It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Acts 15:19

A nonprofit is about building a community and seeing it thrive. It’s impossible to build a community if you don’t include the community in the process. It sounds so easy, until a senior leader at a nonprofit is considering hiring a volunteer manager or looking at software products to find a way to keep volunteers engaged and informed.

Volunteers are hard to find, and even harder to keep. Showing them appreciation and keeping them on the email lists is an easy first step. And, more steps could follow: treating them to a volunteer appreciation event, using their talents in a unique way, or guiding them to a staff or board member role. All of those options for next steps take time and effort, for the nonprofit and the volunteer. 

Therefore, some nonprofits try to vet the wheat from the chaff from the get-go. They have applications, forms, and other mechanisms to determine how serious the volunteer will be about keeping their word. Training, introductions, and commitment forms may be involved. Those aren’t bad tools, but do they exclude the people with passion who could do something amazing for the community?

In Acts, it’s recorded to make it easy for people to get to know God better. Exclusivity and stiff-arming didn’t seem part of God’s plan to reach out to everyone with the good news. The “us vs. them” mentality washed away under grace. Could this lesson be applied to volunteers? If your volunteer program runs smoothly, then you’ve unlocked what works well for your nonprofit. If you’re lacking volunteers, consider the steps and paces you put them through when they sign up.

Perhaps it will take more time and effort to get to know those who want to volunteer better. Perhaps they will self-select to no longer volunteer if it’s clearly not God’s will. However, it could be that some nonprofits make it hard for people to become volunteers because they are looking at their current superstar volunteers who learned how to become a superstar volunteer and expect the same from their new volunteers. The amount of steps limits the number of people because a standard has to be reached.

Removing steps to becoming a volunteer (beyond any legal needs, like background checks for those working with protected classes or children) could increase the amount of volunteers. As that volunteer becomes more familiar with the organization, they may ask where they can be of most value, which makes the organization and the community better. How to get more volunteers is about removing steps and increasing potential. 

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© 2023, Mollie Bond. All rights reserved. Originally published at www.molliebond.org.