Volunteer Appreciation Ideas (Part 3): How to Support, Develop & Retain Volunteers
This is Part Three in the Small Thank You for Volunteers post series. Don’t forget to check out Part One and Part Two.
Being a volunteer opens up a world of new opportunities to learn new skills. Many years ago, I organized a project with over 100 volunteers. I’d wrangled smaller groups before, but this was my first large-scale project. I learned what worked well (and what didn’t) and I’ve since applied those skills to many other projects, both paid and volunteer.
Support and Development:
Offer professional development workshops and training; there are many free and low-cost opportunities that nonprofits can take advantage of. Offering these to volunteers not only can help with their own personal development but can also be a plus and strategic for the nonprofit. If you have some dedicated volunteers who are eager to learn and might be interested in learning more about marketing for example, or fundraising, those skills can only further benefit the NP. Appreciation should always be the primary motivation but it doesn’t hurt to look at the additional benefits.
Share job openings in your org first, volunteers may be volunteers because they are between jobs, may have life changes that need additional income or may just have extra time on their hands and want to put money towards something else, like retirement or other funding. Similar to hiring employees from within, your volunteers already know the organization, and if they are not interested, their network of friends or family might be interested. Caveat. If you hire a volunteer, make sure they are aware and okay with the fact that expectations may change, as well as how others view them. Volunteers sometimes get a different degree of respect from others, and how people may deal with them may be different as an employee versus as a volunteer.
Write LinkedIn recommendations. If people in the workforce plan to change jobs, LinkedIn recommendations can boost their professional standing. Business owners also benefit, as others typically view philanthropy favorably.
Invite them to staff trainings, similar to offering professional development workshops; it helps to increase their own skill sets, which can also benefit your NP.
Ask them to mentor new volunteers. Mentoring others is a great way to learn new skills. Giving them the tools to do it well helps both themselves, the mentee, and, of course, the NP.
Encourage public speaking opportunities. They say people fear public speaking as much, if not more, than death. I don’t know if I agree, but I think it comes a fairly close second. In a decade of being a member of Toastmasters, I saw hundreds of people conquer their fear of public speaking, which, when they started giving speeches, completely terrified an awful lot of them, myself included. Just like giving them some tools to be an excellent mentor, offering to sponsor a year of Toastmasters or another public speaking program doesn’t have to cost a lot, and can help volunteers overcome anxiety and fear.
Let them lead a session or workshop. Your volunteers typically have a wealth of untapped skills that a NP doesn’t know about, much less take advantage of. Having a good onboarding program can help you get a handle on their skill sets and knowledge. You could gear a class or workshop towards other volunteers, employees, the general public, or members (if your NP has membership options). If a volunteer has the knowledge but has a fear of speaking, this is a great opportunity to encourage them to experience public speaking training. Most public speaking training helps build self-confidence, not just training public speaking skills, so it’s fantastic for shyer people who have a lot of potential.
Offer mock interviews. Interviewing both as the interviewee and the interviewer is a learned skill. You may have volunteers who are job hunting or who are hunting for employees. Offering a safe space to learn and get constructive feedback on both being interviewed and the interview process is helpful on multiple levels. Just like leadership, no one is born being a great interviewer/interviewee.
Give personalized letters of reference, similar to recommendations on a LinkedIn profile. These can be very helpful to someone who is currently in the workforce, whether they are currently job hunting or could be job hunting in the future. As someone who vets people sent to me by friends and clients who ask me to research potential employees, and having talked to recruiters who also agree; a person who has gaps in work history but spends that time volunteering in the interim scores a lot higher. Offering a testimonial quote for their website (if they have a business) is also very helpful from the business owner’s perspective, as it helps promote their philanthropy.
Including them in other staff or board events also helps volunteer buy-in. Some examples are asking for input on new programs, asking for ideas on fundraising, inviting them to planning meetings, asking if they would like to be on a volunteer advisory board (with the caveat you will listen to ideas from them and implement the good ones and not have it be a sham committee), ask them to help interview new volunteers, listen and give them a voice in policy changes that affect the nonprofit.
For some fun buy-in, let them design or help design a t-shirt for the nonprofit, interview them and feature their stories on your website and social media, encourage them to submit photos, blog posts, and articles.
And last but not least, two things that can help them professionally: Invite them to go with you to networking events, and provide volunteer business cards and professional name tags. Your volunteers are some of your best cheerleaders to both spread the word about your nonprofit and to recruit more volunteers. It also makes a volunteer feel special to be acknowledged, invited, and feel like they are a valued member of your organization.
Small Gifts and Tokens:
Here are a few low-cost but meaningful ways to make a volunteer feel appreciated. Don’t just do it once or offer it one time. Small touches repeated with personal thank yous are very meaningful.
Give small seasonal gifts and include a handwritten personal note.
Give them branded pens and/or journals/notebooks.
Hand out coupons for local businesses and/or distribute discount cards from local partners.
Send digital gift cards. With a digital thank-you note.
Offer free tickets to your events. Making a volunteer pay for admission to an event you are putting on, even if they are not volunteering at it, is poor form. I’ve attended events where volunteers have come and had to pay for admittance and overheard them grousing about it. That doesn’t give a good look to the general public.
Give custom mugs or water bottles.
Provide logo t-shirts, hats, lanyards, hoodies, or other wearable swag. The goal is appreciation, but the walking branding billboard opportunity shouldn’t be discounted.
Make a small framed quote about them and post it publicly. Don’t forget to post it on your socials with a call out.
Give a mini self-care kit and include a handwritten personal note.
Create a gratitude-themed coloring book; make sure a handwritten personal note is included.
Include your logo on candles or soap, and make sure you add a handwritten personal note.
Distribute plantable seed paper notes and include a handwritten personal note.
Give a tote bag with a thank-you design. Make sure a handwritten personal note is included.
I’ll also add some things NOT to do:
Mass-blast generic thank-you email messages with “Dear Volunteer” and no personal details.
Calling out names in a long list at an event without telling a story about what each person actually contributed.
One-size-fits-all rewards. Handing out identical mugs, T-shirts, or certificates every year. The first time it’s fine, but it loses the thought year after year.
Recognition tied to labor. Thanking people by giving them more work (“You did great last month, so we’d like you to lead the next event!”).
Saying “Thanks for your help at last year’s fundraiser,” six months later, when the memory has faded.
Mentioning volunteers at the very end of a three-hour board meeting, when everyone has tuned out (or many people have already left), signals that appreciation was an afterthought.
Organizations that set up a recognition program, but leave the same person’s name posted for months and don’t update it.
Handing out things like XXL T-shirts to petite volunteers, or refrigerator magnets with outdated logos.
Thanking volunteers by tallying “hours logged,” without acknowledging impact (“Janet did 50 hours of volunteer time,” instead of “Janet sat with 12 nonprofit clients and changed 12 lives.”)
Planning appreciation dinners that require attendees to pay, take place during work hours, or fail to accommodate dietary needs prevents some volunteers from participating due to time or expense.
Saying thanks only once a year at a banquet, instead of showing appreciation throughout the year.
While it might seem a bit mercenary, many of these thank yous can also be turned into marketing/media posts. Keep in mind it’s not just about recruitment, it’s about retention. People seeing volunteers be appreciated and having fun encourages them to volunteer. Volunteers seeing themselves get appreciated love to share online and it also helps keep them engaged. This is the second post in this series, the first one can be found 
