Whether they’re helping to run events, assisting with administrative tasks, or acting as ambassadors for your association, volunteers can make many of your operations more effective. However, a strong volunteer engagement strategy is critical to keeping these members satisfied and motivated to continue serving your organization.
Email marketing is likely already part of your association’s member engagement strategy, and it’s a simple but powerful way to engage your volunteers. Certain types of email content will resonate more with your volunteers than others, though, so the best way to reach them on a recurring basis is to create a volunteer-specific newsletter structured around their unique needs and interests.
In this guide, we’ll discuss four types of content you could include in your association’s volunteer newsletter to keep volunteers informed and encourage them to take advantage of everything your organization has to offer. Let’s dive in!
1. Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
The main benefit of a volunteer newsletter is helping volunteers stay in the loop about everything going on in your program on a monthly, semi-monthly, or quarterly basis. Dedicate a section of your newsletter to new volunteer opportunities, such as:
- Events that need staffing. This is especially important in the lead-up to your annual or semi-annual conferences, since you’ll likely need volunteer support for everything from setup and tear-down to compiling attendee packets and directing traffic in exhibitor halls.
- Other new volunteer roles. Besides letting existing volunteers know about positions that are available for them to add to their schedules or switch into if they need a change from their current roles, you can encourage volunteers to share these new roles with other association members to aid in volunteer recruitment. This allows them to build new connections and strengthens the value of your association in their lives.
- Leadership possibilities. More experienced volunteers may be eager to mentor, supervise, or help onboard new volunteers, and your newsletter is a great way to let them know about these opportunities. Remember to list the qualifications for each of these positions in your newsletter to attract the right applicants.
- Corporate volunteer programs. According to Double the Donation, just under half of all U.S. companies offer volunteer grants, volunteer time off, or other corporate volunteering initiatives. In your newsletter, remind volunteers to check with their employers to see if they can leverage any of these programs when serving with your association.
While it’s easy to let this section take up a large portion of your newsletter, it shouldn’t dominate every email. Your volunteers already contribute a lot of time and energy to your association, and overwhelming them with opportunities can lead to burnout, so try to balance out this content with other types that volunteers can read and enjoy with no pressure.
Match Volunteer Opportunities With The Right Person
With the rasa.io’s Campaign tool, send emails that match the
right volunteer opportunity with the right person.
2. Training Tips & Resources
As Better Impact’s volunteer training guide explains, “[Volunteers’] desire to grow and develop their skills doesn’t end when onboarding is over. To address volunteers’ interest in continuous development, [your association should] provide a variety of opportunities for ongoing training.”
Your newsletter is a great place to advertise these resources, which could include:
- New online courses that volunteers can work through to dive deep into a specific topic.
- One-off resources like downloadable eBooks, blog articles, infographics, and videos.
- Optional live training sessions, such as workshops, webinars, or panel discussions.
- Policy updates and refreshers to ensure volunteers always know the proper procedures for completing their tasks.
Include links to each of these resources (or their associated signup forms) in your newsletter so volunteers can access them right away if they feel so inclined. Add the contact information for the volunteer coordinator in charge of ongoing training as well, in case any questions arise.
3. Volunteer Spotlights
Highlighting individual volunteers who have gone above and beyond for your association in your newsletter is a great way to show your appreciation for them. Plus, these spotlights can inspire newer volunteers to engage more deeply with your organization!
Here are a few tips for making this newsletter content as effective as possible:
- Obtain consent to use each volunteer’s name and photo. While some volunteers enjoy public recognition, others may prefer to stay out of the spotlight. Always ask volunteers if it’s okay to spotlight them before you do so. This also gives you the chance to double-check that you’re using volunteers’ preferred names (spelled correctly) and pronouns, as well as a photo of themselves that they like.
- Ask for volunteers’ firsthand perspectives. Rather than just talking about what volunteers have done for your association, have them share in their own words why they enjoy volunteering with you and what your association means to them to help readers relate to their stories.
- Include additional opinions from volunteer leaders or peers. Volunteers will likely feel even more appreciated when they know multiple people at your association see their hard work and understand the specific reasons they’re valuable to your program, which secondhand testimonials can help you achieve.
Although text-and-image-based spotlights are relatively easy to insert into newsletters, you could also embed a volunteer highlight video if you have the time and resources to create one. Not only do videos make your emails more engaging, but you can also share the video on social media or during events (again, with the subject’s permission) for additional recognition and inspiration.
4. Impact Updates
Volunteers want to know that what they’re doing matters to your association. Dedicate space in your newsletter to updates about their impact. You could present this information in a variety of ways, including through:
- Statistics. Some of your volunteers likely appreciate data and logic, and impact statistics can show them exactly how much they’ve helped. For instance, when following up after a conference, you might share that your volunteers checked in more than 5,000 in-person attendees and worked so efficiently that the average waiting time in the registration line was just 10 minutes.
- Storytelling. Other volunteers are more moved by emotional impact, which stories can help you convey. If a first-time conference attendee arrived feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to go, but event volunteers quickly stepped in and helped them have a great overall experience, that could be a compelling story to share (once again, with the attendee’s consent).
- Images. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and images can make your statistics and storytelling resonate more deeply, whether you’re organizing data into infographics to make it easier to understand or sharing photos of your volunteers hard at work.
Understanding their impact on your association helps keep volunteers motivated to do their best work when they show up for their shifts, making them more likely to stay involved with your program long-term.
Listen and Adjust
The ideas above are just four of the many types of content you could include in an association volunteer newsletter, although these tend to be the most compelling. After you send out a few emails, survey recipients to see which sections are their favorite and least favorite, as well as what other content they might be interested in. Then, adjust your newsletter template accordingly so it’s easy to continue providing value to your volunteers through this key marketing channel.
