stays attached.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Merle_Benny
http://EzineArticles.com/?If-You-Want-Volunteers,-Ask&id=1971906

Membership Renewal and Retention

Membership Renewal and Retention
By Bunnie Riedel

The heart of many nonprofits is the membership. For some nonprofits, membership income can be one-third or one-half of all income. How then can nonprofits keep membership from slipping during these delicate times?

Attention must be paid to member renewal and retention. Typically organizations will see a twenty-percent decline in membership each year. Holding that number and trying to reduce it requires extra effort. There are some key things that can be done to ensure that your organization’s “churn” doesn’t get out of control.

Motivation

Take a good long look at your organization. Why do people join? What’s in it for them? Start by asking some of your loyal members to give you the answers. Do they continue to renew because of altruistic reasons? Does the “mission” of the organization fulfill some need they have to be a part of it? Are there certain tangible benefits they derive from their membership, such as discounts on products or services or important networking connections they can’t get anywhere else? Does your organization provide legislative representation at the local, state or federal level? Perhaps you have training programs that are critical to certification or continuing education. Ask: why do people spend their money to belong to this organization?

Services and Programming

Next, look at the services you provide your membership. Particularly focus on what your members need from the organization. Conduct a survey of your members to find out which services they find invaluable and which services they rarely, if ever, use. Also ask your members what they need. I am particularly fond of Question Pro. It’s easy to use and provides terrific analytics on the back-end. They also provide free access to nonprofits and a one-month survey is $15.00.

Are there some services or programs that have become stale? Are there new services or programs that should be introduced to keep up with members needs? Are your programs and services up-to-date with technology? Conversely, are your programs and services too technologically advanced for your membership? Are you giving away services that should be exclusive to the membership?

Communication

It never ceases to amaze me that many nonprofit executives and boards don’t communicate what they are accomplishing to their membership. Communication has to be a priority and it has to be ongoing all year long, not just at renewal time. Not communicating will cause your members to ask “What have they done for me lately?” or to assume that the “national” or “regional” office does nothing. Maybe your organization can’t afford to publish a printed newsletter or journal, but it certainly can afford to publish a newsletter or journal online and it certainly can afford to email a missive to the membership to say “Here’s what we’re doing!” I know of organizations that have excellent listservs used by the membership for peer-to-peer networking and never used by the organization itself to reach out to members!

Lack of regular communication screams to the members that you don’t care about them you only care about getting their money.

Once you’ve looked at these areas: motivation; services and programming; and communication; it’s time to look at your renewal strategy.

I am not a fan of annual dues collected all at once, like in January. They work for some organizations but for many they mean a sudden influx of money and delayed membership projections that cannot be addressed until the annual collection window has closed. In other words, if you only renew once a year in January, you won’t be able to calculate that your membership numbers are off until mid to late February. However, if you do anniversary renewals all year long you get a better sense of renewal rates and can adjust your campaign and your budget as you go.

Start three months in advance of the renewal. Send a personal letter (yes, you can mail merge) telling the member why it is they want to renew. Tell them about all the great things your organization has accomplished this year and why it’s exciting to be a part of such a great endeavor. Send that letter each month until the renewal date (be sure to modify it a bit each time). Once the renewal date has passed and they haven’t renewed, send out a new letter, re-capping how great the organization is and what member benefits they will be missing out on if they don’t renew. Do this for three months, each month.

If the member still has not renewed, send them a special package. Include a “gift” in that package; it can be as simple as your printed journal or 10% off the next conference or a magnet or calendar.

If the organization is small enough, have your board members divide up the non-renewed list and give each of those lapsed members a personal call. Or send your regions or chapters a list of those who did not renew (after a six month lapse) and have them personally contact those members. (A great incentive for regions or chapters is to give them 50% of the lapsed members renewal…half for your organization is better than none).

At some point in the future I’ll provide member renewal letter samples.

But for now, it is critical that membership renewal run like a well-oiled machine and that a lot of thought has gone into why people become members and why they stay members.

Bunnie Riedel – see http://nonprofitconversation.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bunnie_Riedel
http://EzineArticles.com/?Membership-Renewal-and-Retention&id=1897836