Volunteers are vital to your nonprofit’s success. Without their time, skills, and passion, you wouldn’t be able to achieve half of your goals. And if you don’t prioritize the volunteer experience, you may suddenly find yourself without them.
The volunteer experience is a broad term that refers to every interaction volunteers have with your organization. A positive volunteer experience is critical to volunteer retention, and it can have wide-ranging organizational effects, from community reputation to overall program success. In this comprehensive guide, we will show you how to leverage the volunteer experience to fight volunteer turnover and expand your reach.
Why Do Volunteers Turn Over?
Poor volunteer experience directly results in increased volunteer turnover. To put it even more simply, when your volunteers aren’t enjoying themselves, they’re going to quit.
Because the volunteer experience involves so many different factors, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what makes a volunteer turn over, but you should keep an eye out for potential issues that can lead to volunteer disengagement, such as:
- Volunteer registration is unnecessarily complicated and lengthy.
- Volunteers don’t have a clear idea of program expectations.
- Volunteers do not receive enough communication from your organization.
- Volunteers have difficulty signing up for shifts, checking in, and logging their hours due to complex processes and outdated technology.
- Volunteers are matched with roles that don’t take advantage of their skills and that they don’t enjoy.
- Volunteers do not feel valued.
- Volunteers are experiencing burnout.
- There aren’t any feedback systems in place.
- Volunteers do not understand how their work contributes to the organization’s overall mission.
No organization is perfect, and these issues can crop up in even the best-run volunteer programs. However, if your nonprofit is consistently dealing with volunteer experience problems, it may be time to revamp your approach.
The Consequences of High Volunteer Turnover
If left unchecked, volunteer experience issues can snowball into high volunteer turnover—and bigger problems for your entire organization.
When you lose volunteers, you need to immediately redirect your resources towards a new recruitment campaign. That means you will have to take money, time, and energy from other parts of your budget to get new volunteers—shortchanging other programs and slowing down your workflow.
Until you get those new volunteers, you will still have positions to fill. If you’re lucky, your remaining volunteers may step up to fill in the gap; however, that comes with challenges, too. When you’re already facing volunteer experience issues, it may be difficult for you to re-engage your base. And even if you manage to find some volunteers to bridge the gap, you should still be careful. Overextending your volunteers can lead to burnout—and more turnover.
If you’re unable to mobilize your current volunteer base, you’re going to have to assign paid staff members to empty positions, which decreases your return on investment and distracts your team from other tasks. And if your volunteer turnover problem gets bad enough, you may even need to hire more employees to pick up the slack.
None of these things are good news for your organization, but volunteer turnover can have consequences in your surrounding community, too. Disgruntled volunteers may spread negative word of mouth, which can discourage other potential volunteers and donors from engaging with your nonprofit. And if your donors notice that volunteers are constantly leaving, they may be concerned about whether your organization is a wise investment.
The bottom line? High volunteer turnover takes a heavy toll on your nonprofit, costing you time, money, energy, and community reputation. When you’re already functioning with limited resources, the costs of volunteer turnover can inhibit your organization’s ability to make a difference.
Reduce Turnover by Prioritizing the Volunteer Experience
Prioritizing the volunteer experience plays a critical role in reducing volunteer turnover, but it also has benefits for your entire organization.
In addition to better volunteer retention rates, when you focus on the volunteer experience, you will notice:
- More effective recruitment efforts, with fewer volunteers falling off during onboarding and training.
- Increased volunteer engagement and less difficulty filling volunteer positions, increasing efficiency and organizational capacity.
- Greater levels of productivity, which ultimately expands your nonprofit’s reach, enhances the beneficiary experience and improves your overall community reputation.
- Better return on investment, as your volunteers are working more effectively and you don’t need to redirect funds to compensate for volunteer turnover.
- More effective fundraising campaigns as community members established donors, and volunteers feel moved to donate to your organization.
Prioritizing the volunteer experience is a must for your organization, but it’s easier said than done. After all, no volunteer coordinator sets out with the intention of making the volunteer experience unpleasant. Building a strong, enjoyable volunteer program takes careful planning, active listening, and keen attention to detail.
The Key Components of a Positive Volunteer Experience
A strong volunteer experience strategy should address every element of the volunteer lifecycle, from recruitment to retention, and make sure every interaction your volunteers have with your organization leaves a good impression.
The key components of a positive volunteer experience include:
- Streamlined onboarding. Make it as easy as possible for volunteers to join your organization.
- Comprehensive training. Volunteers should fully understand your organization, its mission, and their roles and responsibilities within it.
- Effective communication. Keep in touch with your volunteers at regular intervals and provide open channels for them to communicate with organizational leadership.
- Meaningful role matching. Assign volunteers to positions that align with their skills and interests.
- Regular appreciation. Build appreciation into your program through both informal and formal recognition.
- Supportive culture. Foster a strong community built on inclusivity, respect, and mutual support.
- Constructive feedback. Implement feedback loops, providing both constructive feedback to your volunteers and actively seeking your volunteers’ opinions through regular surveys.
- Impact sharing. Keep volunteers engaged by using compelling volunteer impact data to show them how their efforts are making a difference.
Strategies to Enhance the Volunteer Experience
Creating a positive volunteer experience is essential for engagement, retention, and overall program success. By implementing thoughtful, strategic practices, you can build a volunteer environment that is welcoming, fulfilling, and aligned with your organization’s goals. Here are key strategies to enhance the volunteer experience and keep your volunteers motivated and connected.
Provide Volunteers with a Flexible Experience
Scheduling can be one of the biggest factors in preventing a volunteer from joining—or continuing to work—with your organization. While you cannot control an individual’s other commitments, you can make volunteering with your organization as easy as possible by prioritizing flexibility!
Flexibility initiatives can include:
- Shifts during different times (i.e. weekends, evenings, etc.) and with different lengths
- Virtual volunteering opportunities
- Micro-volunteering
- Self-scheduling
If you find ways for your program to fit into a variety of different schedules, it will be much easier to recruit and retain top volunteers!
Implement Training Programs
AmeriCorps found that volunteers who receive training are 73% more likely to continue working with an organization. That means that comprehensive training is key to the volunteer experience.
Try these techniques for building out your training program:
- Offer multiple in-person and virtual training sessions.
- Create strong, specific learning objectives.
- Balance lectures, readings, and videos with more interactive learning techniques, like group discussions and hands-on activities.
- Outline your organization’s history, values, mission, and policies.
- Train volunteers on the hard skills they will need (i.e., using volunteer management software, signing up for shifts, and completing role-related tasks).
- Pair new volunteers with established mentors.
- Follow-up with additional training resources, like a volunteer handbook and online quizzes.
- Conduct training and role placement surveys.
- Provide pathways for continued education, professional development, and upskilling.
- Check in with new volunteers after training and make sure they know where to direct their questions.
When volunteers feel confident not only in your organization’s mission but also in the tasks that are expected of them, they will be more productive, enthusiastic, and engaged!
Set Clear Expectations and Policies
When you and your volunteers are on the same page, things go much more smoothly—and your volunteers have a much better experience! Set clear expectations and policies so that your volunteers know what your organization expects from them, as well as what they can expect from your organization.
Use these tips for outlining organizational policies:
- Write detailed job descriptions for each volunteer position.
- Develop a volunteer code of conduct and share it early during the training process.
- Implement firm safety, non-discrimination, violence, and harassment policies.
- Formalize day-to-day processes for volunteers, such as the mechanisms for scheduling, event check-in, and hour tracking.
- Create clear policies for difficult situations, like conflict resolution, reporting misconduct, and volunteer termination.
- Upload organizational policies to online resources, like landing pages, a volunteer handbook, or a file-sharing platform, so that volunteers can always access them easily.
Communicate with Volunteers Regularly
Regular communication is essential to the volunteer experience. You need to make sure that volunteers have all the information they need, and your volunteers also need to be able to reach you when they have a question.
Implement these communication best practices to keep your volunteers in the loop:
- Use multiple communication methods, like text, email, and phone calls, and familiarize yourself with the best medium for each message.
- Clearly articulate your organization’s goals for specific events, programs, and fundraising campaigns.
- Respond to volunteer inquiries promptly.
- Target your message to specific volunteer segments so that you don’t overwhelm volunteers with unnecessary information.
- Be sensitive to personal and generational communication
- Provide volunteers with communication details for key organizational leaders, like the volunteer coordinator.
- Consider implementing office hours so that volunteers have dedicated time to reach out with questions or concerns.
Development Opportunities for Volunteers
Volunteering isn’t just beneficial on a personal level; it can also be a professional game-changer! Professional development opportunities set your volunteer experience apart by showing how your volunteers’ skills can translate to career advancement.
Consider offering:
- Volunteer leadership positions
- Upskilling workshops
- Networking opportunities with staff, donors, and other volunteers
- Professional references and letters of recommendation
- Continued education opportunities
- Mentorship programs
When you invest in your volunteers through professional development, they will be more likely to invest in your organization!
Conduct Regular Volunteer Surveys
Volunteer surveys are the number one way to get feedback on the volunteer experience—directly from your volunteer base. Conduct regular surveys to identify volunteer pain points and find ways to improve their experience.
When you’re building volunteer surveys, remember to:
- Give each survey a specific goal.
- Keep surveys short (5-10 minutes to complete).
- Incorporate a combination of question types, including multiple-choice, yes/no, and open-ended responses.
- Write clear, specific, and objective questions.
- Deliver surveys on time (i.e., immediately after an event).
- Provide reminders and incentives to encourage participation.
And most importantly, once you collect the surveys, be sure to act on the feedback you receive!
Recognize Your Volunteers’ Efforts
Recognizing your volunteers can take a good volunteer experience and make it great! When you show your volunteers how much you value them, they are 83% less likely to turn over.
Build these recognition systems into your volunteer management process:
- Verbal praise
- Automated thank you notes
- Points-based reward systems
- Social media shout-outs
- Formal awards
- Volunteer appreciation events
- Impact data sharing
You would be surprised how effective a simple “thank you” can be!
Build a Community of Motivated Volunteers
Your nonprofit is devoted to your broader community, but what about your organizational community? Volunteering gives individuals a chance to be part of something bigger, and when they feel like “part of the family,” volunteers enjoy a much more rewarding experience.
To build community within your organization:
- Incorporate team-building activities into meetings and trainings.
- Schedule both formal and informal social events.
- Foster a supportive culture based on respect and inclusivity.
When you strengthen the relationships between your volunteers, you also strengthen your volunteers’ relationship with your organization.
Leverage Volunteer Management Technology
Creating a positive volunteer experience involves a lot of time and effort, but you can use technology to streamline operations and automate repetitive tasks.
Volunteer management software like VolunteerHub can improve every element of the volunteer experience. Take advantage of features like:
- Customized landing pages
- Self-service for scheduling, check-in, and hour tracking
- Automated communication and reminders
- Advanced event management options
- Meaningful database maintenance, analytics, and reports
With volunteer management software, you can put your volunteers’ needs front and center, generating an engaging and impactful experience that they will love!
Are you ready to take the volunteer experience to the next level? Request a demo of VolunteerHub today!
