The Best Ways to Retain Volunteers for Your Non-Profit Organization

Volunteers are vital to non-profit agencies these days. They bring maturity, freshness, experience, youth, skills and imagination. Yet fewer people are volunteering than ever before.

Although most volunteers will tell you they want no recognition or reward, you may find that attracting new volunteers and retaining existing ones requires innovative ideas.

1. Ask a staff member to lead a short workshop, teaching volunteers about their specialty in the agency. Invite a volunteer to attend an out-of-office training with staff. Both options add to the volunteer's understanding of the agency's work and to the volunteer's value within that agency. Additionally, a volunteer could be invited to a staff meeting.

2. Community members will often teach their specialty free to volunteers. Or a small portion of the volunteer budget can be designated for this purpose. Personal development workshops could include presentations by a yoga instructor, a chef, a financial adviser, a life coach, or a self-defense instructor.

3. Some volunteers stay for years; others for months. Unless you have an unlimited budget, it's more cost effective to provide simple, disposable name badges. If your agency presents volunteers with award pins for large numbers of hours, consider also presenting a permanent name badge with their first award pin. Have a small hole drilled in the badge for the award pin. Each time they receive a new pin, they replace the old one in the badge. This way they can proudly display those pins that usually get tucked away at home-every time they volunteer.

4. Who knows better than the volunteers themselves what they would enjoy at a volunteer recognition event. Survey volunteers for their ideas and ask some to serve on a committee. They'll love being included and consulted.

5. If you survey volunteers asking what recognition or reward they prefer, nine out of ten will say ~ a personal, verbal thank you from staff members. Not just the words "Thank you", but also the Why of it. For instance: "Thank you for staying the extra hour last night when you saw how busy we were. You made it possible for us to close on time."