Posted on Aug 24, 2016Communication is vital in any organization. This is especially true in volunteer organizations as you have to keep your members, interested parties, and sponsors informed and engaged.
Engaged is a key word here.
People are drawn to your volunteer organization for a reason, they resonate with your purpose, cause and goals. There are lots of other good causes out there, so how do you keep their attention?
Timely Communication
Timely communication is a great way of doing this. In addition to sending out your regular newsletters or event information, look for other opportunities to send out timely, and useful information.
Examples
It might be a significant update on one of your projects, a call for help / new volunteers (have different participation levels – from a one time for a few hours to several days a month), a new or pressing issue, asking for their opinions or feedback on an issue, a ‘profile’ on a particular project or volunteer (if a project started several years ago then new people might not be aware of the history or reason for it), or a proposed governement policy or initiative that would impact your organization goals.
Balance
We recommend sending out some form of communication once a month, not too often to annoy your audience but frequent enough to maintain a significant presence.