FAIL-SAFE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR VOLUNTEERS

You already know the important roles your volunteers play in your organization.
During our previous discussions, we have established that they are the instrumentality
through which the organization is able to accomplish its goals by generating income.
Now, what you need to learn is how to keep them in your nonprofit.

Keeping your volunteers interested and invested in your organization is not an

easy task. It requires a lot of effort and consideration. The following are the fail-safe
ways in retaining your volunteers:

Keep your volunteers happy

The first thing that you need to do is to keep your volunteers happy. The happier
they are, the more productive they will be. This happiness fuels your volunteers to do
more for the organization. How can you do this? Well, one of the ways is to recognize
their accomplishments. Praise them during regular meetings, in front of all the staff and
members of the organization. Celebrate them when they reach fundraising milestones.
You can also give them incentives for performing well. Always give them positive
feedbacks. This way, they will know that they are appreciated. The responsibilities left
on the shoulders of your volunteers are not light. The least you can do to ease their
burden is to recognize the things they are doing for the nonprofit. Volunteers also
become much more motivated when they are regularly commended.

It is inevitable that some of your volunteers might become inactive as time pass
by. This may be caused by different reasons. In order to prevent this from happening,
you can regularly send them little notes of encouragement to continue the endeavor that
they have started. Give them advice on how to stay active in the organization. Let them
see how much they have already contributed and how many people benefitted through
their efforts.

Always be in touch

Communication is an essential part of the relationship between volunteers and

nonprofit. Assure your volunteers that you are available if ever they feel the need to talk
about anything related to the organization. Always try to keep their opinions and
suggestions to high regard. After all, as the people who work to raise funds for the
organization, surely they will have a lot of experience that they can share for the benefit
of the nonprofit. You can also hold meetings with them just to check how well they are
doing. In the meeting, you can also discuss about any problems that they might be
experiencing so that you can address them once and for all.
Support them

In order to keep your volunteers in the organization, they must feel your support
all the time. This may be shown by sending your volunteer leaders to conferences and
trainings. This way, they also benefit from the organization. Surely, they will appreciate
it a lot because this would show that you are not only benefitting from them. This also
shows that you are concerned about their individual growth and well-being. Let them
learn and hone their skills during seminars. After all, the nonprofit will benefit from their
progress.

There will be times when your volunteers would request for your presence,
whether it is for meeting a very important donor or any other cause. When this happens,
make sure that you are available. After all, they will not be asking for your time if it is not
of absolute need.

These are just some of the ways in order to keep your volunteers in your
nonprofit. You need to know your volunteers first for you to know what motivates them.
Each volunteer is unique so you might need to employ different strategies to different
volunteers. This might take a lot of effort but always remember that they play a great
role in the success or failure of your nonprofit.