Volunteer Engagement and Retainment: Tips for Keeping Volunteers Coming Back

For many of us in the nonprofit sector, volunteers are vital to our organizations’ impact. Volunteers strengthen our missions and enable us to effect change in the communities we serve. The “Volunteering and Civic Life in America” report, published by AmeriCorps in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, stated that formal volunteerism dropped 23% from 2019 to 2021. This is a troubling statistic.

There are many reasons for this decline. Notably, the height of the pandemic was during the timeframe of the study. But the pandemic cannot fully be blamed as nonprofits continue to see declining volunteer numbers. 

What do we do about this? As CEO of Rise Against Hunger, that is a question I constantly ask myself and my staff. Rise Against Hunger engages almost 200,000 volunteers annually, primarily through meal packaging events. Throughout the organization’s 25-year history, we’ve learned many lessons about providing impactful opportunities that attract volunteers — and keep them coming back. As the nonprofit sector tackles the volunteer shortage, here are ways you can engage and retain volunteers. 

Don’t Assume No One Wants to Help

Recruiting volunteers should start with your personal network. We sometimes fail to approach the people we know best. For example, 16 years ago, I was responsible for establishing Rise Against Hunger’s second warehouse in Eastern North Carolina. Our warehouse serves as the hub for meal packaging events in the area. As we began seeking volunteers in the region, I realized we weren’t engaging many people in my own town. It was because I wasn’t asking my immediate network for fear of seeming pushy. Once I overcame my hesitation and shared Rise Against Hunger with my community, I was repeatedly met with interest in getting involved. 

Your organization’s mission is compelling. Don’t withhold it from anyone, and you will find new people excited to engage. 

Make Volunteering a Stellar Experience

Your volunteer opportunity should be a high-quality experience that wows the volunteers. It should bring people together for a common goal, and it should be a purposeful solution to the needs of the population your organization serves. 

There should also be an immediate, tangible value recognition for your volunteers to ensure they clearly understand how their efforts support your mission. By making sure your volunteer offering is a great experience, you’ll bring in new volunteers and motivate them to return.  

Appeal to the Heart, Head and Hands

People are drawn to things emotionally, logically or tactilely. To connect with people’s unique motivators, ensure your volunteer opportunities engage the heart, head and hands:

• Heart. The heart is how people emotionally connect to your mission. Share stories of people served through your mission to appeal to volunteers who are emotionally motivated. 
• Head. You must also appeal to the head — the reason. Ensure people understand how their volunteering makes an impact. 
• Hands. The hands represent the volunteer’s literal act of service. Many people connect by doing, so ensure your volunteer activity is an enriching, tactile experience. 

When your volunteer opportunities engage heart, head and hands, you will appeal to a variety of people, not only attracting volunteers, but also keeping them coming back. 

Share Your Mission With Volunteers

When people volunteer, do you share why their action is important? Or do you go deeper to share your overall mission? If you do not go deeper, you are missing a crucial way to connect. Aim to have volunteers come back to your mission, not just your volunteer activity, by giving volunteers a clear understanding of your mission and its importance. 

For example, at Rise Against Hunger meal packaging events, we educate volunteers on how many people face hunger globally, how hunger impacts people, and how Rise Against Hunger is addressing this issue (plus how the volunteers’ efforts impact our work). 

Aim to retain volunteers, not just entertain. By sharing your mission, you will have richer buy-in to your organization, which will lead to more retention.  

Listen to Your Volunteers

Listening to your volunteers is an immense opportunity to improve your volunteer experiences. Many of Rise Against Hunger’s greatest improvements in our volunteer experiences have come from volunteers. 

Your organization has great ideas among your staff, but if you have more volunteers annually than staff members, the math would suggest that some ideas will come from volunteers. They might notice things about the experience that you do not. Provide opportunities for volunteers to give suggestions and feedback, and look for ways to apply them. 

People are becoming more purposeful with how they spend their discretionary time, and nonprofit professionals must be mindful of this. Volunteering is discretionary time, so we must do all we can to make changes to encourage volunteerism. There is no finish line for perfect volunteer engagement and retention. We can — and must — always improve to keep volunteers coming back.

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.