Volunteer Retention Strategies
Volunteers can be the backbone of a successful organization. It is important that once volunteers are trained to keep them motivated to return. A high turnover of volunteers can put pressure on a group to continuously be recruiting, training and getting to know new volunteers. Once you have found and trained the volunteers, you must begin work on retaining those volunteers by using volunteer retention strategies.
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Find Your Volunteer's Motives
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Aside from doing a good deed and helping out a cause they truly believe in, there may be additional motives that keep your volunteers returning. Find out what those are and appeal to them. For instance, if you have a volunteer that desires to be around people, assigning him to a corner office to file paperwork may not work. If you are working with animals, and you have an aspiring trainer volunteering, don't assign him office duty. Allow him to volunteer directly with the animals.
Work with Your Volunteer's Schedules
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Keep in mind what their availability is and how many hours they want to volunteer each week. They may be available five days a week, but only want a few hours a week of volunteer time. If you overdo it, they may get burned out and you may lose them. Listen to your volunteers' wishes. Remember, they are donating something more precious than money: their time.
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Recognize and Appreciate
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Try hosting a yearly volunteer appreciation gala. This can be formal or informal, depending on budget and type of organization. Something elaborate like a dinner event might be a nice appreciation if your group can afford it, but it can also be something as simple as an appreciation pot luck picnic. Offer awards to volunteers based on the number of years they have volunteered; for instance, a one year ribbon, two year ribbon. In addition, sending a greeting card to your volunteers is a nice touch that many will appreciate. The simple gesture means a lot and costs little.
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