Animal Welfare Professionals

Good Morning,

What themes has everyone done as far as Volunteer Appreciation Parties, past and future. What has and hasn't worked, what do you feel had the volunteers most engaged? I'm also looking for affordable or easily crafted gifts to get my volunteers, we have approximately 300 individuals.

Thanks!
#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)

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Marisa Santiago
Volunteer Coordinator
Humane Society of Greater Dayton
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Hi There,

For the past several years during volunteer appreciation week in April, we have set up different daily themed food bars for volunteers. So we've done a popcorn bar, hot cocoa bar, candy bar, breakfast bar, etc. For our annual holiday party, we either host it at the shelter or a small event space in town. We have it catered and have done a frost and flannel theme, ugly sweater theme (since it's in December), jingle and mingle, and red and green theme. 

As for gifts, we have done stickers, key chains, and water bottles, and during covid, when we couldn't meet in person, we ordered cute camper mugs that we had engraved and then put together a little hot cocoa set in each (the hot cocoa bags we also order with our logo on them). The mugs were a huge hit.

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Erin Ellis
Community Engagement Director
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe

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Foster Program & Volunteer Management Specialist
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We teamed up with our local movie theater and had all volunteers bring one guest to watch a movie and they got discounts on popcorn and drinks. Our group settled up afterwards and paid the bill.  It was a simple way to get out of the shelter and relax a couple hours

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Amy Owen
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Hi! We had our Volunteer/Foster appreciation party last night. A local restaurant that is closed on Mondays donated the space. We catered heavy hor'dourves  and had water bottles we had designed with our logo as an appreciation gift. We are a foster based rescue  and this is the first time since Covid we have felt comfortable gathering as a large group. Our emphasis was a giant thank you to our volunteers and fosters as well as "let's mingle and meet each other." We had a great time!


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Joan Guglielmo
Director, Operations
Ayla's Acres No-Kill Animal Rescue, Inc
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We've had a volunteer appreciation event every year (except during the pandemic), and for the most part we rent a park space (usually with a building/gazebo/cabin) and have a luncheon.  We invite volunteer families, have outdoor lawn games, indoor games (like volunteer trivia) with prizes, get-to-know-you Bingo, and provide a buffet lunch catered by a local business.  We do a potluck dessert table, as volunteers tend to love showing off their baking skills.   A theme we really liked was Hawaiian - we had Luau music, leis, and found a ton of really fun decorations from the dollar store that made it really fun.

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Krystal Hasard
Karma Cat and Zen Dog Rescue Society
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This year, our group hosted a 'Superhero' theme Volunteer Appreciation Party.

We dressed as our fave superheroes to celebrate the 'super' contributions of our volunteers - super fun, lots of engagement. But avoid the 'Mystery' theme; it was too confusing for most. DIY personalized thank-you cards can be affordable yet heartfelt gifts.

And about food, we ordered from Costco's catering menu, considering the budget and variety they offer. 

We had shrimp platters with their delicious sauce, croissant sandwiches, some meat and cheese platters, and for dessert, tiramisu cups making it easy for everyone to grab and enjoy. Just ensure to order in advance to avoid any last-minute hiccups

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Daniel Burr
Operations Manager
Little Ones
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We had a volunteer/Staff appreciation day last year, My boss had gotten a food truck to park on the property and rented a dunk tank (Which was so fun to dunk my boss) as well as we did a cake walk and three different raffles for different prizes.

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Ky Crawford
Animal Care Attendant
Little Traverse Bay Humane Society
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I find anything you can do that is family/kid/dog friendly tends to have a bit more traction.  At our yearly summer BBQ we started doing t-shirt tie-dye and it's been a huge hit. We pre-purchase  our volunteer t-shirts in white and then everyone can tie-dye one and take it home.  We got a sponsor to cover the shirts 1 year ago (because it was only about $1000 for the 100 shirts) . The tie dye materials aren't too expensive if you buy online, I think I usually spend under $75 for the 100 shirts. I also encouraged people bring their own item if they didn't want yet another volunteer t-shirt. If you have people pre-purchase their shirts it gets a bit trickier so always buy some extras of each size and just keep them for when a volunteer needs a shirt.

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Shelby Wade
Shelter or rescue staff
Homeward Pet Adoption Center
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