Effective communication is a cornerstone of any volunteer management strategy and is essential for retaining volunteers. Engaging with the right volunteers at the right moment can help motivate them to remain active and involved with your nonprofit, reducing turnover and providing your volunteer program with value. The national average for volunteer retention rates hovers around 65%, meaning that out of every three volunteers, one will discontinue their services sooner than expected.
Clear, consistent communication fosters a sense of belonging, reinforces the impact of volunteers' contributions, and helps address concerns before they lead to disengagement. By leveraging personalized messages, timely updates, and meaningful recognition, nonprofits can build lasting relationships with their volunteers.
The Importance of Volunteer Communication
Consistent and thoughtful communication with volunteers is crucial for enhancing your volunteer retention strategies. Effective volunteer communication is vital because it:
- Strengthens the bond between volunteers and your nonprofit.
- Informs volunteers about your organization, its initiatives, and various volunteer opportunities.
- Motivates volunteers to participate actively.
- Re-engages volunteers who have become inactive.
- Enhances the overall volunteer experience.
- Transforms volunteers into donors.
- Boosts the organization's return on investment.
Communication is not only essential for retaining volunteers; it also has significant benefits for the entire organization.
How to Retain Volunteers Through Communication
Although we interact with others every day, communication is a complex skill, particularly when conveying messages on behalf of a larger organization. Integrate these communication best practices into your volunteer retention strategies to enhance the volunteer experience and reduce turnover.
Develop a Clear Message with a Call to Action
Ensure that every message you send to your volunteers has a distinct purpose and a call to action. Your volunteers need to know why you're contacting them and what steps they should take next. Typical goals for volunteer communication include:
- Announcing new training sessions or volunteer opportunities
- Updating on upcoming events or fundraising campaigns
- Collecting volunteer feedback
- Informing your volunteers about your nonprofit
- Sharing results from events and data on volunteer impact
After establishing a clear objective, outline the subsequent steps for volunteers. Examples of calls to action might involve signing up for a volunteer shift, contributing to a fundraising campaign, or completing a survey. Calls to action keep your volunteers engaged and clarify the reason for your outreach.
Identify Whom, How, and When to Reach Out
How often have you quickly dismissed a mass text or email? To effectively engage and retain volunteers, targeted messaging is crucial. Thoughtfully determine whom to contact, the best method to reach them, and the optimal timing for your message.
Who
Avoid overwhelming your volunteers with irrelevant information by carefully selecting the recipients of each message. For instance, long-term volunteers may not need onboarding details, but they would appreciate news about a volunteer appreciation event. Utilize your volunteer database to pinpoint the specific groups you wish to reach.
How
There are numerous ways to maintain communication with your volunteers, so it's important to select the appropriate method for your message while considering each volunteer's communication preferences.
Consider which communication method matches the information you are trying to convey:
- Text messages. Text messages are perfect for shift reminders and last-minute updates, like information on weather conditions or a location change. Texting allows you to send and receive messages as quickly as possible.
- Email is ideal for longer-form communication, like newsletters and educational information, as well as anything that doesn’t require an immediate response.
- Social media. Social media is a great way to share quick, attention-grabbing information, like an infographic with information about your program’s impact or a volunteer shoutout.
- Phone calls. Phone calls help nail down complex issues like scheduling or event planning. If you cannot meet in person, a quick phone call may be more efficient than sending dozens of texts or emails back and forth.
- While it may seem a little old-fashioned, mail is an effective way to share information about upcoming events, encourage donations, and thank your volunteers.
- In-person. In-person communication is ideal for dealing with complicated topics, such as feedback or training, and it is also a great way to convey your gratitude.
During your onboarding process, make sure you ask each volunteer about their individual communication preferences so that you can make sure they get your message without overwhelming or annoying them.
When
Timing is important. If you send a message at a suboptimal time, you decrease your chances of getting a response. For example, you want to send an event feedback survey while the experiences are still fresh in your volunteers’ minds, typically within 24–72 hours.
You should also consider the time of day when communicating with volunteers. If you send a message in the middle of the night, volunteers are less likely to respond. However, timing your communications for early evening, when many individuals are returning home from work and responding to personal emails, may generate higher response levels.
Going through the who, how, and when for every message can be time-consuming. However, automating volunteer communications with volunteer management software can help you contact the right people at the right time.
Be Accessible to Volunteers
Communication is a two-way street, so your volunteers must understand how to reach your organization. New and established volunteers alike will have questions, and you need to make it easy for them to get the answers they need.
To make it easier for volunteers to contact you:
- Provide contact information for important members of organizational leadership, such as your volunteer manager.
- Outline a chain of communication for specific questions.
- Write a volunteer handbook that addresses commonly asked questions.
- Designate a go-to person for specific events and volunteer opportunities.
- Develop formal policies for reporting issues.
- Be accessible across a variety of platforms, including email, social media, and phone.
- Encourage volunteer program leaders to stick around after events and training to answer any questions.
- Offer open office hours for your volunteer manager and other leaders
- Check in with volunteers regularly and remind them that they can use communication channels whenever they need to.
When volunteers feel like they can communicate with you, you build a reciprocal relationship and encourage volunteers to keep working with your organization.
Incorporate Volunteer Feedback
Fostering open communication also involves gathering and incorporating volunteer feedback.
Regularly conduct volunteer surveys throughout the year on various topics. Consider implementing event feedback surveys, engagement surveys, satisfaction surveys, and exit surveys. These questionnaires give volunteers a structured way to offer honest feedback on their own time.
However, gathering volunteer feedback is only part of the battle. The crux of effective communication lies in whether anything changes. Show volunteers that you value their feedback by acting on it. While not every idea you receive will be relevant or even feasible, you should use volunteer feedback to make tangible improvements to your program.
Show Appreciation
Your organization couldn’t achieve its goals without your volunteers, so make sure they know how grateful you are! 76% of volunteers who decide to no longer volunteer with an organization expressed that feeling underappreciated was a factor in their decision. So, thanking your volunteers is one of the most important volunteer retention strategies out there.
Start by expressing your gratitude in person; a simple “thank you” or “good job” can go a long way. Then, you can follow up with an automated thank-you email, handwritten thank-you notes, or social media shout-outs after specific events.
Consider building on these appreciation basics with larger-scale efforts like giveaways, awards, and volunteer appreciation events. Points-based reward systems can take your volunteer recognition efforts to the next level, gamifying the experience while also conveying your appreciation for your most active volunteers.
When you put gratitude at the heart of your volunteer communication plan, you strengthen the bond between your volunteers and your organization, creating lifelong supporters.
Retain More Volunteers with VolunteerHub
If you’re looking for help to retain volunteers, look no further than VolunteerHub. Our easy-to-use volunteer management platform has a wide variety of volunteer retention features, including:
- Automated text and e-mail communication
- Create reward programs, including points-based systems and leaderboards
- Publish an unlimited number of personalized landing pages
- Provide volunteers the ability to self-register and sign up for opportunities
- Integrate with social media channels
- Create defined user groups and report on program analytics
- Create workflows
VolunteerHub isn’t just helpful for volunteer retention. Our industry-leading volunteer management software can help you address every step of the volunteer lifestyle, from recruitment to engagement to volunteer fundraising.
