These last few months have been

If you’re like me, you’ve spent the past few months educating yourself on social justice issues, searching for organizations to donate and support, and aligning yourself with causes that can make a difference in your community… while also taking precautions to limit exposure to the Coronavirus.  

According to a recent New York Times article, Color of Change, one of the largest online racial justice groups in the U.S., went from having 1.7 million to 7 million members and received “hundreds of thousands of individual donations” in a matter of days. On Blackout Tuesday, a day where people went dark on social media to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, ActBlue, the fundraising platform used by Black Lives Matter and other organizations, reported $41 million in donations within a single day. And the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a small community bail project, raised $35 million in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, which overwhelmed the small organization. 

Many political activist and racial justice groups have been flooded with requests from volunteers, donors and supporters—which is great news for these nonprofits. But it’s also a challenge for these organizations to engage new donors quickly, provide them with resources and education, and reassure them that their chosen organization is ready to meet this moment and is the right group for them to invest their time and resources. 

We’ve rounded up 5 tips to help you mobilize your movement and inspire action from your supporters: 

1. Make Newcomers Feel Included 

 When a volunteer or donor first joins your organization, their first interactions with your team will play a critical role in laying the foundation for their future relationship with you. How are you currently onboarding new constituents in the first few weeks, and how are you getting them involved immediately? This is particularly important in the digital world, because new volunteers can’t meet people at your volunteer info session or happy hour like they could in a pre-COVID world.   

Consider enrolling new members, volunteers and donors in a nurture drip campaign with emails to help them get to know your organization, activities and programming available. Invite newbies to your online community and create dedicated discussions and virtual events to help newcomers meet one another.  

2. Keep People Informed About Issues They Care About 

 People are raising their hands to learn more about your organization because you’ve demonstrated expertise and a commitment to a topic that is near and dear to their hearts. Make that relationship with the donor or volunteer more valuable by curating unique and relevant experiences that are designed to keep them informed and advance your mission—whether you’re focused on amping up fundraising efforts, increasing attendance at an upcoming event or growing your volunteer base. 

Rather than notifying your supporters about every activity in your organization and potentially overwhelming them, take advantage of a preferences center as part of your member management system or email marketing platform to deliver the content that will be most meaningful to them. You can also use newsfeeds and personalized content within your online community and virtual events platform to tailor content to their interests. 

3. Create Experiences to Engage Them Year-Round 

Many nonprofits and groups traditionally build their outreach calendar around a few key events that take place throughout the year such as an annual conference, fundraising event, 5K and Giving Tuesday. But, if I’m looking for a positive in our current environment, virtual events do not need to be constrained to the three days when all of your supporters attend your annual conference or the weekend that you hold your annual 5K.  

 Nonprofit organizations can engage people year-round through virtual events, happy hours, meetups and more. Consider breaking your annual conference into mini-events that take place each quarter and require smaller chunks of time from our supporters. Empower your volunteers to host their own meetups and form affinity groups tied to specific issues within your organization. 

4. Give Supporters a Clear Path and Next Steps 

How many times have you joined an organization or donated to one without knowing how to clearly get involved and become an active member of the group? This has happened to me before and I eventually stopped engaging with the group. 

Your volunteers are valuable and it’s crucial to make it easy for them to understand the needs within your organization, and how to leverage their own skillsets and expertise to help reach your goals. Use your email newsletter and discussion boards on your website and online community to clearly articulate needs in your organization and match them with volunteers who have the time and expertise to support them.  

Consider using badging to highlight your active supporters when they log into their volunteer portal and digital spaces, to give them recognition for their efforts and drive engagement. Badges can be used for attending a specific number of virtual events, joining committees, emailing and calling their representative, and more. 

5. Deliver More Value to Help Offset Your In-Person Activities 

Nearly all organizations and nonprofits have struggled during COVID-19, whether it’s the challenges of a remote workforce, concerns about revenue and the need to use financial reserves, how to engage their volunteers digitally, and more.  

More than 70 percent of nonprofits reported a decline in marketing spending in 2020 as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and a significant chunk of this investment is coming from the loss of in-person events. Smart nonprofits are taking this time to focus on messaging and programming that is personalized, localized and relevant to their supporters’ needs right now, and they’re also being more efficient with their current marketing spend. 

How are your programs and activities helping your volunteers navigate the overwhelming amount of information and resources that are relevant to their interests? How are you connecting them with other folks in your organization who share their passion? And, are you giving them a digital space to collaborate, share their progress and actions to further your cause?  

Want a Deep Dive on This Topic? 

See more information and best practices for nonprofits to mobilize their movement and unite supporters. In this session, you’ll learn: 

• The evolving landscape for volunteers, donors and supporters in a COVID-19 world 
• Best practices and tips for organizations to unite their supporters and engage meaningfully through digital channels 
• A roundup of tools and technology that can help organizations be more efficient and effective with their investment  

Watch Now

The post Mobilize Your Movement: 5 Tactics to Unite People and Inspire Action for Your Cause appeared first on Personify.

I had the opportunity to serve as a mentor at this event and worked with a group of seven girls to bring their startup idea to fruition. The group I worked with developed a concept of a vending machine and food redistribution network that would allow fellow students and restaurants in the area to donate and repackage unused food in an effort to ensure no student goes hungry.

According to Feeding America, 17.9% of children experience food insecurity, which means that they experience limited or uncertain availability of safe, nutritious food at some point during the year. While I’m aware of food insecurity issues and the concerns about lunch shaming happening in school cafeterias, I was surprised and heartened to learn that these middle-school students have the same concerns and want to alleviate these issues for their fellow students.

Latinitas is an Austin-based nonprofit organization that aims to empower all girls through media and technology and the Startup Chica Conference is one of many ways in which the organization achieves its goals. During the event, the team of girls I worked with leveraged a SWOT analysis to prove out the concept, developed reporting to understand the costs involved and profit margin and created a logo and tagline as part of the marketing plan.

The panel of judges scored each team based on the startup concept, presentation, public speaking skills and overall knowledge of the idea. In my role as mentor, I worked with the group of girls to help develop and expand the startup idea, integrate feedback from the judges through the process and shared details about my career including why I chose to work in the technology sector and what I do on a daily basis.

During the conference, I was amazed and blown away by the creativity, compassion and raw intelligence my team of Chicas displayed. Although our team was not selected as the grand prize winner, I think that we all left the event feeling like winners because of the team’s hard work and passion for this project.

One of the reasons I enjoy working at Personify is that not only do we get to work with nonprofit and association clients that are making the world a better place but also that our employees are able to take time to volunteer at organizations that align with our passions and interests. I absolutely cannot wait to work with Latinitas again in the future.

The post Volunteer Spotlight: Austin-Based Nonprofit Latinitas appeared first on Personify.

In 2018, ten years after the Great Recession, volunteers provide essential support for resource-constrained non-profits. From the delivery of direct services to completing functional projects, volunteers want to engage and drive your mission forward. They expect a great experience, and when they have it, they reward the organization with a deep, long-lasting relationship that benefits the organization.

Experience Matters

In the last year, I have submitted four volunteer inquiries. One got back to me with a list of requirements I couldn’t do from my phone. 🙁 Two didn’t reply.

This experience wasn’t great. It’s also not unusual. These are good organizations. I am volunteering with the one that got back to me quickly with clear next steps, ones that were matched to my expertise.

In the grand scheme of things, I’m a pretty resilient volunteer. As a volunteer professional, I know every one of these orgs can do a better job of engaging their potential volunteers.

Strategies to Optimize Engagement

Call them back

I had the great fortune to be part of an amazing team at the American Cancer Society rebooting volunteer onboarding and focusing on volunteer engagement. The first thing our fearless leader told us straight from our CEO’s mouth was “JUST CALL THEM BACK.”  This is a great life tip, in general, but invaluable for volunteer engagement.

If you can’t reply to all the volunteer inquiries you have, this is the first thing we have to address. Technology can help ensure each volunteer gets some kind of response from your organization. Between instant notifications upon application to both you as the administrator and the volunteer, the first contact doesn’t have to be the last. This can be a first touch in the process to encourage volunteers and find the right fit for them.

Connect the Right Person to the Right Role

In my previous position, we talked about this a lot. If the CEO of a local organization comes in, we don’t ask them to walk the dogs or make the soup, we ask them to be a leader too. Purpose, in and of itself, is a deep human need and motivator. Tie purpose to competence and mastery and the person, whether they are paid or unpaid, will soar.

Doing this without technology, can be a logistical nightmare and a theoretical nightmare. How do people find the roles that interest them? How do I create roles that meet most people’s needs?  How do I not create too many roles that I’m unable to fill? These are the middle-of-the-night thoughts that haunt every nonprofit volunteer manager.

With the right technology, you can create a detailed inventory of a volunteer’s skills, interests and qualifications. When you have a role, you can filter for what you need and reach out directly. With technology, you can post roles and needs and have volunteers pick for themselves. Autonomy and choice go a long way in helping people feel connected to your organization from the beginning.

Streamline onboarding

Once you call them back and connect them to the right role, you have to provide guidance for them to succeed. One of my supervisors told me once, “Volunteers are the gift that eat.” Truer words have never been spoken.  While volunteers allow nonprofits to do more than they could on their own, you have to invest in them by educating volunteers and preparing them for their duties. By doing so, you facilitate a deeper relationship with the volunteer and ensure their success.

What do volunteers need in onboarding? They need to see the why in what they are doing, in addition to how they will accomplish it. They need to understand their tools and know where to turn for help, and they need relationships. Like employees, volunteers leave volunteer work because they weren’t connected to the humans behind the mission or didn’t like the people they were working with.

One other note, their experience should be seamless and easy. The level of effort for entry should match the level of responsibility. If I am volunteering for a two-hour event, I don’t want to do a three-hour training first.

Online communities can prove invaluable here, providing not only a way to capture and share information but also easy-to-navigate access to resources and an automated way to walk volunteers through the information most beneficial to their role. It gives independence and connect them to others walking the same path.

Communicate respect and professionalism

Gone are the days of getting a pass because you are a nonprofit running on a limited budget. Volunteers expect to be treated as a colleague and not a family or friend coming over to pitch in. They don’t want to wait 30 minutes for you to figure out what you need them to do, and they really shouldn’t have to.

Offer digital sign-up opportunities accessible to the growing number of potential volunteers engaging with your nonprofit via a mobile device. Create communications plans to share all the relevant details and keep excitement high. Leverage workflows to streamline operations on your end and to ensure all volunteer details are received in a timely manner. Keep events organized, taking advantage of tools to limit participation, introduce waitlists, hour-tracking and role assignment. Make sure volunteers are kept in the loop by taking advantage of automated reminders and notifications

Recognize Contribution

Building relationships with your volunteers isn’t the only way to increase volunteer retention. Volunteer recognition acknowledges accomplishments, reinforces efforts and is a sign of appreciation. Frequent acknowledgement of their contribution offers a great way to show volunteers that you value their time and commitment to your organization. Seeing how volunteer efforts directly affect your organization and/or cause can not only inspire action from those not currently serving but encourage those already giving their time to become more involved.

Technology allows us to take this beyond an annual award. This can include highlighting successful volunteers in blogs, asking people doing innovative things to host a webinar and ensuring volunteers have a career path of increasing opportunities as they succeed. All of this is vital for long term retention.  Because we aren’t paying volunteers in cold hard cash, we have to make sure primary motivations are met. The need for mastery and social connection drive human behavior like nothing else.

Connect Them to Each Other – They are Your Organization

Strengthen a volunteer’s relationship with your organization by connecting volunteers to one another. In 2018, most non-profits would not exist without dedicated volunteers and donors. Your organization probably started as a meeting in a small little coffee shop or community meeting room. No one was paid, and everyone was the organization. We’ve forgotten this. To remember, we need to bake it into our bones that our volunteers are the foundation of our organization.

Create digital homes for your organization’s most enthusiastic supporters. Give them a place to spark conversation in exclusive forums, groups and blogs where everyone shares their commitment to your cause. Empower them to share their experience and show your impact by sharing photos and videos.

We’ll be sharing more about the Value of a Volunteer in our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, Nov 28 at 11:30 AM CST.

Reserve Your Spot

The post How Are You Optimizing Volunteer Engagement? appeared first on Personify.

Marjorie Illig (right) in 1938

Marjorie G. Illig is one of my heroes. In 1936, 20 odd years after the American Cancer Society started as a tiny group of volunteers, she amassed a volunteer army of female volunteers to knock on doors across the country and start a conversation at kitchen tables. By 1945, the American Cancer Society, funded by Mary Lasker, a volunteer, and others, had raised $4 million dollars.

Very little of its first 30 years were driven by staff. They accomplished all of that from tiny rooms, the back of cars and living rooms.

In fact, in the heyday of the 80s and 90s, nonprofits rode the rising tide of wealth in our nation. We shifted from volunteer-led organizations to staff-run and created organizational structures.

In 2008, the markets crashed. Money got tight. People lost their homes. People lost their jobs. As a direct result, nonprofits lost a substantial part of their funding. In that moment, we all understood the value of the volunteer.

2008 forced many of us back to our roots, and our roots weren’t a bad place to be. The value of the volunteer wasn’t just free labor, it was and still is the vital energy, direction and capital for organizations doing good work.

Retaining Volunteers is Tricky

It is hard to retain volunteers. We ask them to give their time, their talent, and often, their treasure. When we do it incorrectly, we lose big and our missions suffer. According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, ineffective volunteer management can result in more than one-third of those who volunteer one year to not donate their time the next year, which is an estimated $38 billion in lost labor.

Traditional volunteering relies on volunteers to do the grunt work. It’s like going to a job. You clock in, you clock out. You follow policies and procedures to deliver some kind of service. Think about Illig’s army. They went door to door with talking points and leaflets.

This type of volunteering appeals to a certain group of people. There are lots of volunteers who like to work at hospitals, museums, animal shelters, etc. It doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially volunteers still in the workforce. Our challenge is to meet the diverse volunteer needs within our organization.

Beyond Candy Stripers

When we get it right though, our organizations shine. What do we know about volunteers? They need meaningful engaging work that meets their skillset and helps them grow as a person and, often, as a professional. Finding the exact right fit for volunteers lets them give back and keeps them coming back year to year to move your mission forward.

Volunteers can fill roles across our organizations that staff are currently filling. This means we need to look very closely at what our staff are doing and ask, “how can a volunteer partner with them?” This means using volunteers in different ways and understanding that each role needs a different type of volunteer. When we do so, we bust the doors wide open to long term volunteer engagement.

The Value of Volunteers as Leaders

Someone emails you. You can tell they have a clear vision and are accountable, responsible, used to making decisions that have a deep impact, a planner, an organizer, and an innovator. You look at your list of open opportunities and say, “well, you can walk a dog.” They do it for a couple of months and leave. You didn’t meet their skills and capabilities head on.

Governance roles are perfect for your independent volunteers. It lets them be who they are, and it uses their brain in a way that motivates them. It gives them a challenge to master. This is the volunteer you want on your board or committee, as a chairperson or as a volunteer manager.

The Value of Volunteers as Drivers of Social Change

A person walks into your library on a Saturday. They are passionate about equal access to education and thrive on having conversations with people about the structural changes to enable reading development and early childhood education. All volunteers do at your library is shelve and dust books. The volunteer says, “sure,” and never follows up.

Social Action Volunteers allows you to harness that person’s passion and drive change that moves your mission forward. This type of volunteer is the person who will attend protests, send letters/postcards to legislators or go in person to lobby. Once a match is made, they will move mountains to get in front of the people who need to listen to them.

The Value of Volunteers as a Skills-Based Volunteer Force

Traditionally, skills-based volunteers donate their skills on an ongoing basis over long periods of time. Think pro-bono lawyers, doctors, nurses, accountants and grant writers who help organizations they care about year to year. They typically find us and know which organizations they can and want to volunteer with.

They are vital to delivering front-end service. We can tap into their need to give back and supercharge our service output, as long as the role is clear.

The Changing Shape of Skills-Based Volunteering

Young volunteers want to work on projects and make their contribution matter to an organization. They may not know where they will be living next year or what their life will look like, but they know you need the skills they have to offer. These volunteers don’t even get in your door right now, unless you have project-based volunteer opportunities listed. You didn’t even get to talk to them.

Today, when every job you try to get, you need three to five years of experience, a masters and be willing to accept an entry-level salary, young workers are looking for ways to gain skills and feed their need to give back. Projects that are time-limited give them just that.

When we have projects that allow them to commit to a short period of time and drive their personal growth and development, they will come back again and again to help. If we give them projects that allow them to give back in the short term, but don’t lead to personal growth, we aren’t tapping both motivations.

Volunteers are Valuable, so What?

2008 was a watershed moment for all nonprofits. It forced all of us to reckon with who we as organizations had become, and it reminded us that we all started as a group of volunteers in some poorly lit room drinking bad coffee planning to change the world. I know I did, and the organizations I love all did.

American Cancer Society took Relay For Life back to its roots. In its first year, the organization saw 200 DIY Relay events that helped raise over $2 million in unbudgeted revenue. Illig, with her volunteer field army, would be proud.

People are ready to be valued volunteers. The real question is, are you ready for them?

Watch our on-demand Webinar

The post Understanding the Roles That Volunteers Play in Your Organization appeared first on Personify.

A recent survey of nonprofit professionals suggests 45 percent of organizations don’t measure the impact of volunteers with 34 percent attributing the failure to a lack of resources and tools, 29 percent reporting a lack of skills or knowledge prevented measurement and 25 percent citing a lack of time. Many organizations looking to understand their impact and value focus instead almost exclusively on the dollars and cents coming into their organization. But, why?

If the contributions of those giving their time, talent and effort to a need or cause are (truly) mission-critical for an organization, then why isn’t the value of a volunteer treated with the same diligence and care given to donations, event performance, membership dues and other assets necessary to a nonprofit’s success?

Whereas the volunteers of yesteryear may have chosen service to a nonprofit in lieu of professional work, today’s volunteers are more apt to do so as an alternative to other leisure activities or hobbies. Nonprofits must understand, document, articulate and recognize their value, cultivating relationships with each individual and engaging volunteers as respected partners in their organization’s mission – not as unpaid employees.

Today’s Volunteer

A survey released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2016, the most recent year available, shows that approximately one-quarter of Americans take the time to volunteer. And, at the highest level, survey data from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) suggests volunteers tend to be married Caucasian women. The largest age group for volunteers was 35-44, the CNCS survey said, and volunteers were most likely to be parents with children under 18. The survey also volunteers tend to be highly educated, with the gap between those a bachelor’s degree or higher and those with only a high school diploma of more than 23 percentage points.

Most volunteers report working with either one or two organizations for a median of 52 volunteer hours per year.

Different Generations Provide Different Value

Considering the generational differences sociologists have studied, for everything from purchase behavior to entertainment and food preferences, it’s not surprising to see those differences extend to volunteerism as well. While CNCS survey data suggests those aged 35-44 were most likely to serve (28.9), unique attributes and stage-of-life milestones present unique opportunities for nonprofits looking to better understand and engage their volunteers.

When it comes to prospective volunteers, Baby Boomers, the generation of 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, represent a huge opportunity for nonprofits. Per U.S. Census data, the numbers of volunteers age 65 and older will swell to more than 13 million in 2020. What’s more, that number will continue to rise for many years to come, as the youngest Baby Boomers will not reach age 65 until 2029. Volunteering also offers significant health benefits for these Baby Boomers navigating the complex transition from full-time career and family building to retirement. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP):

• Almost two-thirds of Senior Corps volunteers reported a decrease in feelings of isolation, and 67 percent of those who first reported they “often” lack companionship stated that they had improved social connections.
• Seventy percent of volunteers who initially reported five or more symptoms of depression reported fewer symptoms at the end of the first year.
• Sixty-three percent of volunteers who initially indicated three or four symptoms of depression reported fewer symptoms after one year.

In addition to the sheer opportunity presented by their generation’s size, Baby Boomer volunteers provide value through their experience, with a broad range of skills, talents and experience. Access to this maturity and competence will prove invaluable in solving and resourcing solutions for a wide range of social problems in the years ahead.

The Value of a Volunteer: Baby Boomers

To attract Boomers to volunteering, nonprofit groups should “re-imagine” roles for older American volunteers, making available opportunities that embrace their expertise and background. This approach is essential in driving value not only in the acquisition of Boomer volunteers but also in their retention.

Current data suggests three out of every ten Boomer volunteers choose not to volunteer in the following year. The CNCS reports volunteer retention rates are highest for Baby Boomers whose volunteer activities are professional and managerial, engaging in music or some other type of performance, tutoring, mentoring, and coaching (74.8 percent, 70.9 percent, and 70.3 percent respectively). Volunteer retention is lowest for volunteers who engage in general labor (55.6 percent).

The Value of a Volunteer: Millennials and Gen Z

What they lack in the experience shown by Boomers, younger volunteers make up for in enthusiasm. Even in the face of complex social issues including climate change, terrorism, and income inequality, polls, statistics, and anecdotal data suggest Millennials and Gen Z bring to volunteer opportunities a strong social conscience.

Millennials, born between 1981 and 1991, have transcended early labels as “Slacktivists” and now include both those on the cusp of middle age busy balancing work and family and younger adults early in their careers. With experience to contribute, Millennial volunteers can provide tremendous value as members of committees or advisory boards. Millennials with significant work experience can also provide support to nonprofits via pro bono skills and via Young Professional groups. In fact, 77 percent of Millennials are more likely to volunteer if they can use their skill set and if they see examples of the impact of their time or donations.

Meanwhile, born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z continues to come of age with the youngest in the cohort just 6 years old and the oldest 22. However, 67 percent of Gen Z report volunteering in the last 12 months and 26 percent of 16 to 19-year-olds report that they volunteer on a regular basis. Gen Z continues to be primarily interested in episodic volunteering with 70 percent contributing below 100 hours a year.

Realizing the Value of Younger Volunteers

Building relationships with young volunteers can build a strong foundation for lifelong support. Video offers a powerful recruitment tool, with the ability to show the impact of an organization’s cause and a young volunteer’s service. Showcase what’s been made possible with their support and share stories of people who benefit from their contribution. Organizations looking to attract Gen Z volunteers should articulate the value of a volunteer role as a means to gain valuable work and life experience.

The Value of a Volunteer

Welcoming the volunteers who are raising their hand to support your organization, recognizing and capitalizing on their unique attributes and ensuring they have meaningful opportunities to contribute are effective first steps but are only a piece of the puzzle. In order to ensure a high ROI on volunteer programs, an organization must also have a culture which acknowledges, cultivates and celebrates their contribution.

The soft benefits of volunteer involvement across a nonprofit are widely accepted, with industry averages suggesting volunteers are 66 percent more likely to donate financially to the organization they support than those who do not volunteer their time.

Yet formal documentation of the cost savings delivered through volunteer involvement remains a powerful tool in helping organizations understand, track and maximize volunteer programs. The most recent data from Independent Sector suggests the value of a volunteer hour grew to $24.69 in 2017, a 2.3-percent increase from 2016.

Built using the approximate hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers with an additional 12 percent to include a buffer for fringe benefits, the hourly average provides a benchmark helpful in articulating the value of a volunteer across a variety of roles within an organization. Nonprofits can get additional clarity by adjusting the figure to accommodate:

• Pro-bono services from professionals including lawyers, doctors, technologists and others whose wages may reflect an hourly rate higher than the national average
• Wage rates specific to a particular geography, especially urban areas

Quantifying the Impact of Volunteers

As noted above, per ASAE’s Achieving Mutually Beneficial Volunteer Relationships report, associations report that an average of 30 percent of their members are serving or have served in a volunteer role in the past while the other 70 percent have never volunteered. Improving volunteer participation can have a significant impact on an organization’s financial health, introducing cost-savings which can then be redirected to supporting other programs.

Additionally, many organizations have high participation in short-term, project-based volunteer opportunities but may benefit further from improving engagement and driving an increase in the number of hours volunteers are willing to commit to an organization. For many organizations, driving even modest growth from an existing volunteer base already familiar with, and passionate about, can yield significant results.

Based on the total U.S. contribution of 7.8 billion volunteer hours, the most recent CNCS data available, the 2017 value of volunteerism in the U.S. would have exceeded $192 billion. Understanding the monetary value of volunteers to your organization brings focus to the big picture.

What could those additional cost savings do for the nonprofit sector? More importantly, what would even a fraction of that savings mean for you?

Watch our on-demand Webinar

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