Combating Volunteer Shortages: Recruitment & Retention Tips
Volunteer shortages aren’t a new issue, but they have become increasingly acute in recent years. Reports compiled by the Council of Nonprofits found that:
Formal volunteering dropped more than 23 percent in 2021 compared with 2019.
Nearly half of nonprofit CEOs surveyed in mid-2022 said recruiting enough volunteers was still “a big problem.”
But don’t let these statistics scare you. With a creative and tactical volunteer recruitment and retention strategy, your organization can beat the odds and engage more volunteers in the long term.
Whether you’re short on volunteers ahead of the upcoming summer camp season or urgently need support for crisis fundraising, this guide will help you recruit and retain more supporters with seven creative ideas and tips.
1. Reach out to past volunteers.
Re-engaging past volunteers is a great place to start when recruiting supporters for an urgent need. These individuals already have a relationship with your organization and have shown their willingness to support your cause. Plus, they may already have the skills and experience you’re looking for, so you won’t need to spend as much time training them.
Connect with past volunteers using these strategies:
Use your volunteer management system to identify and segment past volunteers. Divide volunteers into groups of those who have recently volunteered, not engaged for an extended period, or fully lapsed. These classifications will help you reach out to each group with a meaningful message. For example, you might send recent volunteers a message recapping the impact of their recent support. In contrast, you may send lapsed volunteers a survey asking them why they stopped volunteering and what could entice them to return.
Invite them to opportunities that align with their interests. Reference the information you have for each volunteer in your database to understand their volunteering interests and motivations. Then, reach out with a tailored message inviting them to participate in an opportunity that aligns with their passions or involvement with your nonprofit. For example, let’s say you have a former volunteer who expressed interest in supporting fundraising campaigns. You could invite them to join your volunteer committee to plan your upcoming silent auction event.
Thank them for their past support, explicitly referencing how they were involved. Personalize your messages to former volunteers by referencing their unique involvement and expressing gratitude for their past participation. For instance, you could address one message: “Dear Francine, we can’t thank you enough for your support as a merchandise seller at our Fall Fun 5K last year. We wanted to share a new opportunity to support our annual fun run that you might be interested in!”
Remember to convey your urgent need for volunteer support in your messages to former volunteers. Let them know about the immediate impact they can make, whether helping to build a new community garden or supporting an afterschool program for students.
2. Develop a volunteer loyalty program.
Alongside recruitment, volunteer retention is challenging for all nonprofits, from nonprofit summer camps to environmental organizations to community food banks. One effective way to combat retention challenges and foster greater volunteer dedication is to start a volunteer loyalty program.
This type of program rewards volunteers for ongoing, dedicated involvement with your cause. In addition to the “warm and fuzzy” feelings they get from becoming a long-time volunteer, you can offer a variety of tangible incentives to keep volunteers coming back. The following strategies help promote retention:
Use punch cards to track volunteer attendance. Offer incentives and rewards when volunteers reach milestones, such as volunteering at 10 events. These perks could include special appreciation event invites, gift certificates, or free merchandise.
Shout out long-time volunteers on your social media, website blog, and email newsletters. Include photos and specific information about how they supported your efforts.
Consider creating tiers within your volunteer loyalty program to signify different experience levels. For example, you could make a tier for volunteers who have participated for at least six months, one for volunteers who have participated for at least a year, and one for volunteers who have been involved for three years or more. Each tier could come with specific perks, such as access to leadership opportunities or invites to special events, like your annual gala.
Offering a loyalty program encourages volunteers to continue increasing their involvement to access greater opportunities and benefits.
3. Host volunteer bonding and social events.
Volunteering is an excellent way to make new friends and connect with community members. In fact, research shows that around 35% of volunteers participate to socialize.
Lean into the intangible benefits of volunteering by planning social events, such as:
Potlucks
Mentorship opportunities
Happy hours
Picnics
Bowling or arcade games
Networking or professional skill development opportunities
Outing to a community event, like a sports game
To increase attendance, make these events casual so volunteers don’t feel too intimidated to participate. Send a survey asking volunteers which events they’re most interested in and when they’re available throughout the week.
4. Leverage gamification and challenges.
Gamification is using game-like activities to increase engagement with your volunteer opportunities. Gamification and volunteer challenges inspire friendly competition among your organization’s supporters, encouraging them to increase their involvement to “win” your games.
These tools, in particular, can help foster friendly competition among volunteers:
A volunteer leaderboard for tracking hours served. Volunteers can see where they fall and which fellow volunteers are in the lead.
Volunteer of the Month prizes. Award these prizes to volunteers who went above and beyond, whether by volunteering many hours, contributing a special skill to help fix a problem, or coming to the aid of another volunteer. To reward their hard work, offer a custom certificate, gift basket, or gift card to a local business. You can even hang their photo on the wall at your nonprofit’s headquarters so everyone can see.
Team volunteering challenges. Encourage volunteers to group up and compete in friendly team-based activities. These could occur within a volunteer opportunity—for example, you could host a food-sorting competition, where volunteers compete to process as many food items as quickly as possible. Or, you could track how many volunteer hours teams serve over a specific period.
Provide competition updates on your organization’s website and social media pages so volunteers can track their progress. Highlight top performers in your recurring email newsletter to recognize their contributions.
5. Provide leadership and skills-based opportunities.
19% of volunteers participate in charitable work to grow their skills. Attract more volunteers to your opportunities and get them to stick around by offering skill-development opportunities.
Qgiv’s volunteer management guide recommends that you offer “an initial onboarding training session and ongoing training as needed to help volunteers level up their skills.” As part of your ongoing training, your nonprofit can offer:
Dedicated career or skill development courses, including public speaking, leadership, or budgeting courses
Skilled volunteer positions that require certifications, such as CPR certification or language skill requirements
Peer-leadership opportunities, such as hosting volunteer events or training sessions independently
Promote these opportunities widely on your marketing platforms, including your website, social media, and email newsletters. You should also send information about these opportunities to specific volunteers who you think would be interested in and a good fit for the roles. This outreach shows volunteers that you care about their professional development and recognize their ability to take on more responsibility.
6. Offer flexible opportunities.
Some volunteers may hesitate to commit to your opportunities if they have busy schedules. While some roles at your organization may require long-term commitment, such as a summer camp counselor, you may have other opportunities that are more flexible.
Consider offering lower-commitment opportunities such as:
Shorter volunteer experiences. For volunteers with busy schedules, a shorter opportunity allows them to participate in their limited free time. For instance, let’s say you’re hosting an informational booth at a local farmers market. Volunteers can sign up for short, one-hour shifts to manage the booth and distribute information about your organization.
Virtual opportunities. These experiences allow busy volunteers or those with mobility or transportation restrictions to still support your cause. Virtual opportunities can cover everything from designing marketing posters to calling donors and asking for gifts and using social media to advocate for your mission.
Weekend opportunities. Weekdays tend to be the busiest time of the week, especially for volunteers with work, school, or family commitments. Provide some opportunities on the weekends to accommodate these packed schedules.
Send surveys to volunteers to determine which flexible opportunities appeal to them the most. Adjust your offerings based on their interests and availability.
7. Encourage volunteers to bring a friend.
Volunteers will feel much more comfortable getting involved with your opportunities when they already know someone who’s also involved. Spread the word and encourage volunteers to bring someone they know to your volunteer events, such as friends, family members, and coworkers.
Use your nonprofit’s CRM to track relationships between volunteers and their family members, friends, or acquaintances. Then, reach out to both volunteers and their plus ones with the same opportunities to motivate them to sign up together.
Next steps: Tracking the success of your recruitment and retention efforts
To improve your volunteer recruitment and retention efforts in the long term, you need a good sense of your progress. Track metrics to understand the impact of your efforts, including:
Recruitment rate, or how many new volunteers you add to your support pool each year
Retention rate, or how many existing volunteers continue participating year after year
Volunteer satisfaction rates, or how many volunteers provide positive feedback in your surveys
Create dashboards in your volunteer management system to continually monitor these data points. Adjust your strategy in response to positive or negative trends. For example, a dip in your volunteer satisfaction rates could mean that you’ll need to better incorporate volunteer feedback. On the other hand, an increase in your recruitment rate could mean that your existing strategies are getting the job done effectively. Continue to iterate your plan over time based on data analysis and your volunteers’ motivations and interests.
Author: Jay Love
Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang
Jay has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.
Before founding Bloomerang, he was the co-founder and CEO of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to over 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.
He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.
