Increase Volunteer Retention by Knowing Your Volunteers
Each volunteer makes the decision to contribute for their own reasons and motivations. Taking a little extra time to learn, track and know your volunteers can help with a more satisfying and connected volunteer experience. Volunteers who are more satisfied are more willing to keep volunteering.
Most nonprofit employees understand that each volunteer is different, with their own strengths and weaknesses, but not many have the time to get to know them individually. Our time is valuable, but creating and actively using volunteer profiles can be a good start to keep track of some of the unique information about your volunteers. This will help you better engage and connect with them long term.
Keeping track of some key pieces of information consists of the typical demographic and administrative details, but also can include more specific information unique to that individual. Ensure that if you are tracking information on volunteers that they are aware of how much they choose to disclose and have the option to change it, and keep data according to relevant legislation (and common sense) where applicable.
Traditional information you will gather about your volunteers can include:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Preferred method of communication
- Availability
- Emergency contact
However, there are also less traditional details you can learn about volunteers beyond this core basic information. Non-traditional information is used to help you have more insight and really get to know your volunteers better. Below is a list of some examples and how you can apply this knowledge - both to improve your volunteers experience - and build stronger relationships with them long term.
Non-traditional information:
- Date of birth (send a birthday card)
- Date they began volunteering (send an anniversary card)
- Employer (maybe their company has a matching gift program)
- Skills/talents (align their volunteer tasks with their strengths)
- Interests (perhaps their interests align with an event your organization has)
- Favorite snack (give a little "thank you" gift)
- Fun fact (incorporate these in social media posts during volunteer appreciation week-or any time)
There can be different ways to keep track of these kind of more specific details about volunteers, but it's best practice to consolidate in a single volunteer profile as this is easier for record keeping and data management. Having a single place to store information is informed by best practices for keeping, updating or deleting personal information about volunteers as needed or requested, and to comply with privacy laws.
We hope these few examples give you an idea of how you can improve your volunteer experience with gathering and tracking just a little more information about your volunteers, why that's useful, and how to use that information constructively to keep your volunteers engaged and feeling appreciated.
Want to learn more? Please read the following:
Pesce, L. (2017, October 31). Get to Know Your Volunteers as Individuals. Retrieved from NonProfitPro: www.nonprofitpro.com
