Small & Mighty Organizations

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment. 

Gwen,

This is a constant struggle for us at the sanctuary. To attract volunteers we post as many positive aspects as well as what is expected of volunteers on our social media and share that we are always in need of volunteers, we have a volunteer page on our website, have listings on our local united way and volunteermatch.org. Our current volunteers also share on their social media. We get a ton of applications but not much follow through. Part of the issue for us is distance, many drive 30-60 minutes to get to us. and it is hard work. We are in  a very rural area and have 142 animals on site from chickens, pigs and horses to kangaroos, tortoises and birds.  It takes a lot to train the onsite volunteers and have them decide to leave after a month or two. 

We are very lucky in that we found an awesome grant writing volunteer who has been with us a couple years. We also have a transport/pickup person that is amazing and a couple who help at events and fundraisers. As for onsite feed/clean volunteers we do have two that come out once a week and three that come out every other week and a couple that come once a month, but it's not enough. 

To keep them we give incentives, like gas cards,  to offset the cost to get to us as well as items local biz donate as volunteer appreciation gifts. We host a once a year volunteer appreciation lunch with certificates and prizes for 1 yr, 2yr, etc, of service. More importantly we praise them privately and publicly through our social media to let them know how important they are to our organization. 

 Besides keeping volunteers the other struggle is getting them to give more notice when they can't make it. Many times they will text that they can't make it the morning they are expected. I am open to any suggestions on how to make this aspect of our rescue more efficient. 

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment. 

Thank you for responding.  I like your incentives.  I have to admit I don't have any good ideas dealing with volunteers who back out at the last minute or are no-shows. 

Here our high school students have to do a certain amount of community hours before they can graduate.  I'm wondering if that is true for Florida and if so, could they be tapped to help out with the onsite feeding and cleaning chores? 

Gwen,

This is a constant struggle for us at the sanctuary. To attract volunteers we post as many positive aspects as well as what is expected of volunteers on our social media and share that we are always in need of volunteers, we have a volunteer page on our website, have listings on our local united way and volunteermatch.org. Our current volunteers also share on their social media. We get a ton of applications but not much follow through. Part of the issue for us is distance, many drive 30-60 minutes to get to us. and it is hard work. We are in  a very rural area and have 142 animals on site from chickens, pigs and horses to kangaroos, tortoises and birds.  It takes a lot to train the onsite volunteers and have them decide to leave after a month or two. 

We are very lucky in that we found an awesome grant writing volunteer who has been with us a couple years. We also have a transport/pickup person that is amazing and a couple who help at events and fundraisers. As for onsite feed/clean volunteers we do have two that come out once a week and three that come out every other week and a couple that come once a month, but it's not enough. 

To keep them we give incentives, like gas cards,  to offset the cost to get to us as well as items local biz donate as volunteer appreciation gifts. We host a once a year volunteer appreciation lunch with certificates and prizes for 1 yr, 2yr, etc, of service. More importantly we praise them privately and publicly through our social media to let them know how important they are to our organization. 

 Besides keeping volunteers the other struggle is getting them to give more notice when they can't make it. Many times they will text that they can't make it the morning they are expected. I am open to any suggestions on how to make this aspect of our rescue more efficient. 

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment. 

Gwen, 

We did have a service group from a local high school come out for a couple of years on Saturdays. Unfortunately the service group was disposed of when the teacher who sponsored the group retired. I will reach out to the school again. Our daily feed is pretty intensive, takes about 5 hours each morning with specific feed for each type of animal and medications for many as well. The kids actually do better as helpers or with pasture management and animal grooming. They were a huge help.  

Thank you for responding.  I like your incentives.  I have to admit I don't have any good ideas dealing with volunteers who back out at the last minute or are no-shows. 

Here our high school students have to do a certain amount of community hours before they can graduate.  I'm wondering if that is true for Florida and if so, could they be tapped to help out with the onsite feeding and cleaning chores? 

Gwen,

This is a constant struggle for us at the sanctuary. To attract volunteers we post as many positive aspects as well as what is expected of volunteers on our social media and share that we are always in need of volunteers, we have a volunteer page on our website, have listings on our local united way and volunteermatch.org. Our current volunteers also share on their social media. We get a ton of applications but not much follow through. Part of the issue for us is distance, many drive 30-60 minutes to get to us. and it is hard work. We are in  a very rural area and have 142 animals on site from chickens, pigs and horses to kangaroos, tortoises and birds.  It takes a lot to train the onsite volunteers and have them decide to leave after a month or two. 

We are very lucky in that we found an awesome grant writing volunteer who has been with us a couple years. We also have a transport/pickup person that is amazing and a couple who help at events and fundraisers. As for onsite feed/clean volunteers we do have two that come out once a week and three that come out every other week and a couple that come once a month, but it's not enough. 

To keep them we give incentives, like gas cards,  to offset the cost to get to us as well as items local biz donate as volunteer appreciation gifts. We host a once a year volunteer appreciation lunch with certificates and prizes for 1 yr, 2yr, etc, of service. More importantly we praise them privately and publicly through our social media to let them know how important they are to our organization. 

 Besides keeping volunteers the other struggle is getting them to give more notice when they can't make it. Many times they will text that they can't make it the morning they are expected. I am open to any suggestions on how to make this aspect of our rescue more efficient. 

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment. 

Hi Gwen

We have been wrestling with this too. I sometimes feel that we have people want to do things but then someone on our (tiny) team has to get that all set up and give them work to do - and that isn't happening with any consistency.  Eg we might have a designer offer to do some work, but if they then aren't asked to produce some specific items when they first show interest, they float off. Not sure how we can address that.

We can't do any sort of gift or anything - we are  very far from that point. We do a small event (bbq or coffee & cake) for the fosters but even that is a bit of a drama to get arranged!

Also retaining fosters is tricky - some do it once, are OK, but then aren't used again for a while (eg they do 1 or 2, head out of the country for a bit, miss much of the kitten season), so they tend to be harder to keep engaged and they're approached less , even though we'd like to try and retain a bigger pool.   

Sorry, no help at all, I know.

Gwen, 

We did have a service group from a local high school come out for a couple of years on Saturdays. Unfortunately the service group was disposed of when the teacher who sponsored the group retired. I will reach out to the school again. Our daily feed is pretty intensive, takes about 5 hours each morning with specific feed for each type of animal and medications for many as well. The kids actually do better as helpers or with pasture management and animal grooming. They were a huge help.  

Thank you for responding.  I like your incentives.  I have to admit I don't have any good ideas dealing with volunteers who back out at the last minute or are no-shows. 

Here our high school students have to do a certain amount of community hours before they can graduate.  I'm wondering if that is true for Florida and if so, could they be tapped to help out with the onsite feeding and cleaning chores? 

Gwen,

This is a constant struggle for us at the sanctuary. To attract volunteers we post as many positive aspects as well as what is expected of volunteers on our social media and share that we are always in need of volunteers, we have a volunteer page on our website, have listings on our local united way and volunteermatch.org. Our current volunteers also share on their social media. We get a ton of applications but not much follow through. Part of the issue for us is distance, many drive 30-60 minutes to get to us. and it is hard work. We are in  a very rural area and have 142 animals on site from chickens, pigs and horses to kangaroos, tortoises and birds.  It takes a lot to train the onsite volunteers and have them decide to leave after a month or two. 

We are very lucky in that we found an awesome grant writing volunteer who has been with us a couple years. We also have a transport/pickup person that is amazing and a couple who help at events and fundraisers. As for onsite feed/clean volunteers we do have two that come out once a week and three that come out every other week and a couple that come once a month, but it's not enough. 

To keep them we give incentives, like gas cards,  to offset the cost to get to us as well as items local biz donate as volunteer appreciation gifts. We host a once a year volunteer appreciation lunch with certificates and prizes for 1 yr, 2yr, etc, of service. More importantly we praise them privately and publicly through our social media to let them know how important they are to our organization. 

 Besides keeping volunteers the other struggle is getting them to give more notice when they can't make it. Many times they will text that they can't make it the morning they are expected. I am open to any suggestions on how to make this aspect of our rescue more efficient. 

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment. 

Bettina,

We find the same thing, volunteers lose interest if you don't get the information they need to them quickly. Sometimes it feels like it is easier to do it yourself than to train someone who isn't going to be consistant. 

Hi Gwen

We have been wrestling with this too. I sometimes feel that we have people want to do things but then someone on our (tiny) team has to get that all set up and give them work to do - and that isn't happening with any consistency.  Eg we might have a designer offer to do some work, but if they then aren't asked to produce some specific items when they first show interest, they float off. Not sure how we can address that.

We can't do any sort of gift or anything - we are  very far from that point. We do a small event (bbq or coffee & cake) for the fosters but even that is a bit of a drama to get arranged!

Also retaining fosters is tricky - some do it once, are OK, but then aren't used again for a while (eg they do 1 or 2, head out of the country for a bit, miss much of the kitten season), so they tend to be harder to keep engaged and they're approached less , even though we'd like to try and retain a bigger pool.   

Sorry, no help at all, I know.

Gwen, 

We did have a service group from a local high school come out for a couple of years on Saturdays. Unfortunately the service group was disposed of when the teacher who sponsored the group retired. I will reach out to the school again. Our daily feed is pretty intensive, takes about 5 hours each morning with specific feed for each type of animal and medications for many as well. The kids actually do better as helpers or with pasture management and animal grooming. They were a huge help.  

Thank you for responding.  I like your incentives.  I have to admit I don't have any good ideas dealing with volunteers who back out at the last minute or are no-shows. 

Here our high school students have to do a certain amount of community hours before they can graduate.  I'm wondering if that is true for Florida and if so, could they be tapped to help out with the onsite feeding and cleaning chores? 

Gwen,

This is a constant struggle for us at the sanctuary. To attract volunteers we post as many positive aspects as well as what is expected of volunteers on our social media and share that we are always in need of volunteers, we have a volunteer page on our website, have listings on our local united way and volunteermatch.org. Our current volunteers also share on their social media. We get a ton of applications but not much follow through. Part of the issue for us is distance, many drive 30-60 minutes to get to us. and it is hard work. We are in  a very rural area and have 142 animals on site from chickens, pigs and horses to kangaroos, tortoises and birds.  It takes a lot to train the onsite volunteers and have them decide to leave after a month or two. 

We are very lucky in that we found an awesome grant writing volunteer who has been with us a couple years. We also have a transport/pickup person that is amazing and a couple who help at events and fundraisers. As for onsite feed/clean volunteers we do have two that come out once a week and three that come out every other week and a couple that come once a month, but it's not enough. 

To keep them we give incentives, like gas cards,  to offset the cost to get to us as well as items local biz donate as volunteer appreciation gifts. We host a once a year volunteer appreciation lunch with certificates and prizes for 1 yr, 2yr, etc, of service. More importantly we praise them privately and publicly through our social media to let them know how important they are to our organization. 

 Besides keeping volunteers the other struggle is getting them to give more notice when they can't make it. Many times they will text that they can't make it the morning they are expected. I am open to any suggestions on how to make this aspect of our rescue more efficient. 

Just before the Small and Mighty Organization Community was formed we had started discussing how to attract and maintain volunteers. I wanted to restart that discussion here with the focus on how we as small organizations deal with the challenge of finding and keeping good volunteers. 

Fosters, web designers, fundraisers, are on the top of our list at the moment.