Volunteers donate their valuable time to fulfill your nonprofit’s programs, help run fundraisers, and manage essential day-to-day operations. Just how valuable are volunteers? Double the Donation’s volunteering statistics report found that the current worth of a volunteer hour is about $31.80, and approximately a third of the nonprofit workforce is made up of volunteers. 

This means volunteers are vital to your nonprofit’s success. But to build a thriving volunteer community, you’ll need the right communication strategies. Effective communication strategies impact your organization's ability to cultivate long-term and meaningful relationships with volunteers. Creating these long-term relationships will not only help your nonprofit retain volunteers, but it can also help inspire those individuals to donate more time and even money toward your cause. 

In this quick guide, we’ll offer some foolproof volunteer communication strategies to help you foster meaningful long-term relationships with your volunteers, leading to increased engagement and retention. 

1. Get to know your volunteers on a personal level.

Volunteers come from all walks of life and have diverse skills, experiences, and interests. When you learn their unique preferences, you can speak to them on a personal level and develop lasting connections that encourage them to volunteer again and again. 

The best way to connect with your volunteers is by harnessing volunteer data to create curated communications for each volunteer. You can collect this information by:

• Adding questions to your registration form. Most organizations collect basic information from all volunteers in the recruitment process. To better understand their motivations and passions, consider collecting information about their interests and preferences during the registration process. Ask questions about volunteers’ skills and what influenced them to sign up.

• Tracking engagement history. Track your volunteers’ activity with your nonprofit to identify what types of programs and events they usually get involved with. This enables you to segment volunteers with similar engagement histories and send them targeted communications about your work and opportunities they might be interested in.

• Creating social opportunities. Encourage your volunteers to bond with one another and get to know your staff by providing socialization opportunities. This might involve offering group lunches or inviting your board to a team-building workshop. 

When volunteers receive relevant communications from your nonprofit, they’re more likely to act on them and continue being active in your community. Plus, volunteers who form personal connections with staff and other volunteers are more likely to stick around long-term to continue engaging with their new friends. 

2. Consider individuals’ communication preferences.

Not all volunteers check their email inboxes regularly, which is why it's essential to use multiple communication channels. Each individual volunteer has unique contact preferences, and following those preferences means they’ll see your messages. 

As part of your registration process, ask volunteers how they would prefer you reach out to them and provide a list of options. This allows you to add each individual’s preferred channel to their profile in your database so you can segment your volunteer list and send out communications via the right channels. 

For instance, some volunteers might prefer reading updates about your organization in your monthly newsletter, while others like to scroll through your Facebook page to stay in the loop on upcoming opportunities. Ensure you have a comprehensive strategy for each channel you use so that all volunteers receive high-quality communications.

3. Take a multi-channel approach.

By leveraging multiple communication channels, you can reach more of your volunteer base. Of course, operating too many platforms might be hard on your team’s time and budget. Be strategic when selecting channels so that you pick platforms your volunteers actually use. 

For instance, consider the best channels for reaching these goals:

• Recruitment: Your website, LinkedIn, and Facebook

• Impact and program updates: Your website, Instagram, Facebook, and email

• Direct communication: Email, text message, and communication channels facilitated through your volunteer software

Use the channels that make sense for your supporter base. For example, to reach prospective volunteers, you might post recruitment messages on all three of our suggested platforms. However, if you find that very few of your volunteers visit your Facebook Group, you might try providing program updates directly through email. 

4. Leverage volunteer software.

Software can dramatically improve your ability to stay in touch with all of your volunteers. It empowers you to send personalized communications, highlight relevant opportunities, and stay organized. From management platforms to communication tools to corporate giving databases, there are numerous types of volunteer software that can support your outreach. 

When it comes to volunteer management platforms, look for the following features: 

• Accessibility and ease of use: Your staff and volunteers should be able to pick up how to use your volunteer management platform quickly. For software your volunteers will use, look for platforms with intuitive layouts that new volunteers can learn how to navigate in a single onboarding session.

• Technical integrations to streamline operations: Consider the rest of your software when choosing a volunteer management platform. For example, you might want to connect your CRM and volunteer software so you can record which supporters volunteer in one unified database. 

• Offers volunteer incentive integrations: Corporate volunteer programs like volunteer grants and volunteer time off (VTO) provide nonprofits with extra revenue and volunteer hours for free. Look for tools that can educate your volunteers about these programs through integrations with corporate giving databases. 

With volunteer software, you can stay organized and automate many parts of your routine communication. Take the stress and guesswork out of sending shift updates and reminders by investing in a volunteer management system that automatically sends those communications. 

Automated communications ensure that every volunteer stays informed on any changes to shifts or other adjustments that directly impact them. These messages are a great way to keep volunteers engaged while ensuring that they don’t receive unnecessary emails. Remember that the more targeted your messages are, the better the experience you can provide to each volunteer.

5. Avoid over-communication.

Nothing is more frustrating than receiving dozens of irrelevant communications. While communicating with volunteers is vital to keep your programs running, ensure you avoid overwhelming them by only sending essential information. 

Over-communication can lead to supporters ignoring your messages and potentially missing important information. Prevent this by segmenting your volunteers to ensure they receive information about the programs they’re involved in. 

Additionally, before sending a message, review your automated volunteer message cadence. For instance, you might decide to send a dedicated email promoting a new initiative. If so, you would doublecheck when your newsletter highlighting the same opportunity is coming out. Then, you could stagger your communication to create a consistent but not overwhelming message stream. 

Now that you understand the core components of an effective volunteer strategy, it’s time to get to work on your own. Remember, each and every volunteer has their own set of expectations. Make sure you respect each individual’s communication preferences whenever possible to ensure that every volunteer has a positive experience with your nonprofit, inspiring them to continue volunteering.