Are You Treating Your Volunteers Like MAJOR DONORS?
You should be! A
little inspiration and genuine relationship building goes a long way!
Does any of the following sound familiar to you?
“After I learned about a XYZ organization, I
called right away to find out how I could volunteer. I left a voicemail for someone, but I never
got a call back.”
“While
I was at an event, I met someone who worked for XYZ organization. I was really impressed, but when I asked how
I could help, the person wasn’t sure.”
“I
was really excited about volunteering for XYZ organization, but I thought I
would get to do more than stuff envelopes.”
How
about these comments?
“We
don’t have enough volunteers.”
“We
have lots of volunteers, but they don’t want to do what we need them to do.”
“I
can’t believe that when volunteers sign up to do something that they show up
late or not at all.”
If
this is what’s happening in your organization, you are not seeing people as the
potential gold mine they could be for your organization.
If
you’ve read my other blog postings, you will be familiar with my philosophy of
long-term sustainability for nonprofits and schools being dependent on
effective community engagement.
Sustainability is not just about dollars, but also about people,
partnerships, materials, internships and other kinds of resources.
That
means the process of attracting and keeping volunteers is just like the process
of attracting and building financial donations.
The formula for effective community engagement = Story + Direction +
Relationships.
Let’s
apply this same formula to volunteers and see what it looks like.
Step #1 – Story – You need to
be able to tell your story in a way that inspires people to want to help.
Step #2 –
Direction
– You need to be able to answer the question, “What are your top three
priorities, what do you need to achieve them, and how can people help?”
Step #3 –
Relationships – You need to build a genuine and mutually beneficial
relationship with each individual volunteer.
8
Steps to attracting and keeping awesome volunteers (Part I)
- Get
out of the office. If
you’re hoping to recruit the best volunteers from the comfort of your
office, you’ve got it all wrong.
Begin to see that every moment of every day is an opportunity to
share your organization’s story, make a connection and identify an
opportunity to bring volunteer talent to your organization.
For
example, one day our client was paging through M Magazine when he came
upon an article about a local TV reporter and her quote, “I
love Jesus and laughing children.”
Our
client immediately felt a connection and wrote her a personal letter suggesting that
they both had this in common. This
principal of a school asked the TV
reporter in his letter if she would be willing to tour his school. After coming on a tour and
becoming inspired about what this school was doing for children, the TV
reporter did
a two-part TV story on its students and has been volunteering ever since.
- Imagine that every possible volunteer
could make a donation of $10,000. You just never know.
One
of my favorite people is Pat Molter!
She’s helped start two nonprofit organizations and is one of the best outreach people I’ve ever met because she treats volunteers like they are the most critical part of the organization.
In
fact, my team member Shemagne met Pat while working out at a local Curves. She immediately became
genuinely interested in Shemagne’s life and what she did for a living.
Then
she went on to inspire Shemagne with the stories of about three oganizations
doing amazing things in Milwaukee.
Pat
recently shared this story with me.
House of Love, her organization serving teen girls
in foster care who need a group home environment, had just purchased a four apartment building that has now become a transition program for teen girls who become 18 and age out of the foster care system.
After
they purchased it, they found out that they needed to replace the roof in addition to
making many, many repairs. The
apartment building had previously been inhabited by drug
users as well as a hoarder. “It was just
disgusting,” Pat remarked.
On
this particular day, Pat was cleaning inside while an older group of men
volunteers were busy building
shelves in the garage. Pat is very
adamant about always taking the time to meet
with the volunteers to share the House of Love story and ensure they understand
how important they are to the success of the organization. Well, Pat was feeling
pretty disgusted after cleaning the inside of the apartment building and just wanted
to go home and shower. But one of the
organization’s staff people reminded her that
she needed to go talk to the volunteers first. Pat went out to greet the
group of volunteers,
share the House of Love story and shared her appreciation for their contribution before returning home to shower.
Two
weeks later, Pat got a call from one of the gentlemen. He told her, “I haven’t been able
to sleep for two weeks, until finally I received a message from God that I was
to help
House of Love.” Pat got excited thinking, “Maybe this
means a $1,000 donation,” which would be a major gift. But to her surprise, her jaw dropped when he told her, “Pat,
God has even given me an amount - $50,000.”
As you can see, the House of Love story really resonated with this man and his
wife, who had been abandoned themselves as
children.
- Be
genuinely interested in people (without an agenda). People volunteer and make donations to
organizations because it fills a need for them. While some people feel they have been blessed
and compelled to give back to the community, for others, a specific issues they have personally been impacted by are what resonate. In addition, others are looking
for an organization that currently needs their talents. In order to attract the volunteer that is
a match for your organization, you need to know a lot about the other
person.
When
I was asked to run for president of The Park People, I immediately knew that they
were a match for my talents, and that I would really blossom professionally
through this experience. However, I wasn't sure if they were ready
for me. Before I allowed them to vote me
into this position, I laid out my
philosophy, plans and my expectations of them in the process I was about to
take them through. Only after their
agreement did I accept the challenge.
In
my position as President of the organization, I actively sought out new people to
sit on the board. I wasn’t as interested
in their resume as I was in their desire to
use specific skills and talents, and how they saw themselves contributing. The first thing I did was ask them to talk about themselves.
Then I shared The Park People story, our plans for the future and how
their specific talents, skills and desires fit into achieving our goals.
If
I thought they would have a meaningful experience AND would contribute toward achieving
the organization’s goals, then I would recommend to the board that we consider
voting them on
as a board member.
- It’s
not about asking . . . for anything. It’s about being clear about your
priorities, what is needed to achieve them and how people can help. The purpose of sharing your story is to
inspire people to want to help. But
if you stop there, the person doesn’t know how to help, so they may walk
away and you lost an opportunity.
Your story needs to also lay out your organization’s top
priorities, what needs to happen to achieve them and how they can
help.
Did
you know that there are more people volunteering than ever right now? Some people are looking for an opportunity to
make a meaningful contribution. Others
are looking for ways to keep their skills fresh or learn new skills that could
lead to a change in career. And many college
age students and young professionals are looking for a chance to develop their
leadership skills. If volunteers can clearly match their skills to your opportunities, the relationship will prove mutually beneficial.
Let me know how your organization recruits and retains volunteers, what you have found successful and if you have you tried any of the above steps. I always love hearing about different ways organizations work with volunteers to creatively engage their communities.
Many nonprofits do a great job of picking up the phone and
calling people to thank them for their $1,000 or $500 donation. Some small nonprofits may even call donors who
mail in a check for $250. Thanking
“major donors” in a special way is kind of obvious don’t you think? 
