Volunteers come to your organization to serve because they are attracted to your organization and its mission. Volunteers continue to serve at your organization because they have an incentive to stay whether that is recognition or a personal connection to the mission. Raise super volunteers who are committed to helping out by providing incentive for them to stay!

Below, we have compiled just a few examples for volunteer validation. It is important that you add this component to your overall volunteer strategy!

1. Send cards for personal achievements such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
2. Write a news story about a service project or an extraordinary volunteer.
3. Send a shout out to your dedicated volunteers in your organization’s newsletter.
4. Send a thank you note to your volunteers after a project.
5. Smile at your volunteers when you speak with them.
6. Spontaneously say thank you throughout the service day to let them know how much you appreciate them.
7. Develop a volunteer suggestion box to let your volunteers know that you appreciate their opinion.
8. Ask your stellar volunteers to conduct a training or educational session at your organization.
9. Let volunteers lead a project.
10. Plan a volunteer party to let volunteers socialize and network with staff members and other volunteers.
11. Invite your consistent volunteers to staff meetings so that they can know what is going on within the organization and they can share their opinions and updates with staff members.
12. Send a volunteer to a conference or educational seminar.
13. Show enthusiasm for the volunteers’ interests by allowing them to develop their own service project or encouraging them to pursue growth in their service project choices.
14. Be flexible with your volunteers and stay patient.
15. Share the dedication and impact of a special volunteer at a staff meeting.
16. Provide volunteer “perks” such as a monthly parking spot or tickets to a sporting event.
17. Give your volunteers certificates to award them for doing a great job.
18. Develop a volunteer honor roll.
19. Ask an effective volunteer to mentor a new volunteer or lead a new volunteer group.
20. Provide food or drinks at a service project.
21. Provide a volunteer office for project planning and work space.
22. Have volunteers share success stories or give shout outs to volunteers who did a good job at the project.
23. Surprise a volunteer with a birthday cake to show them that you care.
24. Hold a volunteer awards show at a staff meeting to let everyone know what the volunteers excel at.
25. Make telephone calls. Tell volunteers who could not make it to a project that they were missed.
26. Provide t-shirts at a volunteering event to commemorate the day.
27. Hold a potluck dinner in honor of the volunteers.
28. Send hand written thank you cards instead of emails.
29. Make sure you place volunteers in their perfect fit role when signing them up for a project.
30. Make the volunteer feel appreciate by being pleasant and accommodating to their concerns.

We hope these tips will help your volunteers be even more extraordinary than they already know. It is important to include this step when developing volunteer recruitment strategies.

How does your organization validate its volunteers? We would love to hear about it in the comments section below!

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