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Recruit and retain volunteers who work


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Since my arrival in Clay County I have been amazed by the number of community members who give back to our community through volunteerism. We are blessed to have a strong network of volunteers who are willing to give their time and energy to help strengthen our local organizations, events and schools.

As a nonprofit leader, who relies on volunteers, I am always interested in the latest research on this topic. As I have read about these topics there are some common themes related to volunteer motivation, retention and engagement that continually emerge. In this article I wanted to share my synthesis of the scientific literature and explain why people volunteer, why they quit and the best practices for retaining volunteers.

Developing a strong volunteer network requires intentional effort, and, if done correctly, can strengthen the impact of your organization. The first step in this intentional process is understanding why people volunteer. Individuals engage because they 1) have a desire to serve others and improve their community, 2) they desire meaningful service, 3) they’ve had prior positive experiences with your organization, and 4) the organization’s mission aligns with their values.

Volunteers often have valid reasons for quitting. As I mentioned above, volunteers want to make a difference and if they do not feel they are needed, accomplishing anything meaningful, or have inadequate opportunities to be involved in decision-making they are more likely to quit your organization. Most volunteers will rise to your level of expectations, so try to understand their valuable and specialized skills and use those professional talents to strengthen your organization.

Deploying the right volunteer retention strategies can keep volunteers coming back. The best ways to retain volunteers is to provide meaningful engagement opportunities, offer training opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills, appreciate and recognize their service, and respect their time and input.

Many volunteers feel underappreciated; therefore, it is imperative to publicly recognize their contributions to your organization.

Volunteers are often an afterthought, but if we want to continue to be one of the strongest communities in Northeast Florida we need to improve engagement with our volunteer networks.

We can do this by providing volunteers with meaningful opportunities to serve, value their input, develop their leadership skills and recognize them for their contributions.

An easy first step in the volunteer development process is to change the way we ask volunteers to join our organization. We often find interested people and tell them what we need them to do rather than explaining why we need their help. Volunteers want to make a difference, so using this approach will help them make the connection between their efforts and the purpose of our organizations.

When we can recruit and retain volunteers who really want to be make a difference, the entire community will grow and become stronger for it.

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If you would like assistance developing and delivering a volunteer training program, contact Brad Burbaugh at (904) 284-6355 or brad784@ufl.edu.