Very Merry Volunteers
Dear Erin,
‘Tis the season when volunteering spikes. A study from 2021 cited a 50% increase in volunteerism in November and December, as people are moved by the holiday spirit, family time, and extra time off work (UT Dallas Magazine, 2021).
At the same time, many nonprofits have a hard time accommodating this influx. It can create a bottleneck, with too many people trying to help all at the same time. (NPR, All Things Considered/The Holidays are Peak Time for Volunteers… 12/4.2024). Nonprofit executives are grateful, but wish there was a way to sustain volunteerism throughout the year.
Managing volunteers is one of the most underrated skills in running a nonprofit. And, while the word “managing” feels like an icky corporate word, it rings true. For you to do this right, you need a bit of process, accommodation, and follow-through. This is especially true when all of a sudden you have a bunch of people wanting to help in months 11 and 12 after you doing most things by yourself for the past 10 months. Yet, that’s the gig.
I’m excited for the year-end events you’ve pulled together for your dance community. I imagine you have a handful of people volunteering to help you run the sessions. It’s awesome to build community that way, and have a few extra people pitching in! Volunteers feel connected to your mission when they have an opportunity to be part of something specific and positive.
If you do it well, you just may hook them in and convert your holiday volunteers into a year-round team of support.
A good volunteer experience needs to have the following:
Clear, specific expectations for what the volunteer will do
Alignment with what the volunteer actually wants to do (more on that in another post!)
Sufficient training to do the task
Enough supervision to stay on track, but not so much that the volunteer doesn’t feel agency
Opportunity for task completion and closure at the end of the shift
Acknowledgement and gratitude for the volunteer’s time and expertise
Most importantly, connection to the mission
It’s easy to forget get that your volunteers are stakeholders just like your donors. Their donated time is meaningful to them and they have made the choice to give it to you. It’s up to you to make their time meaningful to the organization. It’s also up to you to turn that into a long-term relationship.
…Which brings us back to the holidays. One nonprofit hack is to have a handful of small jobs you’ve been saving up for year-end which you can delegate to your enthusiastic holiday volunteers. Another is to go into the season with a limit as to how many volunteers you can handle and accept just that many - no more. BUT, be sure to have a list of 3-4 opportunities that might arise in January or February for folks you have to turn away in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then, follow up with them.
Finally, be sure to have a plan for recognizing your volunteers, whether that is with a get together, small logo’d merchandise thank-you gifts, or social media posts. In fact, creating and executing a plan for volunteer recognition might be a great project to delegate to your volunteers!!
Have fun with your year-end events. May they build momentum for a fabulous 2025!
Love, Mom
