This document discusses using social media to engage volunteers through the three Rs of recruitment, recognition, and retention. It provides examples of how non-profits can measure the impact of social media on volunteering, understand volunteer motivations, and collect volunteer stories to share across various social media platforms and websites. The document emphasizes focusing content on people and their experiences to effectively recruit, recognize, and retain volunteers through social media strategies.
On 15 September, the NCVO National Volunteering Forum met in Manchester to share analysis on the potential implications of Brexit for volunteering, and discuss the evidence & real life examples demonstrating the role that volunteering can play in improving social cohesion.
Super Reforms – The changes and what you need to doChris Reed
Chris Reed, SMSF specialist adviser, with Business Concepts Group goes through all the super changes, and what you need to do, as well as strategies and opportunities that you may want to take advantage of.
On 15 September, the NCVO National Volunteering Forum met in Manchester to share analysis on the potential implications of Brexit for volunteering, and discuss the evidence & real life examples demonstrating the role that volunteering can play in improving social cohesion.
Super Reforms – The changes and what you need to doChris Reed
Chris Reed, SMSF specialist adviser, with Business Concepts Group goes through all the super changes, and what you need to do, as well as strategies and opportunities that you may want to take advantage of.
Workshop given at the Willamette Valley Development Officers Annual Conference May 17, 2012.
Helping nonprofits to think strategically using a venture philanthropy mindset
You’ve dipped your toes into social media: you’ve got a Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, and CEO blog set up.
But now what?
Back up.
Social media is about free and open conversations online but your organization still needs to have a plan of action. Take a hold of your communications plan and start afresh.
This workshop is for organizations that dipped (or maybe dove headfirst) into social media, but are now wondering what the next steps are and how they can make their social media investment more focused and worthwhile.
Attendees Will Walk Away With:
- Knowledge of how social media is changing the way nonprofits operate and what it means to be a networked nonprofit
- Tips on how to determine which social networks your organization's key audiences are using and how to create a social media strategy
- Information on receiving buy-in from staff, management, and boards
You’ve dipped your toes into social media: you’ve got a Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, and CEO blog set up.
But now what?
Back up.
Social media is about free and open conversations online but your organization still needs to have a plan of action. Take a hold of your communications plan and start afresh.
This workshop is for organizations that dipped (or maybe dove headfirst) into social media, but are now wondering what the next steps are and how they can make their social media investment more focused and worthwhile.
Attendees Will Walk Away With:
- Knowledge of how social media is changing the way nonprofits operate and what it means to be a networked nonprofit
- Tips on how to determine which social networks your organization’s key audiences are using and how to create a social media strategy
- Information on receiving buy-in from staff, management, and boards
Social Media Marketing Nonprofits and NGOIBM Danmark
Social Media Marketing for Nonprofit/NGO’s
Presentation held at IBM (Lundtofte, Denmark) on June15th, as part of the Service Day Workshop for Nonprofits and NGO’s.
We design and build executable solutions for your fundraising challenges. We also work with givers to increase their joy in philanthropy. We believe this combination forms a sustainable charitable community.
How Social Media Works for the Channel [Global Channel Partners Summit]interlinkONE
At the 2012 Global Channel Partners Summit (which was held at Graph Expo in Chicago), interlinkONE and Grow Socially CEO John Foley, Jr. delivered the presentation "How Social Media Works for the Channel".
He provided an overview of strategies, tactics, tools, and tips that can be used to achieve success with social media in the channel environment.
Case study: A national integrated marketing communications case study. Winner of a 2012 Silver Leaf Award and an Ovation Award of Excellence from International Association of Business Communicators.
Similar to Robert Rosenthal - Social Media & the 3Rs: Content Strategy Basics for Engaging Volunteers (20)
It’s almost Thanksgiving and that means people (read: your prospective donors!) are looking back on the year with gratitude and renewed feelings of generosity. If you haven’t had the time to put together a year-end giving campaign, guess what? It’s not too late to pull one off! Kate Rose went over a step-by-step look at the importance of year-end giving, advice for setting the right goal, tips on choosing a theme, and guidance to find ways (through social media) to have a successful fundraising campaign to close out 2015. Watch the webinar recording here: http://socialmedia4nonprofits.org/its-not-too-late-close-out-2015-strong-with-year-end-giving/
Now that social media channels are a part of the fabric of how we communicate, nonprofits are looking beyond shiny social tools to understand the value of community. Learn strategies from Megan Keane for setting up organizational processes to create a culture of engagement at your organization and find quantifiable ways community can contribute to your mission and impact.
Maybe your organization has used texting since we were playing Snake on our phones. Or maybe you’re just now struggling with how to start an SMS program and integrate it with your website, social media, and app strategy. This session with Sam McKelvie will help nonprofits at any level think about innovative ways that SMS can advance their organization’s mission and how to overcome common obstacles to growing a mobile program. We’ll launch in to the best use cases for engaging supporters/donors and review tactics for using SMS to better reach the populations that your organization serves. This interactive session will also give you a chance to develop new ideas for acquiring subscribers and expanding their interaction with your nonprofit.
Explore the generational, cultural, and technological revolution that's changing our world and learn tactical skills that will increase the effectiveness and sustainability of your fundraising strategies. Roderick Campbell, one of Silicon Valley's brightest social-impact entrepreneurs, will be your unpredictable and amusing guide.
In an increasingly noisy world, we all face a big challenge in making sure our messages are clearly heard. In this session, Anita Jackson talked about how to effectively use social media strategies to complement your movement building work. She talked about which tools help you reach your goals, how to find the audiences you seek, and how to leverage your limited capacity for the greatest impact.
Did you know that 8 out of 10 donors say that online reviews influence their giving decision? If you are a great nonprofit waiting to be discovered, build social proof around it by putting it in front of the right early supporters and create marketing campaigns designed to be shareable. Use it to find new supporters and remind existing supporters why they made a smart choice. In the age of the social web, social proof is the new marketing.
Sending a text message is the easiest way for new supporters to connect with your cause. Nick Allen talked about how to maximize mobile donations and how mobile activist networks run by organizations like the Humane Society and No Kid Hungry are recruiting new supporters. Nick also shared the first US test of a mobile strategy that’s recruited thousands of new monthly donors in the UK by inviting people to send a text message for info, triggering a phone call from the nonprofit.
We’ve all felt the emotional pull of a great video. Videos can convey messages, emotions and impact in seconds. Now, with social media platforms seamlessly integrating video, it’s more important than ever for nonprofits to understand how to leverage this powerful tool. In this very tactical session, Michael Hoffman of See3 Communications shared the best practices for incorporating video into your communications strategy and across social media platforms, with a focus on how it can be used to help make an impact on your year-end fundraising.
Watch the recording on our site: http://socialmedia4nonprofits.org/webinars/use-video-to-drive-donations
Cultivating community is a key way to keep a group in engaged around an idea or cause. In this session Regina Walton talked about building and growing community in a group that meets in person around a central idea: technology for social good. You'll learn about SFTech4Good, the largest of the many worldwide Netsquared groups and NTEN 501 Tech Clubs, and how they keep their member count growing, keep events fresh, and the tools they use to effectively communicate with their large and growing group.
You see the potential that Facebook offers for engaging supporters and creating more exposure for your nonprofit. But with declining reach, and more competition in the newsfeed, reaching your supporters is more challenging than ever before. This presentation from John Haydon will show you innovative ways to get more engagement on Facebook, from high-quality fans.
140 characters and a constant feed can seem like a waste of time. But, if you know how to navigate the good from the stuff that’s for the birds, you can definitely find a pipeline. Stephanie St Martin showed #SM4NP Boston how to use tools like Twitter lists, find influencers, and find potential volunteers from those tweeting.
Creating a strategy for using social media is no longer optional for nonprofits. Social media tools include a fast-changing and constantly growing collection of web-based and mobile technologies. These tools turn formerly broadcast and one-way messages into an interactive conversation and can be hugely effective for social change organizations. In this session, Julia Campbell outlined the 11 steps that your organization can take to create a strategy and plan for your social media efforts. A little planning goes a long way!
Online engagement campaigns are a test for both the organization and its fans, a learning moment, and a check/balance of how you are crafting meaningful ties with your stakeholders. In this session at #SM4NP Boston, Debra Askanase profiled successful online engagement campaigns, breaking down the essential ingredients of preparation, design, execution and measurement.
Crowd-funding for #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving back to launch the holiday season, has fast become a cornerstone of fundraising. These slides from a #SM4NP webinar with Leo Buc and Bre DiGiammarino will give you practical and tactical resources for making it a success.
The data doesn’t lie, the mobile era is upon us. But how do you go beyond the data to make mobile work for your nonprofit? Learn from Ethan Kearns of the Nature Conservancy about many of the real life examples of mobile adoption and understand specific ways to go beyond the surface level statistics to fully grasp the mobile potential.
Stories have the power to spark movements, raise armies of volunteers, and even change the world. But stories with impact don’t just happen—they require intention and heart. So once you have the right story, how can you make the most of it across social media?
In this 60 minute webinar with Jereme Bivins of The Rockefeller Foundation and Kimaya Dixit of Hattaway Communications, we explored how to use your organization’s best stories across channels for better outreach, fundraising, and impact reporting.
Connections matter. Often it is easiest to connect with other people like us, but being able to build relationships across differences and learn from different perspectives is powerful. Discover how to use Twitter chats (or any social platform) to cultivate conversations which amplify your message and increase impact for your constituents. Dorothy Ponton gave this presentation at #SM4NP Silicon Valley.
Do you ever feel like messaging decisions are made in a vacuum at your organization? Some simple testing can make the difference in connecting with your target audience. Learn from Marcia Silva how the Second Harvest Food Bank leveraged a small budget on Facebook Ads to test branding elements, as well as how the data helped them tighten their 2015 childhood hunger messages and improve campaign results.
You’ve heard it over and over again: storytelling gets you more donations. It’s actually easier than you think to create a compelling story. Fairy tales, fireside stories, and your favorite Hollywood movies all follow the tried and true storylines every popular story follows. In this session, Rob Wu, CEO of CauseVox, walked through three storylines that you can use for nonprofit fundraising, and to help you understand how to repurpose storylines for your nonprofit at #SM4NP Silicon Valley.
While content creation is a top priority for most nonprofits, a huge challenge is distribution. When thinking about how to get your amazing content beyond your existing network, consider this: the top 5% of supporters in your CRM, on average, have a reach 200 times greater than your entire email file. These social media influencers not only help extend the reach of your amazing content, but expose more people to your good work. Cheryl Contee, CEO of Fission and Co-Founder of Attentive.ly, explored how to identify your influencers, the best sharable content and how to get them talking about your campaigns at #SM4NP Silicon Valley.
Leverage Your Influencers to Drive Social Media Engagement
Robert Rosenthal - Social Media & the 3Rs: Content Strategy Basics for Engaging Volunteers
1. Social Media & The 3 Rs
Content Strategy Basics for
Engaging Volunteers
Robert J. Rosenthal
VP, Communications & Marketing
VolunteerMatch.org
Twitter: @volmatchRobert
Conteent
2. What‟s a Volunteer Worth?
$214 $3,075
First year value1 of a Lifetime value2of today’s
Facebook like. VolunteerMatch recruit.
Based on:
• 58 hours per year
• 2.5 years
• $21.36 equivalent value3
1. 2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Report, Blackbaud, NTEN and Common Knowledge
2. 2011 Annual Report,VolunteerMatch
3. Independent Sector, 2012
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 2
3. What‟s a Volunteer Worth?
10x Donations
Sharing, Petitions Skilled Volunteering
Microvolunteering Pro Bono Volunteer
Traditional volunteering Board Service
Source: Volunteerism and Charitable Giving in 2009, Fidelity ® Charitable Gift Fund/VolunteerMatch
Content Strategy &Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 3
4. Where Social Media Fits In
SUPER-
INITIAL VISION &
SCREENING ONGOING
SUPPORT
VOLUNTEER RECRUIT-
ROLE MENT
DESIGN
RISK
MGMT
PRE-
PLANNING PLACEMENT
ORIENT-
ATION TRAINING
RECOGN-
ITION
EVALUATION
The volunteer
retention puzzle.
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 4
5. Measuring Success
• Am I effectively tapping the most vocal supporters of
our volunteer program for other roles?
• How many of our Facebook fans volunteered with us
last month?
• What are our most effective methods for promoting
our volunteer opportunities via social media?
• Which kinds of volunteer-related social media
content is most likely to inspire followers to act?
• Which social platforms are the best places to tell our
volunteers’ stories?
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 5
6. Social Media & The 3 Rs
Getting to the heart of volunteer
motivations.
7. You Are The Future
“The more economy, money, and
information become global, the more
community will matter. Only the nonprofit
organization performs in the community,
exploits its opportunities, mobilizes its local
resources, solves its problems.”
- Peter Drucker
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits
Photo: h.koppdelaney/Flickr 7
8. The Secret to Engagement?
“If you want to be interesting,
be interested.”
- David Ogilvy
8
9. Different Motivations
To help my
To be part of To rid the world of Darth volunteers
something, do
Vader and the Galactic contribute to our
great work, and
Empire! mission – on time
make an impact.
and under budget.
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 9
10. Volunteering Is Not Donating
5 Ways Volunteering and
Donating Are Different:
Donating Volunteering
Money Time or Skills or
Both
Buying Earning
membership membership
High scalability High touch
Spontaneous or Planned
Planned
Inherently Inherently
Transactional Relational
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 10
11. Where Skills Come In
Source: VolunteerMatch User Survey, Peter D. Hart Associates, 2006
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 11
12. Be The Human In the Machine
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 12
13. Tie Messaging to Brand
VISION: A world where good prevails over evil.
Luke, I need
to tell you
something.
MISSION: We leverage mystical forces as part of a Universal alliance to
protect peace and justice.
OK, Obiwan,
MESSAGING: “The Force” - Use this word to describe our powers. It reassures folks
but stay on
we’re only channeling energy that is all around us. In Twitter: #TheForce
message.
SAMPLE: Planet missing? Join us 11/3 as we use #TheForce to destroy the
Death Star. Good vs evil! RSVP: jed.is/KLT72
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 13
14. Understanding Volunteers
• Create a survey about volunteer interests, or look for
results already on file.
• Set up Facebook or LinkedIn polls/surveys.
• Check in with your volunteer coordinators to better
understand their perspective.
• Ask about outgoing volunteer procedures. Is there a
formal debrief?
• Review the LinkedIn profiles or volunteer resumes of
many of your top volunteers. See any patterns?
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 14
15. Social Media & The 3 Rs
The basics of storytelling,
volunteer-style.
Photo: aepoc
16. Be The Change
My World
My
Community
My family
and
Change
friends
Myself
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 16
17. The Volunteer‟s Story
This princess
Instigation
totally needs
me!
Obstacles
Whoa. Death
Star ahead.
Nevermind!
“Saving the
Universe? Achievement
Best thing I
ever did!”
18. The Engager‟s Story
Instigation “She‟s depending on
you, Luke. Hey, how
„bout a light saber?
Obstacles “Yup, this is hard.
But remember that
Force thing? Give it
a shot.”
Achievement “Great work,
Luke! One
film down
and five
more to go!
19. Parts ofMore Engaging?
What‟s the Volunteer Story
Program Skilled
support
Non-skilled
Figure 1.Staffing for our builds.
Two views of a volunteer program.
21. Which Way to Go?
Your Members
Saving Sharing
The Public
Social Sharing
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 21
22. Tips for Collecting Stories
• Invest in cameras and remind supporters to
bring theirs too.
• Run photo/video/story contests.
• Send out surveys/polls.
• Engage volunteers as reporters, shooters,
tweeters, note takers, etc.
• Remind supporters to use hashtags.
• Monitor your social channels for comments
and testimonials.
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 22
23. Corralling Your Content
Photos/
Professional
Videos
Networks
(Youtube,
(LinkedIn)
Pinterest)
Social
Events
Networks
(Eventbrite)
(Facebook)
Volunteer
Micromedia
(Twitter,
Website/ lead
sources
Tumblr) Blog (Volunteer
Match)
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 23
24. Website Commandments
“Your Support
page MUST have
a range of options
like donating, gifts
in kind, and “You MUST have
“The word volunteering.” a page dedicated
volunteers MUST to volunteering…
appear on your with links to your
home page or social networks.”
your website.”
Jayne Cravens,
Coyote Communications
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 24
25. How OftenIs Too Often?
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 25
26. Creating Sharable Content
• Make it easy for supporters to share.
• Tag everything!
• Avoid cross-posting if you can. Follow
specifications for different platforms.
• Write messaging guides for everyone
ahead of time.
• Include links to photos, graphics or videos
for preview and recap.
• Praise and thank publicly, and RT too!
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 26
27. Social Media & The 3 Rs
Recruitment, recognition and
retention in action.
28. 3 Rs in Action
Friends
Retain Recruit
Family
Recognize Work
29. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 29
30. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 30
31. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 31
32. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 32
33. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 33
34. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 34
35. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 35
36. 3 Rs in Action
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 36
37. Friends of The Trees
“If we can reach lots of people via social
media those are part of the touches that
contribute to turning volunteers out to our
events”
“While we don't understand the exact
impacts on our other goals, we suspect
only good things are coming from our
social media efforts.”
Jenny Bedell-Stiles
Volunteer & Outreach Specialist
Friends of Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 37
38. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 38
39. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 39
40. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 40
41. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 41
42. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 42
43. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 43
44. Friends of The Trees
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 44
45. Recap
• Social media can’t do everything for volunteer
engagement… but it can help with recruiting and
recognition.
• As culture is changing, people want what you have!
• To engage, get engaged.
• Make your messaging be about people first.
• Let your brand guide your messaging.
• It’s all about stories. Their story, your story, our story.
• Don’t forget your website. It comes first.
• Which platforms you use depend on what you intend
to accomplish. There are differences.
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 45
46. More Volunteer Resources
VolunteerMatch Learning Center learn.volunteermatch.org
Free webinar series on variety of topics.
EngagingVolunteers.orgwww.engagingvolunteers.org
VolunteerMatch blog for nonprofits
Energize, Inc. www.energizeinc.com
Volunteer Management Resources
HandsOn Network www.handsonblog.org
Articles and tips on volunteer engagement
Linkedin Groups VolunteerMatch (6,600)
Volunteer Coordinators
Vol. Mgmt Best Practices
Coyote Communications coyotecommunications.com
Jayne Cravens
Content Strategy & Volunteer Engagement | Social Media for Nonprofits 46
47. Social Media & The 3 Rs
Thank You!
Robert J. Rosenthal
VP, Communications & Marketing
VolunteerMatch.org
Twitter: @volmatchRobert
Conteent
Editor's Notes
When this event series first came out, I was excited. Social media was becoming a serious mainstream interest for nonprofits. Then I noticed something. Very few of the seminars, webinars, training and books on social media engagement and online communities were focused on tying into volunteer engagement. It was almost like a conspiracy: supporters, advocates, free agents… but few “volunteers” Last year I reached out to Darian. What could we do? He was receptive. Thank you, Darian. Then I thought, maybe we can make the case better. So here goes.
These two slides tell so much. First, the value of a Facebook like. But second, the amazing value of a volunteer. According to our research, a volunteer you recruit today at VolunteerMatch.org, on average, will eventually provide more than $3,000 in equivalent social value for your organization. Which isn’t to say that one is better than the other.
Some 2/3rds of volunteers also donate. And they do so a lot. They donate 7-10x more than non-volunteersThese stats are both from a 2009 study we co-published with one of our partners, Fidelity Charitable Investments.So volunteers give…. But they can also do far more. That’s why it’s great to be up here talking about volunteer engagement.
So why the disconnect to begin with? Well, it’s complicated. Often, a volunteer’s contribution happens offline, in person, and outside of a social-media powered world. Much of the contribution is managed in a silo by program staff or other executives. This isn’t a bad thing. Just reality.
When I’m doneyou’l have some ideas you may want to put in place. How will you know it’s working?. This presentation isn’t about measurement. But when measuring volunteer engagement in social media, try to answer these kinds of questions, which are readily available via analytics: Am I effectively tapping the most vocal supporters of our volunteer program for other roles? How many of our Facebook fans volunteered with us last month? What are our most effective methods for promoting our volunteer opportunities via social media? Which kinds of volunteer-related social media content is most likely to inspire followers to act? Which social platforms are the best place to tell our volunteers’ stories?
Peter Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in the field of management. He’s the guy who first coined “knowledge workers”…. That’s foresight. Druckerhad a lot to say about nonprofits too, especially toward the end. Unfortunately he died before it was clear what role online social networks would play in giving regular people a way to be involved in the work of nonprofits. But his message about nonprofits is so inspiring. It’s a great reminder about the place of for-purpose organizations in our society today. And why we should be proud and confident in our engagement.Your causes can bring meaning and purpose to our lives. People want what you have!
David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising, was really good at engaging people. He launched his career as a door to door stove salesman and did so well the company asked him to write a guide for other salespeople. 30 years later FORTUNE called the “the finest sales instruction manual ever written.”Later on, David Ogilvy had to retrain his staff. He said the nature of engagement is the opposite of what most marketers and advertisers think. It’s not about getting people to care about a product. It’s about helping people you care about see which products are best for them. Those who involve volunteers for a living may already know this. They know that the challenge is not really to get volunteers to care about your mission. Instead, it’s about helping them to see how being involved in your organization is a great way for them to express their care.When you care about your volunteers and their interests, you are interested in them. And this motivates you to help them see all the ways in which their interests align with yours
So these guys are united by a shared interest in a cause. But they aren’t the same. They have different motivations, which is the delicious tension of engaging volunteers. They’ve all recognized a need and committed to addressing it. Some are specialists who do it for a living. We call these nonprofit professionals. Others drop in on the cause when and how then can. We call these supporters, donors, volunteers, board members, and so on. Your brand, also known as your mission or your purpose, is the tie that connects.
Giving time is fundamentally different from giving money. Donor engagement can be all about tapping into concern about the cause. But engagingtime and talent is all about commitment to obtaining a great fit… not just between a person and a cause but between a person and a team of people too.Very often it’s real people working side by side with real people. So communicating from a personal perspective is ESPECIALLY critical in volunteer engagement.
This is from some of our own research. It’s a bit dated, but you can see some interesting trends around skills and ages. In blue, older adults tend to want to volunteer their skills more than other age groups. In orange, younger adults want to volunteer to develop new skills more than other age groups. And in greenish, everyone wants to meet others and get involved in the community at roughly the same rate. And these are just the big slices. In reality everyone has their own motivations.
This is important to remember. Despite the complexity of the landscape where volunteer related conversations are taking place, volunteering in about humans working with other humans. So it will be you who are at center of the conversation pyramid.
Of course, being human doesn’t mean abandoning good brand management principles. Your brand guidelines, key messages and visual asset library should all accommodate volunteer engagement needs in an online world. And if not, meet with your communications folks and make sure they have this covered.
Story is your spark. From movies, to books, to restaurant reviews, story telling is at the heart of all great content strategy. Whether from word, text, or image, humans are endowed with incredible ability to extract information and produce meaning from stories. Pretty much any content, presented as a well-formed story, will resonate. But there are two types of stories that resonate most of all: stories of transformation and stories of solving problems. Lucky for you, these are really the same story… the Journey. Here are some other common journey stories:An organization’s annual report - The story of one organization’s journey over 365 days toward its mission. A volunteering review on VolunteerMatch.org - The journey of a volunteer with high expectations toward a place of knowledge.A collection of snapshots from a fundraising gala - The journey of a bunch of important donors towards a place of connectedness.A press release about a new corporate sponsor - The journey of organizations from different sectors toward a place of alignment. A case study about a failed program - The journey of recognition of limitations.
What they all have in common is Change. Things are changing, and this is how and why. That’s basically the story. For those who engage volunteers, helping volunteers to see these outcomes as clearly as possible is so important. That’s because the commitment to volunteer time is so personal… the change starts within and radiates.Great stories of volunteering demonstrate: “Here’s how you will change. Here’s how we will change. Here’s how the community will change.”Stories of change and impact help us do that. They are the message of of volunteer engagement.
What’s the Volunteer’s Story?The volunteer is a hero. Like all stories, the hero story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Great engagers know where their volunteers are in their stories and they help them to advance to the end. Instigation points sound like this:“The hiking trails were in terrible shape. Anyone know a charity that’s working to fix them up?”“My friend wants me to come along to the clean up. Should I do it?”Obstacle points sound like this:“I’m tired of getting up every Saturday to serve breakfast to the homeless. I want my weekends back.”“Just getting them to return my emails so I could get approval on designs has been a nightmare.”“I’m just not sure I’m getting much out of it.”Achievement slides sound like this:“Just seeing their faces light up was amazing.”“it was the toughest thing I’ve ever done, but I learned so much.”“I’ve met so many great people.”
Of course, you have a role to play too. Here’s where you fit in. Engaging during Instigation sounds like this:“We have an awesome event lined up! Join us!”“Who likes pizza and making a difference?”“This is opportunity to learn new skills and help a great organization. “Engaging to overcome Obstacles sounds like this:“OK, everyone, here’s the plan for today.”“We still need a few people to make the clean up a success.”“Things went slow today but you did great work. Now we need to come back to finish the job. I’ll be back in touch with details.”Engaging to facilitate and celebrate Achievement sounds like this:“Don’t forget to bring a camera, everyone!”“We posted the video of the completed mural on Youtube.”“I’m sharing an awesome note the school just sent us.”Your job is to help the volunteer see where they are in their story and help move them along to achievement… a pretty important plot device.
Lastly, communicate the story, not the program. Both these images could illustrate how volunteers supported an affordable housing build. But they say completely different things. Stories are fluid. They have protagonists. They are evolving. They have drama. How will this play out? Programs, on the other hand, are about parts. Stories are always greater than the sum of the parts.
Now that you know how to identify great volunteer stories, it’s time to collect and curate them. Curation. It sounds like some kind of the 21st century lifestyle jobs. And yet, for tens of thousands of organizations that work with volunteers, curating and collecting experiences has become a really important thing. In a digital age memories don’t just happen… they’re developed.
Where will your memories live? Who will have access to them? Will volunteers submit their own content and stories? Will your content be public or private to volunteers? Which platforms do all of this best? There are loads of resources out there on this, but in most cases you’re going to want to invest most of your time and attention at the center of this map… especially if you’re looking to use volunteer stories to engage the general public. Most likely you’ll want to be where big audiences are likely to be. Of course, every organization is different.
Here are some things you can do to do ensure you get the story. Don’t forget to think about releases too.
In some cases you’ll be curating your collection. In other cases you’ll be more hands off. Wherever you decide to tell the story, remember that your Website or blog (and in some cases Facebook page) is your social heart.
That’s why you need to make sure your volunteer engagement pathways are well developed. Jayne Cravens, one of my favorite advocates for volunteer engagement on the web, even goes so far as to talk about things that you MUST have on your site if you want to encourage volunteer engagement. Let’s ask who in this room has these 3 MUSTS covered.
Frequency? We don’t need to spend much time on this slide. Let’s just say there’s a sweet spot out there, and it’s your job to eventually find it. This is a place where your analytics and measurement tools will be critical. Frequency isn’t really something you can ask about… but you can measure performance and reach, and then see what happens when you do more or less of what you’ve already been doing.
Here are some tips that will up your odds of generating shares.
Now that we know how to interpret the brand, how to find and share elements of the volunteering story, and how to write actionable and flexible content… it’s time to do your job. Let’s see about how bring all to bear on volunteer engagement, a function that’s often overlooked in social media.
AtVolunteerMatch we tend to boil much of the work of volunteer engagement into 3 Rs, recruitment, retention, recognition. Perhaps we should add a 4th… reductive The shorthand doesn’t really matters. What matters is:Developing a relationship that will lead to a cycle of regular, long term or episode service. Making it easy for volunteers to share their experiences, engage positively with other volunteers, and use word of mouth to inspire others... That is, to actually be a partner in the 3 Rs.Let’s see if we identify which functions are on display in this series of examples.
This is Linkedin’s Volunteer and Causes field. By encouraging volunteers to fill out their professional profiles with their volunteering experiences, two things are happening:The volunteer is being recognized…The volunteer is helping the nonprofit to recruit. Awesome!
Photos of a volunteer appreciation dinner, uploaded and shared in a Facebook Fan Page. By showcasing great volunteers it only makes other volunteers want to do the same. And, it makes the evening a better memory. The volunteer is being recognized…The volunteer is helping the nonprofit to recruit.
Here’s a video about howOxfam volunteers are helping to fight hunger ion the organization’s Youtube channel. Again, by showcasing great volunteers it only makes other volunteers want to do the same. The volunteer is being recognized…The volunteer is helping the nonprofit to recruitYou may be starting to see a trend here. Social media can help you tackle multuple aspects of volunteer engagement at all once.
I love lovelove this one. Give Kids The World found out this couple was volunteering while on their honeymoon to Florida. Score! A great story about how a busy couple is working to create traditions of meaning in a busy world.
Putting a face on the program… who we help and who you can help when you volunteer.
Showing the awesome outcome of great volunteers.
Photos can easily be pinned or commented on no matter where they are. In this case, Samaritan’s Purse added this evocative image. The story is how on earth will all this stuff get processed? That’s why I love the comment from Penny, really, putting a human face on things.
And of course, the humble blog post, thanking volunteers for coming out and being involved. Blogs are great because you can do so much with them.
The funny thing is you don’t really need to do much. So often we talk about big organizations like Humane Society or Red Cross, or else nimble social media rockstars like Charity Water. Most organizations aren’t cut from this cloth, nor do they need to be to do good work. Here’s a nice package from an organization up in Portland, Friends of the Trees. In 2011, their 22nd year, Friends of the Trees engaged 3,700 volunteers in order to plant 29,500 trees in 9 cities. That’s 30,000 hours of volunteer time. This is an organization with a budget of just over $1 million.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.
I like their approach for a lot of reasons. It’s realisticIt’s active – they are trying stuffThey are using their website properly in conjunction with their social media networks. The content is positive and on message.