Volunteer Fundraising Teams: Inspire to Perform

Use these 4 tips to inspire volunteer fundraising teams today

Teamwork has the power to make or break a fundraising campaign.  Managing successful volunteer fundraising teams can ensure that your organization stays on track toward reaching and exceeding financial goals.  For a fundraising team to operate successfully, each member must personally stay on track and reach their individual goals for the betterment of the group.

In today’s blog post, we will explore 4 strategic ways that an individual on a fundraising team can make the biggest impact.

Before we jump into our 4 points here are some interesting statistics about teamwork and the importance of collaboration:

1. 38% of surveyed employees believe that people in their organization do not collaborate enough (source)
2. Only 41% of surveyed employees say they receive encouragement to perform from senior staff (source)
3. 75% of employees surveyed rate teamwork as very important. (source)

Here are 4 ways you can make an individual impact on the success of your fundraising team:

Inspire volunteer fundraising teams by inspiring

Inspiration can be contagious and drive a team towards success.  There are a lot of ways that an individual fundraiser can inspire the rest of the team to achieve their goals. One of the best ways to inspire others is by reaching your milestones and reporting the process you took to reach them.  This form of inspiration can also help the rest of your fundraising team review their process and make changes based on the success you had.

Here are a few additional ways that you can inspire your fundraising group to achieve more:

1. Be enthusiastic about every team member's contribution (be authentic!).
2. Inspire others by storytelling (let them know how their contributions are helping the community).
3. Communicate effectively with all team members and keep the conversation on the objective.
4. Show appreciation to your teammates for their effort and commitment to the cause.
5. Encourage your top performers to provide insights to others.

Be reliable to inspire volunteer fundraising teams to provide their time

Being reliable may be an obvious quality of a good leader, but it is amazing how many teams forget about this key attribute for group success.  Reliable team members are individuals who are easy to access, fulfill their deadlines, keep their word, and provide consistent and concise deliverables.  Being reliable can help foster team relationships and keep the group on track toward fulfilling goals.

Here are a few additional ways to promote reliability to your fundraising team:

1. Value honesty and communicate proactively.
2. Complete all tasks that you commit to (do them well!).
3. Respect others and their time as much as you do yours.
4. Encourage the success of others.
5. Make sure you do not overcommit (manage your commitments).

“The nice thing about teamwork is you always have others on your side” Margaret Carty

— VolunteerHub (@volunteerhub) November 7, 2017

Inspire volunteer fundraising teams by complimenting skill

Working on a fundraising team offers individual fundraisers the opportunity to compliment others and their skill sets.  Fundraising teams should take the time to identify and leverage each member's skill set and abilities.  Leveraging these skill sets can help move the team forward and past any obstacles that obstruct progress. Remember, that a fundraising team shares the same end goal.  Why not take full advantage of the skills your team has access to?

Here are a few team member skill sets to look out for:

Encourager: A person who energizes a group when motivation on the team is low.

Compromiser: An individual who works to maintain harmony amongst the group.

Leader: An individual who draws in others, controls situations, and keeps the group on the right track.

Summarizer: A group member who is good at understanding and providing a recap of current team progress and meetings.

 Innovator: A group member who is good at coming up with new ideas or ways to streamline a process.

Evaluator: A team member who can identify individuals who are on/off track.

Inspire volunteer fundraising teams by identifying and communicating behavior

Anytime you work on a team there is always the possibility of a fire.  Individual team members can work together to define what is acceptable behavior for the group and the group’s goals.  Obviously, these behaviors also need to coincide with the mission of the nonprofit organization the fundraising team is representing.

Establishing these acceptable/unacceptable behaviors together can help to create a sense of accountability within the team.

Takeaway

Technically, no, there is not an “I” in the word “team.”  However, a team would not exist without individuals and their ability to fill a key role in the group.  If your nonprofit wants to assemble and inspire volunteer fundraising teams, make sure that individual members are inspiring others, team members are reliable, skill sets are being leveraged, and acceptable/unacceptable behavior is defined.