3 Key Methods to Motivate Your Volunteers
Volunteers who stay motivated are more engaged and likely to keep volunteering
- Show Volunteers their Impact
One way that you can motivate your volunteers is to show them the impact they are making. Your volunteers are with your organization because they are passionate about your mission so giving them a way to see the difference, they are making will help retain and motivate your volunteers. One of the best ways to display this by providing volunteers with a resume that displays various ways they have made a difference such as:
- Impact Value
- Hours Contributed
- Opportunities responded to
These are just a few things you can offer that help volunteers see and understand what they are doing and will go a long way toward keeping them invested in your mission. iVolunteer offers a digital resume that shows you these things and more available on your dashboard!
- Understand Volunteer Skill Sets
Each volunteer is unique and provides a specific set of skills. Keeping track of what those skills are and offering ways that they can best make use of the things they most excel at will be beneficial to both your organization and the volunteer. Matching a volunteer to an event or opportunity that they're more likely to enjoy will make them more likely to succeed and continue participating in the future!
- Communicate with your Volunteers
Communication is vital to any organization whether it is between employees or volunteers without proper communication there can be significant issues that arise. With volunteers it's important that you properly communicate with them in order to provide feedback as well as take the opportunity to get to know them. Providing them with the opportunity to understand how things went will help them learn and motivate them for the future. A few things to keep in mind when communicating with your volunteers are:
- Be specific about strengths and areas to improve
- Get to know them
- Give them a chance to voice their own opinions or suggestions
- Create a sense of team within the organization's volunteers
These are just a few things to keep in mind when communicating with your volunteers. If they feel like they are part of a team making that is making a difference in their community then they will be more motivated to continue volunteering for your organization.
