How to Manage Volunteers: Guide & Best Practices

Volunteers can significantly amplify a nonprofit's impact, making their effective management crucial. By leveraging volunteers' time and skills strategically, organizations can achieve their missions more efficiently and expand their reach.

This volunteer management guide explores essential strategies and best practices for nurturing diverse volunteer groups, ensuring they contribute meaningfully to your nonprofit's mission.

Volunteers can be the dynamic force behind your nonprofit by fueling your mission with passion and commitment. Managing them effectively is not just important—it's essential for success. Let’s explore how you can ace at managing volunteers in your organization.

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Table of Contents

What is volunteer management?

Elements of volunteer management

Types of volunteer involvement

How to manage volunteers in a nonprofit

Volunteer management best practices

How to thank your volunteers

Wrapping up on volunteer management

Volunteer management FAQs

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What is volunteer management?

Volunteer management is the glue that ensures coordination among teams. The volunteer management process involves recruitment, tracking, engaging, and putting steps in place to retain volunteers.

Volunteers are your organization’s greatest supporters. You want them to stick around long-term and work with equal passion and zeal for the mission. Proper steps to manage volunteers help avoid volunteer turnover — which saves you time and training costs.

Create a positive experience for them with an effective volunteer management strategy. This makes volunteers feel like they belong in your organization, motivating them to work towards your vision.

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4 elements of volunteer management

1. Volunteer recruitment

The volunteer recruitment process involves finding people ready and willing to serve your nonprofit. 

The first step of recruitment is identifying your needs for hiring volunteers. Start by assessing your organization's goals and current capacity. Identify areas where additional support could enhance your impact or efficiency. You should also consider short-term projects and ongoing needs when determining where volunteers can contribute most effectively.

Write a clear job description for the opportunity to set expectations and inform candidates about the volunteer position. Use different channels to find potential volunteers, and make sure you also create a volunteer database to hire quickly when needed.

Here are some details you can mention in the description for potential volunteers:

• What role will they fill, and what are their responsibilities?
• The location of the volunteer work (remote or in-person, and where)
• The skills needed to carry out the expected duties effectively
• Expected time commitment and availability
• Required training or orientation for the role

Use a volunteer management platform like POINT or Bugle to recruit candidates. Fundraising platforms often provide peer-to-peer or referral programs, allowing users to invite their friends to join. 

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2. Volunteer communications

Open communication with the volunteers is essential at all stages of the volunteer management process. It is a two-way street that requires efforts from both ends. Encourage your volunteers to share and talk about their preferences and needs.

Set up convenient communication channels like Slack or Microsoft Teams to connect with volunteers during and after work. Develop a communications plan to share important information and updates with volunteers. Accommodate volunteers’ questions and feedback in your communication plan.

This will benefit your volunteers and show them you value their opinions and well-being. Automated communication tools can help maintain communications with less effort. You can automate responses as needed and use a scheduling feature to send regular newsletters that keep volunteers updated.

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3. Volunteer empowerment

Empower the volunteers by assigning them to roles suited to their skills and interestsThis will help create a rewarding experience for people involved in the project.

Offer training opportunities to ensure volunteers are ready to work when needed. Provide different types of training to volunteers according to their talent, skills, and interests. For instance, virtual volunteer roles may require remote training opportunities. 

Create online training videos, offline materials, and resources for different volunteers. Explain their roles and motivate them from time to time. Making them feel empowered to do the best job will increase their morale and performance.

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4. Volunteer recognition

The last element of volunteer management is rewarding them for their hard work. Express gratitude to volunteers for contributing their time and energy to your nonprofit. 

Show volunteers that your organization truly values their skills and work ethic.

Many organizations thank donors but forget to appreciate volunteers, who are crucial to their ongoing work. Show gratitude to your volunteers through gifts or thank you notes. Recognizing their efforts strengthens relationships.

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Types of volunteer involvement

Event volunteering 

Event volunteering is when volunteers help support, plan, organize, and run events like fundraisers, community festivals, fundraising galas, and competitions, among others. The core roles and responsibilities of an event volunteer can include:

• Marketing
• Selling event tickets
• Engaging donors
• Supervision and security
• Sending donation requests
• Clean-ups after the event
• Follow-ups with thank you notes and feedback forms

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Skills-based volunteering

Accounting, legal work, or PR require skill-based assistance. People with experience in these areas and appropriate skills can volunteer for your organization.

Such involvement can be on a one-off or long-term basis, depending on the volunteer relationship and their interest.

Some organizations struggle with resources and seek volunteers with specialized skills to fill gaps in your organization's expertise. These volunteers bring their professional expertise to build, improve, and expand an organization’s ability to serve their community.

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Long-term volunteering

Long-term volunteering builds on strong, enduring relationships between the volunteer and the organization. It involves a committed, ongoing project partnership with clear expectations. 

People who feel deeply connected to a cause may commit to long-term volunteering. They want to see the impact and difference their contribution helps bring to the community.

While not many volunteers commit to long-term, those who do are valuable assets to your nonprofit. 

With a thoughtful and engaging volunteer retention program, you can turn casual volunteers into lasting ones. Hold a yearly or weekly volunteer appreciation event and show gratitude for volunteer initiative. This can maximize the chances of people staying with your nonprofit. 

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Administrative volunteering

Administrative volunteers can save nonprofits significant time and resources by handling tasks like data entry, answering calls, and maintaining records. This allows staff to focus on core mission activities

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6 roles of a volunteer manager in nonprofit organizations

1. Organizing volunteer operations

A volunteer manager acts as a coordinator who works closely with the volunteers. They assess volunteers' skills and assign tasks best suited to their skills. 

The managers engage with volunteers regularly. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses allows volunteer managers to get the best out of volunteers. 

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2. Scheduling volunteer shifts 

You can have sufficient volunteers, but if you’re not managing and putting the right people on the job, the mission may not get the desired outcomes. A successful volunteer program manager assesses project needs and ensures adequate volunteer coverage for each project.

Volunteer program managers assess volunteers’ preferences and availability. With the right scheduling tools, managing volunteers can be easy.

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3. Recruiting and training volunteers 

Volunteer managers also hire and train volunteers. They post job postings, sort through applications, select candidates, and onboard new team members. Managers handle the end-to-end hiring process. They provide training and resources to equip volunteers with the necessary skills and knowledge for their roles.

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4. Developing the necessary volunteer resources 

Volunteer management software can help volunteers learn about tasks and work efficiently. Resources help volunteers to get necessary instructions and work independently without a manager’s involvement. 

These resources can include training modules, learning manuals, and handbooks for volunteers.

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5. Reporting volunteer data 

Reporting is an essential part of a volunteer manager’s responsibilities. Nonprofit organizations need up-to-date information about their volunteers to plan events, manage budgets, and allocate resources. 

Responsible managers track volunteer data,  such as satisfaction surveys, efficiency averages, engagement and retention rates, and resource optimization numbers.

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6. Working with other managers

Volunteer managers coordinate with other department heads and managers. They work with managers of other volunteer programs and coordinate with other managers to effectively deploy volunteers across various projects.

Understanding the campaign goals and tracking progress are the manager's top responsibilities.

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Volunteer management best practices

1. Prepare a thorough orientation process 

Your orientation process allows volunteers to get to know your organization. Outline a simple orientation process that covers responsibilities. Include details like your nonprofit’s mission, policies, and guidelines. 

The process clarifies volunteer’s roles and helps them blend into the organization. It lays a strong foundation for a positive and productive volunteer program.

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2. Communicate expectations

Outlining what your nonprofit expects from volunteers makes it easier for them to meet your requirements.

Create a document with baseline job requirements as a part of your volunteer program. For example:

• Must commit to at least five hours per week for at least three months
• Strong communication skills to engage with clients, donors, and the public
• Experience with data entry, filing, basic bookkeeping tasks, etc.

Clarity is key to attracting the right volunteers and ensuring they are prepared and reliable. 

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3. Pay attention to volunteers’ preferences

Considering the volunteer’s preferences helps acknowledge their value. Use your volunteer management software to keep track of your volunteers’ preferences when assigning volunteer work, scheduling, and choosing communication channels.  

This helps build a healthy relationship with the volunteers. The more responsiveness you show to volunteers, the more likely they are to continue to volunteer for your organization. Take volunteer feedback into account to understand their changing needs and preferences.

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How to thank your volunteers

A formal thank you note can highlight that you value what they bring to the table and recognize their efforts. 

Here are some more ways to show gratitude to volunteers:

• Write an official thank you letter
• Send them a card on their birthday
• Give them social media shoutouts 
• Give them a personal call to say thank you
• Create certificates of participation
• Host volunteer appreciation events annually
• Make a volunteer Hall of Fame wall
• Highlight volunteers in your newsletter 
• Create social media posts to share their success story or an impact story showcasing their contribution
• Build a volunteer recognition board to highlight extraordinary efforts
• Provide volunteers opportunities to step into leadership roles
• Work with local businesses and shops to offer discounts to volunteers
• Invite volunteers and their families to networking events and parties

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Wrapping up on volunteer management

Nonprofits rely on dedicated people willing to devote their time, skills, and effort. Effective volunteer management is crucial for maximizing the impact of these valuable contributors to your nonprofit's mission. Encourage communication, train them well, recognize their effort, and give them room to grow. 

While managing volunteers is crucial, fundraising remains a key challenge for many nonprofits, especially with the platform costs involved. Provide the right resources for your volunteers to run successful fundraisers. Consider using Zeffy, a 100% free fundraising platform, to complement your volunteer efforts and maximize your organization's impact.

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Volunteer management FAQs

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