Why recognize volunteers

Actively recognizing volunteers is one of the most important components of volunteer engagement and retention. Volunteers today are looking to provide their time and potential financial resources to organizations that offer them value in exchange for their commitment.

Adding recognition to your nonprofits volunteer program is just one more way of enticing supporters to continue to donate their time regularly. What strategies is your organization deploying to reward and recognize volunteers? Are those strategies having a positive impact on improving volunteer experience?

When considering reward and recognition strategies it is key to have an end-goal and metric for measurement. Think about what adding rewards and recognition will achieve for your organization before deploying any of the below strategies.

Remember to consider both long and short-term goals. The five strategies below have the potential to be effective with the right goal and method of tracking volunteer program success. Reward and recognition programs are meant to be fun. Making volunteerism fun can challenge volunteers, build relationships, and have a positive effect on the bottom line. Deploying gamification can help you achieve this goal. Your organization can use gamification to challenge volunteers, reward them for opportunities served, and create incentives for retention.

The possibilities for how to use gamification are endless. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the little things go a long way in effectively recognizing volunteers. Recognizing participation and effort means that we acknowledge that showing up is a big deal. Youth and volunteers in programs should receive acknowledgement for taking the time to participate. This level of recognition may include a token or certificate for participating for a year, a year end celebration, or other efforts to acknowledge those who made and kept their commitment.

Along the way, we should thank them for the progress they are making. This may include a card during or after a particularly stressful time for the volunteer or it might be a phone call to tell the volunteer that others have spoken highly of them.

This could also mean highlighting a volunteer in your newsletter. When we recognize excellence, we acknowledge volunteer efforts that go above and beyond. Tokens or certificates for the number of years or hours served can also be used to show appreciation. This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. Volunteer recognition: Why is it important? Have the organization host a banquet in honor of the volunteers. In order to further enhance the sense of recognition, you could give out awards.

These might be established, annual awards. This person could be an employee, supervisor, organization officer, advisor, or peer. For a laid-back organization, a dinner at a casual restaurant may be better than a high-class expensive one.