Charity Walks: Easy Ways to Thank your Volunteers...and Schedule Them Too!

Leaders and committee chairs across the country use VolunteerSpot to coordinate volunteers for all types of charity walks, fun runs, triathlons and marathons.  Whether you are a Corporate Captain organizing the water table volunteers for a national charity walk, or you're in charge of  your school's Fun Run,  VolunteerSpot saves leaders time and makes it point-an-click-simple for volunteers to sign up to help. 

Thanking volunteers is an important part of keeping them coming back year after year.  Our guest blogger today is Roger Carr of Charity Walks Blog, bringing us Charity Walks: 7 Easy Ways to Thank your Volunteers. Thanks Roger!!

 

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Successful charity walks depend on the unselfish contributions of many volunteers. That should be enough of a reason for a nonprofit organization to identify as many ways as possible to thank their volunteers. Expressing appreciation to volunteers does not have to be difficult.

There are many easy ways you can show your volunteers that you care about them and are grateful for their hard work. This list should get you started:

1. Present each volunteer with a certificate of appreciation. These certificates can be designed, personalized and printed from your computer. To make the task easy, use a template. Search online for “certificate of appreciation template” for many to choose from. Consider displaying the certificate in an inexpensive frame prior to presenting it to your volunteer.

2. Send each volunteer a note or letter recognizing their contributions. A surprise thank you note arriving in the mail can be a real treat for your volunteers. To make the note extra special, be sure the note is handwritten.

3. Thank volunteers publicly for their service at the charity walk and other related events. Make sure your volunteers are recognized at the charity walk. You can provide them special shirts to wear. You should also recognize them when you are making announcements to the walkers.

4. List your volunteers in an email and/or newsletter and express your thanks. Use your organization’s e-mail list and newsletters to thank your volunteers. You could even write features on individual volunteers who have made significant contributions.

5. Privately tell each volunteer you appreciate him or her every chance you get. Some volunteers will not feel as comfortable as others with public expressed gratitude. However, a reminder in private about how important they are to you and to the cause may be just what they need.

6. Express your gratitude with an inexpensive gift. Care should be used if using a tangible gift to thank some or all of your volunteers. The gift needs to be inexpensive. An expensive gift will signal that time provided at no cost is not valued.

7. Provide opportunities for new and expanded responsibilities. Some of your volunteers may be seeking new ways to contribute to your organization and a larger way. For these individuals, a request for them to participate in your organization with additional responsibilities can be a great way to demonstrate your appreciation for their volunteering efforts.

Demonstrating your thanks will not only motivate your volunteers to continually improve. It will also ensure these volunteers will be excited about supporting your future charity walks. Get started today.

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Please visit Charity Walks Blog for more information about organizing your upcoming Charity Walk.  When it comes to volunteers, please remember VolunteerSpot, our simple and free volunteer scheduling software that makes volunteer coordination a snap! 

Comments

[Ray]

This is such an informative post. It is very helpful to me since I have a charity also and I need to know some ways on how to show appreciation and opportunities to the volunteers of my organization.