Seasonal Volunteers, Volunteer Appreciation, and Volunteer Coordinator Training | Track It Forward

Seasonal Volunteers, Volunteer Appreciation, and Volunteer Coordinator Training

Written by Jordan Galerkin

Weekly Recap Graphic with Icons

Recap for November 1st - November 12th

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Facebook community so far this month! 

Seasonal Volunteers

Many nonprofit organizations experience a seasonal flux when it comes to volunteers. It’s not always easy to predict when volunteer recruitment will go up or down, although it often depends on the volunteer population or the project itself. For example, if a large portion of your volunteers are students, you may see numbers increase over school breaks. If your organization works with procuring toys for children in need, numbers may increase during holidays such as Christmas.

Does anyone notice a seasonal wax and wane with their volunteer recruitment? For example, we seem to notice a decrease or transition of volunteers at the change of seasons.

Comments from the group

  • “[We notice the most recruitment in] spring - students need hours to graduate and it's post-holiday season, so peopl have time to dedicate”

  • “Our recruitment tends to vary based on the popularity of our group's topic. During election seasons, we get a lot more interest in our political reform groups. Our newer group that supports healthcare workers seems to vary by how much the pandemic is in the news.”

  • “I previously worked for an organization that had a "soup kitchen"... It was very frustrating for everyone on staff because you don't want to turn away volunteers or seem ungrateful for their help. I would give a big speech during all of my volunteer orientations about how the need is year round, not just during the holidays.”

Check out all of the comments here!

Volunteer Appreciation

You appreciate your volunteers - and you want them to know it! There are so many different ways of recognizing volunteers for all the work they do. We’ve had some great suggestions in the group this past week on how to recognize your volunteers in a fun and engaging way. You can also make sure to track volunteer progress toward milestones for recognition when you use the Volunteer Milestones tracking feature of our Track it Forward software! 

P.S. We appreciate you! Wishing you a happy Volunteer Managers Day this past November 5.

I'm curious; what is the cleverest/most fun/most unusual volunteer appreciation event you've attended?

Comments from the group

  • “RSVP of Mahoning Valley in Youngstown, Ohio did VOLUNTEer ALL STARS at the local minor league baseball stadium. Senior Volunteers walked through (during pandemic) pcitures with mascot, baseball card style recognition.”

  • “Hollywood themed event with red carpet and paparazzi.”

  • “A Bob Ross Paint-Along. Our introverted and extroverted volunteers loved it!”

Add your own thoughts here!

Volunteer Coordinator Training

It can be quite the process to onboard a new volunteer coordinator within your organization. Online training can be a more convenient way to get your new coordinator up-to-speed, and our Facebook group members have recommended several options.

I am about to onboard a new Volunteer Coordinator. She is new to this field. Do you have an online training that you recommend? Thank you!

Comments from the group

  • “There is a fee, but this training from Energize - Leveraging the Power of Volunteers is a great place to start: https://energizeinc.com/training”

  • “Texas Volunteer Management Conference also has free webinars here: https://www.texasvmc.org/webinars/”

  • “I did a free webinar at the end of last month. Here are the links to the recording and the worksheet. Hope it helps! https://karenknight.ca/download-5-steps-training/”

  • “If you join Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (USA) you get access to all of their Academy training session recordings.”

  • "Volunteer Pro (volpro.net) is awesome!"

Join the conversation here!