Regardless of the type of fundraiser you host, volunteers play a crucial role in making your event possible. Not to mention, their involvement can spur additional support through volunteer grants from their employers or increased awareness in their social circles.
However, volunteers can only be effective when your organization sets them up for success. While volunteers are eager to lend a hand, they need guidance to drive donations, manage events, and help your organization reach its fundraising goals.
By investing time in volunteer training, you can turn occasional helpers into long-term advocates for your organization. Here’s a step-by-step guide to training your fundraising volunteers for maximum impact.
1. Share Your Mission and Vision
It can be easy to overlook your organization’s mission and vision when training volunteers for a fundraiser. After all, by the time you’re kickstarting the training session, you’ve already gotten a group of volunteers to commit to supporting your organization. Shouldn’t they already be familiar with your cause?
While volunteers may already have a cursory knowledge of your nonprofit’s mission and the work you do, reiterating your organization’s purpose, specifically within the context of your fundraiser, ensures alignment. Whether you’re launching a Read-a-thon fundraiser or planning your annual auction, alignment around your mission and objectives is the foundation needed to achieve your fundraising goals.
Specifically, your training should cover:
- The organization’s goals: Remind volunteers of your overall mission, explaining the exact project your fundraiser will support.
- The fundraiser’s purpose: Explicitly state the fundraising goal, and explain how achieving that goal will serve your organization’s broader mission.
- The value of volunteerism: Give volunteers a sense of personal connection to the cause by highlighting the impact of their contributions.
This initial phase of training is also a good time to introduce the mutual benefits that volunteers may experience through their involvement. For example, highlight any skills they may acquire through participating in this event. Also, encourage them to explore resources that will make their involvement easier, like volunteer time-off policies offered by their employers.
2. Offer Role-Specific Training Materials
Not every volunteer has the same interests, skill set, or time commitment. As a result, not every volunteer should have the same role in your fundraiser.
Tailoring training to specific roles prevents volunteers from feeling overwhelmed by information that doesn’t apply to them. According to Better Impact, role-specific training is most effective when conducted through hands-on training sessions. This training format allows volunteers to experience their unique responsibilities firsthand.
Consider breaking your training into role-based groups, such as:
- Outreach training: For volunteers in marketing or donor engagement roles, cover tips for following branding guidelines, answering donors’ questions, and accurately representing the organization’s mission.
- Logistics training: Most volunteers need to know the logistics of your fundraiser, like how to manage inventory for an online store or the venue layout and schedule of an in-person gala.
- Digital training: Provide a walkthrough of any software your volunteers will use, including fundraising tools, marketing platforms, and even volunteer portals where they’ll sign up for shifts.
Breaking up training into specialized segments makes it easier for volunteers to say “yes” because they know exactly what is expected of them.
3. Walk Them Through Your Fundraising Software
In a digital-first world, your volunteers must be comfortable with the technology you use. While they may be familiar with some of your tools, like Instagram or TikTok, most volunteers won’t have prior experience with specialized fundraising software. For example, if you use fundraising platforms for schools, volunteers may need an explanation of how individual pledge pages work for each student.
Set aside time to demonstrate how your fundraising software works from a volunteer’s perspective. This portion of the training should cover:
- How to access the software (or log in)
- Which tools will be applicable to the volunteer’s role
- Where to go for support if something goes wrong
Designate a member of your organization’s staff to answer software questions before contacting the platform’s vendor. Individuals who interact with the platform daily may be able to answer volunteers’ questions more quickly, and volunteers will appreciate feeling supported by your organization’s team.
4. Provide Clear Communication Templates
Asking for donations can be intimidating—especially for volunteers who have never been involved in fundraising! Lower the barrier to entry by providing pre-written templates for soliciting gifts. Make sure to provide a template for each unique outreach method, such as:
- Emails
- Text messages
- Social media posts
- Phone calls
- Direct mail
Also, provide space for volunteers to include their own notes in each message to make outreach feel more personal. Suggesting an outreach calendar can also help volunteers feel confident that they’re reaching out at the perfect time.
These templates should be easily accessible to volunteers throughout the duration of your fundraiser. However, your training should also cover the basics to help them understand the templates.
For example, every template for Giving Tuesday appeals should generally include a story, a clear call to action, and an explanation of the gift’s importance. If you cover these basics in volunteer training, you’ll give volunteers the building blocks with which to make their own appeals instead of making them feel bound to pre-written templates.
5. Set Concrete Goals and Milestones
Make sure the entire volunteer team understands their shared goals. Establish both an overall goal for the fundraiser and smaller individual or team milestones, breaking down the fundraiser into phases. For instance, the first week might focus on getting 100 guests to register for your fundraising event. The second week could be dedicated to reaching 50 percent of the total goal.
Visual aids, like a digital “thermometer” that tracks your fundraising progress in comparison to your overall goals, can be very effective. When volunteers see that their specific actions are moving the needle, they feel a sense of accomplishment that fuels their efforts for the remainder of the fundraiser.
Concrete goals and milestones also pave the way for meaningful recognition. 99Pledges recommends thanking all participants publicly, even if you can’t thank each one individually. Incorporating data about your volunteers’ achievements shows that your organization appreciates their hard work. In the end, this will result in long-term volunteer retention.
By following these steps, your organization is investing in more than just a single event. Effective volunteer training yields knowledgeable, passionate, and long-term contributors who will lead successful fundraising campaigns in the future. Prioritize this training, and you’ll unlock the maximum impact of your volunteer team.