Once you've recruited volunteers, it's important not to take their contributions for granted. Ensuring they have a positive experience and want to continue to give their time is really important.
Key to this is establishing positive relationships with your volunteers through regular communication and appreciation.
Read our guide to creating meaningful volunteer experiences.
Setting aside some time to communicate with, and more importantly, listen to your volunteers is vital.
Regular communication provides you with the opportunity to:
Volunteers may have different ways they prefer to stay in contact. It’s a good idea to check what works best for them. Ways to stay in touch with your volunteers could include the following.
Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), or other social media sites, can be great ways to keep your volunteers updated, as well as interacting with them on a range of topics.
Setting up a group chat will allow you to communicate quickly and consistently with all your volunteers, whilst enabling them to interact with each other, which can help build a feeling of being part of a team.
Informal meetings, as a group or individually will give volunteers a chance to ask any questions they may have, provide feedback on the volunteering experience and suggest new ideas or ways of working.
The majority of volunteers will have email addresses so this is a great way to keep them updated and help them stay in touch with each other.
This is a great way to informally engage with your volunteers and participants. It is a great place for them to meet other volunteers, and it's fun too!
Involving volunteers in decision-making, especially in areas which affect them, can be really advantageous. Consider inviting them to attend Committee meetings, or to be members of working groups, if appropriate, or you can simply ask them what they think.
Let your volunteers know that they are making a difference!
Whether they are coaching the youth team on a regular basis, maintaining the pitch to a decent quality, or serving the teas in the club house once a month, every volunteer, no matter how much time they give, plays an instrumental role in allowing the club to function.
Volunteers like to feel that they have had an impact, so make sure they know! As well as thanks, always share any member survey results, fundraising achievements or community recognition awards.
As simple as it may sound, thanking volunteers for their time and effort is often forgotten about or overlooked in sports clubs, and is unfortunately, one of the main reasons why sports volunteers quit. Ways to recognise volunteers include:
Volunteer award evenings, end of season events, or to coincide with National Volunteers' Week, are a great opportunity to recognise the hard work and commitment of your volunteers.
Regular recognition and appreciation of volunteers in newsletters, or other communications: this can be either as individuals, teams of volunteers (ie all the group's coaches or officials), or all the volunteers collectively.
Recognising a Volunteer of the Week or Month through social media platforms.
Personal thank-you letters or emails, either from someone who has benefited from the volunteering, or perhaps from someone in a leadership position.
Regular 'shout-outs' or claps at activity sessions. This is often most impactful coming from the participants who have benefitted from the volunteers' efforts, as Parkrun volunteers experience at the beginning of every run with a round of applause from the runners.
Volunteers want the time they give to be enjoyable!
Think about how you can make being part of your volunteering team fun and exciting. This might be through social opportunities so volunteers can stay more connected and work better as a team, or through a WhatsApp group to help volunteers feel supported and that they are part of a fun group of people.
Evidence shows that those who enjoy their volunteering, have met more people or made friends through volunteering, keep giving their time for longer.
Demonstrating commitment to the development of your volunteers can lead to a greater sense of engagement and value by the volunteer.