Benefits of Retaining Volunteers

It takes 10 times as much energy to find new volunteers as it does to keep the ones you have. Retaining volunteers is about building relationships.

Focusing energy on nurturing your relationships with existing volunteers will be time and effort well spent. Your payback will be quality volunteers who are loyal to the organization and a joy to work with.

Good relationships are based on clear expectations. Volunteers need to know what you expect AND you need to know what volunteers expect. Let's look at three things to consider for building good relationships with your volunteers: recognition/rewards, training, and volunteer-staff relationships.

Recognition/Rewards

The "Economic Value of Volunteers in Community Literacy Agencies in Ontario" (published by Community Literacy of Ontario) found that: Overall, literacy agencies are doing a good job of recognizing volunteers:

• only 28% of volunteers agreed with the statement "Volunteers don't get the recognition they deserve."
• Retaining volunteers is not about giving people money: 60% indicated they would not give more time even if they received some compensation for their efforts.

To effectively recognize volunteers you must link those things that motivate volunteers AND the type of volunteer to the most appropriate form of recognition.