It may seem logical to assume that as the economy tightens its grip on families and the rising cost of living eats away at disposable income, donations and fundraising efforts would suffer – but that’s far from the truth.
Generous donors play a vital role in supporting charities, yet individuals are carefully evaluating their choices when it comes to charitable giving. Organisations heavily rely on the dedication of their volunteers and successful fundraising efforts to meet their goals.
Rosterfy, a leading provider of volunteer management solutions worldwide, has discovered the key to maximising your fundraising capabilities is crafting immersive and captivating experiences for your volunteers.
Volunteer engagement = increased donations
A recent survey conducted by GivenGain, a donations platform, revealed that individuals who volunteer are 56% more likely to donate compared to non-volunteers. Furthermore, 85% of volunteers generously contribute both their time and financial resources to support the causes they are passionate about.
The challenge for many organisations is understanding what is expected of them, what volunteers want, and how you keep them engaged with your mission or cause.
The Literacy Pirates, a charity based in London focused on improving reading and writing skills, requires a significant commitment from people before they even start a volunteering role.
Working with children and young people presents challenges such as screening and a thorough onboarding process, and they have successfully increased the likelihood of individuals applying for volunteer roles and ultimately getting involved in making a difference.
They found by emphasising the mission, impact on children and families, and the difference each volunteer can make in the onboarding process, they saw a significant increase in the completion rate from approximately 10% to over 30%.
Each volunteer you have in your program is another opportunity to promote your cause, ask for donations and spread the word.
Corporate volunteer is your gateway to increased fundraising
Large corporations often match their employees’ donations, providing a valuable opportunity to boost your fundraising efforts. By cultivating strong relationships with these businesses, you can encourage them to advocate for your cause among their staff, opening up a pathway to increased support and donations.
As organisations increasingly prioritise cultivating positive cultures and enhancing their corporate social responsibility initiatives, they are more likely to be open to your outreach efforts. However, it is essential to ensure that the relationship is mutually beneficial and not one-sided.
Chloe Ngyen, General Manager, The Common Good runs one of the most successful corporate volunteering programmes in Australia and she achieves this by understanding her nonprofit has to meet the needs of their partners.
“A corporate relationship is exactly that, a relationship. It’s about providing mutual value and those relationships need to be nurtured”.
Five keys to increase volunteer engagement
If the secret to amplifying your fundraising potential rests in your ability to keep your volunteers committed and engaged, here are five ways you can improve your program and encourage more donations:
- Make it easy to volunteer: The most obvious place to start is to make volunteering easy with your organisation. Have a dedicated landing page on your website for volunteering and take a leaf from The Literacy Pirates book by selling the mission.
- Match modern day accessibility expectations: Volunteers today have certain minimum expectations and that includes an app-based experience with volunteering at their fingertips, if you can’t develop your own app then find a volunteer management software program that can fill that gap such as Rosterfy.
- Increase operational visibility: Review where you lose people in your volunteering program. Where do people commonly drop off during the application process? What percentage of volunteers go onto do a second shift?
- Invest more into the experience by automating tasks: Every hour spent chasing applications, volunteer details or scheduling shifts and roles is an hour that could have been spent improving your program. Use a volunteer management software solution that can help you automate tasks.
- Seek continual improvement: Continually look for ways to improve your program by surveying everyone involved, from the volunteers themselves, to the coordinating teams and potentially the people who benefit from your cause.
For more on how to create an engaging volunteer program and the impact that can have on your fundraising efforts, book your place on the upcoming webinar exclusive to ACEVO from leading volunteer management software platform Rosterfy.
