'Newbie' Volunteers

‘Newbie’ Volunteers

July 27, 2021 in

As we all know, attracting new volunteers to help with your fundraising can be a bit of a challenge (if you need some tip on how, check out this article too). A serious don’t for dealing with ‘newbies’, however, is to latch onto them in desperation and burden them with great responsibility before they are ready or appreciate what they are committing to.

If you do make this mistake, word will surely spread and you will find it difficult to recruit volunteers in the future.

Take an interested newbie out for a coffee, find out what their capacity it, what their interests and strengths are, and see if they have any picture in their head of what their volunteering will look like. Even if you don’t come up with the opportunity straight away, the ‘call’ when it does happen will be well received.

So when welcoming the newbies, make sure you settle them into their volunteering stint slowly, giving them smaller tasks to start with which will help them to relax into their volunteering role. Playing ‘wing-man’ to a more experienced volunteer is a great way to do this. Increase their responsibilities only when they are ready and able.

This approach requires planning, but encourages you to recruit for new positions with plenty of transition time.

Originally published: June 13, 2013