How long do volunteers usually stay with your program? Do you struggle with keeping them interested, involved and engaged? This webinar will help you think about new strategies and help you evolve your program to include new roles and responsibilities for volunteers, pathways for more involvement and leadership positions in your program, how recognition plays a role in retention, and the importance of including continuing education and professional development to keep your volunteers engaged. Tools to help you evaluate your program implement new ideas will be provided.

1. Create More Volunteer
Engagement
To hear this presentation by phone dial
(909) 259-0022
Access Code: 818-156-477
Jennifer Bennett, CVA, Senior Manager, Education & Training
Matt Wallace, Senior Associate, Nonprofit Relations
Follow the conversation on Twitter! Use #VMLearn

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VolunteerMatch Overview
“VolunteerMatch strengthens communities by making it easier for good people
and good causes to connect.”
90,518 nonprofits… 72,350 Active Opportunities…. 6,539,351 referrals since 1998
• VolunteerMatch has been around for 14 years, and is the top-ranked website for online volunteer
recruitment and employee-volunteer programs
• Our Learning Center offers over 20 webinar topics focused on volunteer management and
VolunteerMatch tools, serving an audience of over 6,000 attendees each year

3. VolunteerMatch & Walmart:
Fighting Hunger Together
What are our goals?
• Support nonprofit organizations that are working to end
hunger in local communities.
• Provide hunger relief organizations with the resources
they need to deploy, manage and expand their volunteer
engagement program.
• Support, train and share best practices for engaging
volunteers, and creating a multi-faceted relationship with
volunteers – donors, advocates.
• Increase visibility of the need for volunteers at hunger
relief organizations.
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4. Agenda
• Where can volunteers go in your program?
• Keys to evolving your program
•Creating involvement, flexibility and a connection with
volunteers
•Tools for evolving your program
•Things to think about
•Questions

5. Where do your volunteers go?
What does your volunteer program look like to a
volunteer?
• Cul-de-sac
•Nowhere to go when you get there
• Country Road
•If you hang in there it goes somewhere, eventually
• Highway
•It’s a direct route to impact and engagement

6. Keys to Evolving your Program
• Develop work that is meaningful to the volunteer and
important to the organization.
• Create a connection between volunteers, clients and
your mission
• Establish the foundation necessary to support a diverse
program of volunteer engagement
• Know and share the impact of the work volunteers do

7. Create more Involvement
• Training and experience pathways
• Do volunteers know what they need to do to be able
to fill each role in your program?
• Is it clear how that happens, or is it mysterious or
based on longevity?
• Do you offer those classes or have on the job
experience checklists?
• Leadership positions
• Do you have opportunities for volunteers to move
into leadership roles? In your program? In the
organization?
• Shift leaders, committee leaders, subject matter
experts, pro bono consultants

8. Create more Flexibility
• Are there different types of opportunities or
different levels of involvement available?
• One size doesn’t fit all
• Doesn’t allow for growth or retraction as a
volunteer’s life changes
• Do you offer project based opportunities, virtual
opportunities
• Bring more positions into your volunteer
engagement program
• Let volunteers help you!
• Volunteers know the work that volunteers do -
empower them to document or create the foundation
and flexibility you need.

9. Create more Understanding
• Keep volunteers informed
• New ideas or theories in your impact area
• New policies, practices or projects in your program
• Milestones in your organization
• Incorporate impact into recognition
• Don’t just say thank you - share the work the
volunteer has done
• Include clients in the thank you message
• Spread the thank you outside of your volunteer
program - Social media, internal and external
communications

10. Create the Connection
Turn your volunteers into Advocates!
• Do volunteers know your mission?
•Major accomplishments, funders
• Do they know about other programs?
• Areas and impacts besides their own
• Empower them to spread the word
• Keep them up to date
• Use social media
• Do you know which of your volunteers are also donors?

11. Tools for Evolving your Program
• Think strategically!
• Do you have a 3 or 5 year plan for your program?
• Get off the hamster wheel
• What type of program do you have now?
• What type of program do you want to have?
• Where and why do volunteers drop out?
• Ask them!
• Survey past and current volunteers about what they
like, are proud of, don’t understand about your program
• Don’t do this alone!

12. Tools for Evolving your Program
• Start with the easy (easier?) stuff
• Create or document the structure that exists now
• Identify volunteer position descriptions, how they fit
together, what volunteers need to know to do them.
• Create more flexibility
• What did your volunteers tell you they wanted to do,
but couldn’t - so they left?
• Where does the rigidity come from? You, organization
leadership, the past, or perceived ideas about
volunteers?
• Create a communication plan to turn volunteers in to
advocates

13. Things to Think About
• You don’t have to change everything right now
• Putting pathways in is an easier first step
• Identify the priorities or critical positions
• Invite volunteers to take on leadership roles
• Volunteers want to tell you what they like (and don’t
like) about your program
• Invite your superstar volunteers to take the lead
• Share your milestones and successes with the
organization
•Manager, leadership, co-workers and, of course, the
volunteers!

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Resources
Fighting Hunger Together
http://blogs.volunteermatch.org/engagingvolunteers/fighthunger/
Learning Center
Find upcoming webinar dates, how-to videos and more
http://learn.volunteermatch.org
VolunteerMatch Community
Ask and answer questions after the webinar – use keywords Fighting Hunger Together,
Volunteer Management
http://community.volunteermatch.org/volunteer
Questions?
FightHunger@VolunteerMatch.org

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Thanks for attending!
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Visit Engaging Volunteers, our nonprofit blog: blogs.volunteermatch.org/
engagingvolunteers/
For any questions contact:
Jennifer Bennett
(415) 321-3639
jbennett@volunteermatch.org