Best practices for managing and motivating volunteers
Once you have successfully recruited and trained your volunteers, it is time to provide the follow-up and support needed to keep them motivated. Remember that, ideally, the volunteer coordinator will be responsible for managing this process. Below are some best practices.
Support Volunteers in Their First Activities
Accompanying activities is essential so that you know what is being done, can address any questions volunteers may have, and help keep them motivated.
For example, try to ensure that the first time someone takes part in a street activity, they are accompanied by a more experienced volunteer, at least for the first hour. Or, if someone is organising a meeting with their neighbours, encourage them to do so with another person so they form a pair and can sustain each other’s motivation.
Get Organised with a Spreadsheet
It is important to know whether a volunteer has completed the activities they committed to or not. It is also useful to track who has attended training sessions, leaflet distribution activities, or any other events. This will help you identify your most active volunteers and those who may need more individual follow-up.
We have prepared a template that you can adapt and use:
Create a WhatsApp Group
In the group, you can send weekly activities or challenges and ask people to share updates as they complete them. When there are events or street activities, make sure to send photos to the group to motivate those who did not attend to join next time.
Send Periodic One-to-One Messages
From time to time, send individual messages to each volunteer. If someone is active in activities or group discussions, make sure to thank them and let them know that you notice and value their effort. If a volunteer has been inactive, check that everything is fine, that they are receiving messages, and that they clearly understand how they can contribute.
Create Opportunities to Meet
Every so often, it is helpful to organise informal gatherings with volunteers (online or in person). This helps build community, allows people to get to know each other personally, and provides space to share campaign updates or current challenges.
Tip: before entering the final stretch of the campaign, call a preparation and motivation meeting to give it your all in the last days.
Do Not Ask for Too Much
It is important to keep in mind that some volunteers only want to help occasionally. For these volunteers, do not insist on asking them to do more than they initially committed to (in the form or during the training session), as this may discourage them.
Enable Greater Involvement
On the other hand, there will be volunteers who you notice are highly engaged – taking part in many activities, regularly contributing in the group, sharing ideas, and being proactive. This is an ideal profile to take on a bit more responsibility and receive greater recognition. For example, you could invite someone who always attends street activities to become responsible for one of the leaflet distribution points. Instead of only attending, they can be the person who brings the materials and confirms the attendance of other volunteers.
