When you have good volunteers the last thing that you want to do is lose them. Volunteer burnout though is not only possible but can happen easily. How do we, as program volunteers keep our volunteers not only committed to our program but also loving what they are doing?
Urban Ministry in their article on the best practices for volunteer programs found that there are three motivations that volunteers have for giving their time and energy into serving. People can be motivated by:
- power
- achievement
- affiliation
Knowing what is motivating your volunteers can help with sustaining and encouraging your volunteers because each of these three motivations have different aspects of what gives energy back to the person. Once again, the Wisconsin 4H has some great articles on what motivates volunteers – touching on the same three aspects that Urban Ministry did. Check it out, learn what is motivating your volunteers so that you are able to place them in the situation that is going to be giving them energy.
What are other ways of keeping volunteers motivated, energized, and enjoying the time that they spend serving?
The Corporation for National and Community Service offers some great advice on how to sustain volunteers in non-profit organizations. They found that there are five important things to make sure as organizations we are looking into or doing. They are:
- The program is clear about their mission, values, and goals. This would mean that as a program you are talking about why you are doing what your doing, that you are living out the values that you have created, and that you are talking about the goals you are meeting and the future goals on the program. By doing all of this you are ensuring the volunteer that their commitment is not only safe but that it is valued by a program that is constantly moving forward into the future.
- The contributions that the volunteers make are appreciated. Everyone likes knowing that they are making a difference in whatever capacity that it is. Make sure that you are noticing and praising the great things that your volunteers are doing (look more for this in Part 5 of our volunteer series).
- The volunteers are confident in the work that they are doing and able to do it. This means that volunteers are trained and oriented into the program – that education is not only addressed but held in high value. By providing education and support to your volunteers, you are empowering them to serve even more.
- Volunteers hold ownership in their role in the program. Allow volunteers to help own and develop their role in the program. Let them be a part of the planning that you are doing for the volunteer projects, let them be a part of the assessment of the volunteer program and the education that they are provided with. At the end of a lesson make sure that you are getting the team’s input on how they felt the lesson went.
- They are meeting the personal goals they brought with them. This goes back to the motivating piece. Know what feeds your volunteers, what motivates them and brings them energy.
(Paraphrased from The National and Community Service article on Motivating and Sustaining Volunteers. Can be accessed at http://nationalserviceresources.org/node/17148)
One of the huge pieces to this question is giving recognition to your volunteers – letting them know how much their time and energy means to your program and the ways that they are helping develop your program. This will be touched on in Part 5: Recognizing and Appreciating.
Once again, I am curious about you – your programs, maybe your role as a volunteer, or even as an instructor how you maintain the energy of your team.
What do YOU think about all this?
