118 – 8 Ways to Make Volunteering Experiences Much Easier

July 11, 2024

Episode #118: 8 Ways to Make Volunteering Experiences Much Easier

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi shares eight practical ways to make volunteering experiences much easier! She addresses the post-pandemic challenges of re-engaging volunteers and emphasizes the need for convenience and efficiency.  

Tobi covers topics such as running a more efficient program, improving contact methods, offering baby steps for new volunteers, and incorporating surprise and delight elements to keep volunteers engaged and satisfied. This episode provides actionable insights to reduce barriers and improve volunteer retention for your non-profit organization!  

Volunteering Experiences – Episode Highlights

• [00:28] – The Importance of Making Volunteering Easier 
• [01:00] – Understanding Post-Pandemic Volunteer Challenges 
• [03:38] – The Convenience Factor in Volunteering 
• [07:41] – Eight Ways to Simplify Volunteering 
• [09:25] – Efficient Volunteer Programs 
• [13:43] – Streamlining Volunteer Contact and Booking 
• [21:49] – The Power of Language in Volunteer Engagement 
• [24:25] – Helping Volunteers Navigate Your System 
• [28:05] – Offering Baby Steps for New Volunteers 
• [33:10] – Providing Just-in-Time Information 
• [37:17] – Surprise and Delight Your Volunteers 

Helpful Links

• VolunteerPro Membership Community 
• Gallup, The Post-Pandemic Customer: More Demanding, Harder on Employees (March 19, 2024) 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #074 – Secrets to Retaining Volunteers Revealed 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #95 – 6 Ways to Immediately Boost Volunteer Signups 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #005 8 Ways Your Nonprofit Website is Failing to Attract Volunteers 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #104 – The WOW! Volunteer Experience 

Contact Us

Have questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at wecare@volpro.net.

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Episode #118 Transcript: 8 Ways to Make Volunteering Experiences Much Easier

Tobi: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson. And today I want to talk about Eight ways to make volunteering experiences much easier. You know, I often will share in my trainings, we need to make volunteering easier, not harder, but I don’t often give people how to do that, ideas on how to do that. And so today I thought I’d break it down and give you some really simple ways to make volunteering experiences much easier. 

Now, there are some reasons for this right now. You know, we are coming back from a pandemic. You know, many people are dealing with fatigue. Folks are having a hard time getting back to normal life. It’s rough out there. And, you know, I think things are starting to improve as we get together in social situations and conferences and trainings. 

I’m seeing a start to come back sort of humankind from our malaise, our post pandemic malaise. We’re starting to get excited and things again, starting to be moved towards things that may help us thrive and things that really light us up. But you know, as a leader of volunteers. who is engaging people or an organization that is hoping to engage the community in your good work, you’re really working against inertia right now. 

You know, it’s kind of hard to get people off the couch. You know, inertia is defined as a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force. So, if we’re going to be in a state of rest, we are more likely to stay in a state of rest. 

So, if we’re going to lay on the couch and binge Netflix, we’re more likely to lay on the couch and continue to binge Netflix than we are to get up and raise our hand and go out and volunteer. And so, you as an organization need to be that force to interrupt that inertia. The good news about inertia is You know, if you remember your old physics classes, if there is a frictionless surface, once you get going, you’re, you have broken that inertia and you have built momentum. 

When we think about getting people up off the couch and breaking that inertia and getting volunteers involved, that’s just the first step. But if we can, you know, reduce what I call the speed bumps in our processes that are blocking progress, then people will keep volunteering. Unfortunately, our organizations tend to put up a lot of roadblocks. 

Today’s podcast is really about the volunteering experiences that we are offering the community and whether they are stopping people from volunteering. Because again, breaking the inertia is great, but if you have a bunch of speed bumps, then it slows people down and even stops them. So, here is where we’re as a community of the human race in the world. 

People now are used to greater levels of convenience than ever before, especially people in developed countries where we have been able to use technology to order groceries, to show up at the grocery store to. But to have things delivered to our homes, we are really, you know, we’ve become accustomed to greater levels of convenience. 

You know, there’s a reason people use Uber often over a taxi, for example. And the level of convenience is, hey, I can order up this Uber on my phone. I can see how far away it is. I can get a receipt that I can use for reimbursement. I can share this trip with my family or friends and let them know where I’m at. 

There are all kinds of conveniences to these apps. That’s why they’re so popular. If they weren’t more convenient than taking a taxi, then people wouldn’t, because not always are Ubers less expensive than a taxi. In fact, some taxi companies have figured it out in some towns, and the, they will undercut Uber by charging a flat rate between the airport and the airport. 

downtown, for example. So, they’re trying to make things more convenient. But in the end, the app is still more convenient. And so, people are really used to this level of convenience. You know, people are also more demanding than in the past. Consumers are pickier. You’re not just imagining things when you say, you know, Boy, volunteers have become pickier. 

Well, volunteers are consumers, and they have specific standards now and they will have standards for volunteering as well. You know, Gallup did recent research on the post pandemic customer and they surveyed over 18, 000 customer facing employees, people who do customer service, who are on the front lines. 

And 56 percent of those employees reported that they noticed expectations of consumers have changed since the COVID 19 pandemic began. They found that the top change that they were seeing is that customers are more demanding and expect higher levels of service. 43 percent of those 18, 000 plus people who work in customer service said people expect more. 

Almost, you know, four out of 10 people said that. And then the second change that they noted was that customers are now having expectations, greater expectations for virtual and remote service. 28 percent noted that. Now, I will say that expectations of virtual and remote are also in the minds of our volunteers. 

Not necessarily for remote volunteering, although some people want to do that. It’s more all of the information and communication. Now, I will also say that just because someone prefers virtual or remote doesn’t mean what they end up getting, or if a company or a nonprofit is providing information virtually or remotely, that it’s done well. 

I would caveat this by saying customers not only have greater expectations for virtual remote service, but that it’s done well, right, that we’re not having to click 50 million times, we’re not having a website that doesn’t work, we’re, we’re not, we’re being able to read things on our phones, those kinds of things we all expect. 

If you think volunteers have become pickier, you’re right, because we all have. As consumers and volunteering and volunteering experiences are part of a lifestyle choice by a volunteer. And so, their expectations as a consumer often are aligned with their expectations of volunteering. So, let’s get into this. 

I’ve got eight ways to make volunteering experiences much easier. I want to think about, and I want you to think about which of these you might be able to implement right away, and which you might, it might take you a little time, but you can do it. Continue to think, and the lens through which I’m looking at these is really about convenience. 

How can we improve the convenience factor of our volunteering experiences? Because that’s it, that’s what people want. Think about time. People are contributing time, and time in today’s world, especially after you’ve been through an existential crisis of a global pandemic, time is our most precious asset. 

You know, it’s more precious than money. You know, money can come and go, but you only have so many minutes or hours or days or months or years on this planet, and then it’s, that’s it. So, it’s very valuable to people and even more so now. And so, when people contribute their time to organizations, they are contributing something quite valuable, and they don’t want it wasted. 

One of the ways we can acknowledge to volunteers that their time is being cherished is that we don’t waste it. And we also make sure. Anything they’re doing with us is as efficient as possible, right? There’s convenience and efficiency when they are spending their time with us. And so those are, that’s the kind of lens I was looking at when I was thinking about or looking through as I was thinking about eight ways to make volunteering experiences much easier at your nonprofit. 

Let’s get into these. The number one way to make volunteering experiences easier is to run a more efficient program overall. So, the big picture, right? Are we being efficient? Are we quick to respond, for example, so I always say the best volunteer retention strategy is a well-run program, right? 

If it’s efficient, effective, people are making meaning there, make getting results, etc. Then people are going to keep coming back. But let me get into this a little bit more deeply about efficient programming. So, one is reducing the number of steps in your application and onboarding process. Are there any that you can combine? 

Are there any that you can streamline? Are there any that seemed like a good idea at the time but really aren’t necessary? You really must think about How many steps and how efficient that application and onboarding process is. Because the more complicated it is, in my mind, I tend to think that the more complicated it is, first, people are frustrated, right? 

But second, I think they start to question why you need so much information and whether you trust them. I think there’s a point in time where application processes become so complicated that people are turned off because they believe that they are not trusted. I don’t have data on that, I haven’t seen research on it, but I suspect that that might be going on. 

So, see if you can reduce the number of steps. Think about another area you can think about efficiency is think about the number of clicks people need to take on your website to either reach your application, complete your application, or complete something else. So, sign up for a shift or complete a training. 

Just count the clicks and say to yourself, okay, how can we reduce the number of clicks? Because people are only going to click so many times, and at some point, they get frustrated, right? So that’s another area to be more efficient. Another way to be more efficient is to really optimize your forms, any forms where people need to enter their information, and make sure they’re optimized for mobile. 

People do most of their work online on mobile. If they’re doing stuff in their private life, most, if you think about the last time, you bought something on Amazon, I bet it was on your phone. A lot of what we do is on our phone, so we need to make sure everything, it is, it is not, it is not a nice to have, it’s a need to have that, that all your forms are optimized for mobile. 

Also, this idea of guest accounts. Now, in some software, it really requires you to set it up an account to submit an application. That’s all well and good, but most people are probably balking at that. So, if you look at the number of people who you can get some data on this, the number of people who show up to that page and abandon it versus set up the account, you’ll find you’re losing a lot of people. 

I guarantee, look at the data. So, you’ve got to figure out either an interim, like a quick interest form where people can just put their name and their email and maybe answer a couple questions or get software that allows them to set up a guest. You know, think about when we buy things online, when we’re purchasing on e-commerce, you can either. 

You know, let’s say you’re going to your favorite home goods type of store online, or you’re going to your favorite cosmetics shop online, or you’re going to your favorite furniture store online, or whatever it is, often they’ll give you two options. One is to check out via guest. And one is to set up an account if you think you’re going to come back over and over again, and then you can store your data in the system. 

I know this adds more when it’s trying, when you’re trying to gather information from volunteers, but I feel like people, when we’re asking so much of them early in the application process, we tend to turn people off. So that’s just something to think about. How can you work around that challenge of having people set up an account? 

All right, let’s talk about the second way to make volunteering experiences much easier, and that is to make it easy for people to contact you. I cannot express this enough. I often am looking for contact information, whether it’s for podcast guests, or it’s for people I’m networking with, or if it’s somebody I’m doing business with and I’m just trying to find their phone number. Impossible to find.  

It is often impossible to find that person on the website. Alternatively, what we find instead is a contact form. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to tell you right now, most people do not like contact forms because you go to a website, you fill out a contact form and you have no idea where it goes. 

Now, I know that some organizations really need these companies to manage a lot of consumer input and questions, and it needs to go into a centralized system so that people can be case managed or there’s a customer service database that multiple people are responding to. There are reasons to have a centralized system. 

However, what you’re giving up when you do that, when it comes to volunteers is the personal touch and people really need a personal touch right now, more than ever. In sales and marketing, what I’m hearing from the people that I know around just people who are doing business online is that if you don’t have a personal touch at some point, it’s very hard to encourage people to convert and you’re trying to get volunteers to convert to active supporters. 

And so, a contact form. If you have an option not to do it, don’t do it. Don’t do it by default just because your website or your web designer thinks you need to have one. Your web designer is not a volunteer expert. They are not. And they’re going to tell you things that are required. And you can tell them it’s not required that I have a contact form. 

Instead of a cold, faceless, nameless contact form. And often these contact forms don’t get responded to. I had a friend I was just talking to last week who told me she had moved to a new town and had contacted no less than 24 different organizations to volunteer, and not a single one got back to her. 

So that’s a problem, right? That whole volunteer ecosystem is broken. And if people don’t hear back from one or two or three organizations, they’re going to give up trying. She’s very, you know, dedicated and wants to volunteer, but nobody’s making it easy for her. So, that’s just one side. So, back to this, make it easy for people to contact you. 

If you want to recruit volunteers, put your name, email, phone number. And better yet, a photograph or a short video, if you’re the person recruiting volunteers, get that information on your website so that people can contact you. People should not have to hunt and peck around. Now you’re not going to get a ton of, I think one of the reasons people are afraid to do this is they think they’re going to get contacted by a ton of people. 

It’s not the case. If you are worried about that, you can put a live chat widget on your website and there are companies that will manage this and answer the live chat at, you know, it’s not very expensive at all to have somebody actually do that and you can get them trained up to answer your biggest questions. 

Now you can also put in live chat on your website and put in a chat bot that answers the frequent questions. questions. However, everybody knows it’s a bot and it doesn’t feel personalized. So again, the more personalization, the easier it’s going to feel to the volunteer. Now, of course, you need to respond quickly. 

And if you’re including your phone number and your email, if you’re ever out of office, you need to set those out of office assistance or forward to people or have people checking for you. So, you need to have that custom, that extra level of customer service. If people can get in touch with you, if they have a question, a quick question, good for you and good for them, right? 

They’re going to feel like it’s easier. Okay. Also, you know, if you want more on this sort of usability stuff that I’ve been talking about, check out Volunteer Nation episode 95, six ways to immediately boost volunteer signups. And I talk a lot more about the website and user experience, etc. So check that out. 

I’ll link to it in the show notes. All right, let’s look at number three, the third way to make volunteering experiences much easier. Let people book or RSVP immediately. So if you have an upcoming info session, orientation training, interview spots, time for just a quick question, include a calendar link with a short set of questions and an ability, choose a software where it has an ability to, for people to be able to download this calendar link to their phone, their own personal calendar and that you can set to send a few reminders about the day and time and hopefully a place where people could change that day or time if they need to. So, I use Calendly for this in my form discovery calls with me and it’s great because you know the minute somebody thinks they come to my website they’re like you know what? 

I think I want to hire Tobi to do some consulting with us, or I think I want to explore having Tobi as a speaker at one of our events. The minute that they have that idea, they can simply click that link and book time with me. And so, they’re already moving forward. The momentum that I talked about earlier, the inertia is released and they’re moving forward and there’s no, they don’t have to wait around. 

They can immediately act on that impulse. It’s the same for volunteers. If volunteers are reaching out to you, uh, or they go to your website and they’re really excited about getting started, then you want to help them get started. And if they can book or RSVP, maybe you have an upcoming zoom info session, or maybe you have an orientation training in two months from now. 

Still put the information in there so that people can act and get you integrated into their calendar and people can act on their impulse when they’re right then and there. And that makes volunteering easier than emailing back and forth, 25 separate emails before they could do something. 

So, that’s another way to make volunteering experiences much easier. All right. One other thing that letting people book or RSVP immediately is to have people complete things when they are a captured audience. So, let’s say you’re doing a volunteer info session, and the next step you want people to take is to complete your application. 

Why not share a QR code, whether you’re on a Zoom call? or you’re in person and have people complete that application right then and there. Or better yet, have them sign up for their first shift right then and there. Again, you’re reducing the number of steps and the complexity of communication. People just keep moving forward. 

Right? So, it’s another way to make volunteering easier. So, if you want more on your website, how to make improvements to your website, check out Volunteer Nation episode five, eight ways your nonprofit website is failing to attract volunteers. and you’ll get a lot more detail on some of these improvements you can make. 

All right, so we’ve talked about numbers one, two, and three. Let’s talk about number four, the fourth way to make volunteering experiences much easier, and that is to change the language that you use. So, change the language that you use. Words activate what are called schemas in the brain. A schema is a mental framework that helps us organize and process and store info about the world and the environment around us. 

And it’s a way that we shortcut our knowledge. And these schemas develop over our lifetimes. And certain words will activate a schema of neural pathways in our brain. And so, you know, if you think about some of the words, we like to use in the volunteer space like required, it is required that volunteers do XYZ. 

Imagine the schema that is lighting up in our audience’s brains. Like, required, oh my goodness, it makes me think about elementary school, or it makes me think about, um, legal stuff, or taxes, or all the things, you know, anything that’s required in life, it’s not very much fun, is it? Not really. So, you want to be careful about the words you use because you’re subconsciously lighting up certain schema in your audience’s brains. 

Instead of use require or must. I like to use phrases like, we ask that all volunteers dot, dot, dot, you’re communicating the same thing, right? That this thing is, is needed, but you’re doing it in a different way and you’re not activating those schemas that may have negative connotations. Words have power. 

We have to be very careful about our copywriting when we’re thinking about volunteer recruitment. Think about it on the alternate side, what are words that activate the inspiration schema in people’s brains? So just, you know, when you, when next time you’re going to write something like a volunteer recruitment posting or a volunteer newsletter or anything you’re writing for your volunteers, think about What are words that are associated with inspiration and see if you can imbue your copywriting with some of those words and then maybe you’ll, you’ll, uh, light up those schemas in your audience’s brains. 

That number four way to make volunteering experiences much easier, change the language you use. For sure. Okay, number five way to make volunteering experiences much easier is to help people find a way. You know, we are under the impression that, and this is such a fallacy, that if we build it, not only will they come, but they will figure out their way. 

They will figure out how to use whatever we’ve built. And you know what? It’s just not that easy, right? So, we need to let people know ahead of time. For example, your volunteer application and onboarding process. You need to share it with people in no more than three to five steps. Now, you have lots of steps behind the scenes. 

That’s great. Volunteers don’t need to hear about every single one of them. You can use infographics to show the pathway to volunteering. You can also help people find and not make them drink through a fire hose by giving people too much information in a single email to space out, for example, your welcome emails and use open loops at the ends of each email. 

So, what that means is here I’ve taught at the end of the email, you say something like here, I’ve just shared XYZ in my next email, I’m going to talk about XYZ. See you there. Be on the lookout. It’ll come in a couple days. So, you’re giving people an open loop, so they don’t feel like they’re crushed with information and you’re helping them find a way. 

You’re saying, yes, keep following these emails because we’re going to give you more valuable information. So, you want to help people find a way. You can also use QR codes, a QR code. It’s funny with QR codes. They are starting to make a major resurgence. There was a time when they were super popular and then nobody thought they were cool anymore. 

Well, they’re back to being cool. I don’t know how many workshops I’ve been at conferences where people are using QR codes to link to resources. And websites, a QR code is the ultimate way finding support because people just shoot it with their phone and they go directly to that thing, that website, that resource, et cetera. 

And so, you’re helping people directly find a way or get that thing transported directly to them. Right? And so, find ways to help people find, and that’s going to make volunteering experiences much, much easier for your volunteers. All right, let’s take a quick pause from my discussion about how to make volunteering experiences much easier. I’ve got a few more tips for you, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.  

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All right, everybody. I am back with my eight ways to make volunteering experiences much easier. I ended on way number five. We’re going to get into way number six right now to make volunteering experiences much easier. 

Offer baby steps. I like to say baby steps, not silver bullets. So, we often think we’ve got to come up with a silver bullet and somehow that strategy is going to voila, create instant volunteers who are super committed and we’re going to get all our work done overnight and everybody’s going to be happy every single day and plus we’re going to lose weight and we’re going to become more flexible, we’re going to become more strong, all the things, right? 

We’re going to become more beautiful, you know, all that. No. That’s not how it works. Sorry. Sorry to say that’s not how it works. Baby steps, not silver bullets. So instead of that one silver bullet, that one thing that we’re looking for, that is the magic thing that, that fixes everything. Instead, think baby steps. 

Baby steps are tiny micro actions people take to end up as a bigger result, you know, there’s some, some of my colleagues and friends in the volunteering space have really used this to great effect. One of them is to offer short volunteering shifts for new volunteers just to try out volunteering with your organization. 

Now, you may think, oh, I don’t have time. I don’t have energy for this. We have a complicated onboarding process, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, maybe that’s true. Maybe you need to rethink because I will tell you most of your causes, I would say most of your causes are exciting to people who get involved in them because they can see immediately once they are in the, in the environment of your nonprofit. 

Or online, working with other people, they can see and feel the impact you’re making. There are feel good hormones that happen when we are giving back, and we just need people to feel that a little bit, so they know what it’s all about. People have a fair amount of social anxiety right now. And so, we’ve got to be super nurturing and super welcoming and offer these short little tries before you buy kind of things. 

And, you know, you can, you can brand these in an interesting way for people to come and try out volunteering. And then when they come and try it out, of course, you make sure they have a good time, you make sure they’re, Match with a buddy and then you also go have a chat with them when they’re there. 

Say, hey, how’s it going? What did you think? Do you want to try this on a regular basis? Let’s, if you want, go down to my office and have a chat or can we set up a time to chat later? So, it’s a way for people to try it out. Now, you may think also, I don’t have time for this, etc. Consider it pre orientation. 

Consider it on the job training. Because your new volunteer or your prospective volunteer is soaking up the experiences of what’s happening. They’re observing things and they’re starting to learn the ropes and starting to learn about your organization. You are not wasting your time. 

No one is wasting their time. Plus, they’re making a small impact while they’re there. You can also make volunteering experiences much easier by offering baby steps around your training curriculum and your resources for volunteers. I’ve done some training for our volunteer pro members, and if you’re a member of the community, just check out our micro learning we did some training. 

I did some training a while on how to create a small digestible micro learning. And if you can’t find it in the community, let me know and I can, I can point you in the right direction. But I talked a lot about how to. create blended learning, so in person and online, but also how to create tiny or smaller digestible chunks for people. 

We did this in our, when we revamped our volunteer pro membership learning hub, where we took our videos and I re, I, precipitated them down to much shorter and more digestible content so folks can quickly learn and get it done and move on. So, when people are trying to solve something, they can find the information quickly, watch the video, download the resource, and get to work on it. 

And so, you want your volunteers to be able to do this. You want, you want to give people just in time information and giving people early on a short, just short taste of information. It’s much more helpful. Also check out Volunteer Nation Episode 74, Secrets to Retaining Volunteers Revealed where I talk much more about how we can keep our volunteers happy and coming back. 

All right. Let’s talk about Ways to make volunteering experiences much easier, number seven, and it’s sort of building on what I was just talking about. Provide easily searchable, just-in-time info. People will teach themselves things they’re motivated to learn, and if it’s easy to access, they’re more likely to use these resources. 

Think about YouTube. How many people go to YouTube on a regular basis just to figure out how to do something? Now, you may not be a video person, you may be a person who likes reading steps, but there’s plenty of people out there who like to watch videos. There are also plenty of people out there who just want to get a quick step by step, play by play. 

So, why not provide both for your volunteers? Create micro content. Again, if you’re a volunteer pro member, just type in micro content or micro learning inside the VolPro forum and you’ll be able to find the videos on that and then some resources. If not, again, just ping me. I’ll point you in the right direction. 

There are ways to create digestible micro content. You know, folks think they must create this monster library of stuff. The more laser focused you are, the better and the more time you can save your volunteers. So, what you want to develop is laser focused micro content that covers your frequently asked questions and challenges that your volunteers often encounter. 

And I would offer it in two formats. One is a quick tip sheet, and the other is a quick video. And if you can give, you know, and when I say quick, I mean less than five minutes, if possible, if not 10 minutes, but no more than that. And so really getting to the point, right, we’re getting straight to the point, we’re sharing with people a process or an information and focused on those things that volunteers struggle with the most. 

And the way to come up with these is obviously to work with a team of volunteers who advise you, right? Cause they’re going to tell you. straight up what’s hard, right? What they struggle with. One other thing I would say, don’t put this stuff behind a password protected paywall. I know people or just password protected portal. 

Unless your volunteers are very adept at using your online community and everybody uses it smoothly, it’s well designed, it’s all working well. If it’s not, if people struggle, then Just put it on a separate page on your website. No one really cares. The rest of the world does not care, and you don’t have to promote. 

You can make that a private page. You don’t have to link to it from anywhere except in maybe your emails to volunteers or on your main volunteer support page. Nobody really cares, gang. You don’t have to hide all of your stuff. Make it easier for your volunteers. Don’t make them, oh, I forgot my password. 

Oh no. No. It’s not necessary. Unless you have some super-duper intellectual property that’s worth, you know, everything. Just make it easier for people to access. So. That’s my number seven to making volunteering experiences much easier. Provide easily searchable, just in time micro content that is not only easily searchable, but also can be found. 

Keep it tight, keep it easy, keep it accessible. The other thing I would add is make sure that that content is accessible for people with disabilities. If you can include, there’s a file that you can include if you’re using something else besides YouTube that will create, I think YouTube automatically does this creates closed captioning. 

So, in some software, you must add a separate file. For example, in Kajabi, which we use, you must add a separate file, which we have not been able to do yet. But, you know, you want to think about it. Are these things accessible? So that’s just one other thing to think about. For folks with disabilities, we want to make sure that volunteering experiences and our content are much easier for them to access as well. 

And then our final way to make volunteering experiences much easier is to surprise and delight. Surprise and delight. There’s something about being delighted or surprised with something that kind of lifts the burdens off our shoulders. It just makes things easier and more fun. You know, I always think that if things are fun, they automatically feel easier. 

If you can increase the fun factor in volunteering, it is absolutely going to help people feel like it’s a little bit easier. So, there’s so many ways to surprise and delight people. Giving people small gifts, you know, from time to time, now I’m not talking about spending a lot of money, just handwritten cards, books, little homemade, if you look for online, the best place to find appreciation gifts that are super creative is anything that’s teacher appreciation. 

There are so many fun little gifts. And volunteer appreciation as well. Look on Pinterest. There are always all kinds of creativity there. You just hand people stuff randomly, random acts of kindness. You can give people books. You can give people books from time to time, like, hey, I noticed you’re all about this, so here’s a book that’s related to that, for example. 

And by the way, when I have my book out on, for volunteers who lead, that will be an exceptional book to give people to delight them. I just thought of that. All right. Well, I will let you know when that’s coming out. I’m still working on it, but it will come out. So, stay tuned and believe me, I will talk about it on this podcast. 

Another thing is like birthday cakes or cupcakes when it’s somebody’s birthday. Just simple acts of kindness that let people know that you’re thinking of them. That means you have to collect people’s birthdays, their date. The month and day of their birth. You don’t need to know the year of their birth, just month and day. 

And you can start wishing happy birthdays to people. You can throw like, oh, hey, we’re doing an impromptu ice cream party. Come up to the break room right now. That’s a surprise and delight. We just wanted to say thank you to our volunteers. Thanks everybody. You know, just surprise any way to surprise and delight folks. 

And it does not have to be expensive. a handwritten card. mailed to somebody’s home address will cost you about 50 cents and 10 minutes of your time. So, if you make it a habit, you can surprise and delight people all the time. That was my eighth way. So, let’s go back through these real quick. I’m just going to read them off to you. 

Number one was to run a more efficient program overall. Number two, ways to make volunteering experiences much easier was to make it for easy for people to contact you. Number three was to let people book or RSV immediately for events, etc. Next was to change the language or the words you use. Number five was to help people way find. 

Number six was offering baby steps. Number seven provide easily searchable just-in-time info. And number eight was surprise and delight. Number eight’s my favorite. It’s so much fun. So, if you want to learn more about a WOW! Volunteer experience, check out Volunteer Nation episode 104. And I talk in more detail about fresh ideas for how to surprise, delight, and create exceptional volunteer experiences. 

You are the architect of the volunteer experience. It is on you as an organization to create an exceptional experience. Certainly, volunteers contribute through, you know, their attitudes. the culture that they bring to the organization, but the overall organizational culture and tenor for volunteering, that’s on you. 

You get to develop that. And so, you can lead people and show them that you appreciate them by creating the best experience ever. So, I hope this has been helpful. It has helped you think a little bit more about how we can make the volunteer experience easier, not harder, and specifically by making the best use ever of our volunteer’s valuable time and being as efficient as we can and offering the greatest convenience we can to our volunteers. 

And that’s something we’ve got to think a lot about. We really ask volunteers to do a lot for us. And in return, this is something we need to do for them. So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Volunteer Nation. If you have, I hope you’ll share it with a friend. And of course, rate and review us. We love five-star ratings. 

We would love to hear from you and join us next week. We’ll be here at the same time, same place on the Volunteer Nation. Take care, everybody.