Volunteer

As a new non-profit, it’s expensive to hire employees and there’s always work that needs to be done. A robust and blended volunteer-employee teams that have an amazing impact on results.

Finding and keeping quality boards of directors is a perennial problem for executives. Board diversity is also an increasing concern as calls for greater equity resound throughout the world. The expansive social network that every volunteer brings with them, combined with their own lived experiences, can be rich sources for leadership potential. However, many nonprofits continue to look outside, rather than inside for talent.

Nonprofits such as Front Porch Cohousing must compete in a crowded marketplace with other organizations that may have overlapping missions and donor bases. In an increasingly digital world, it is particularly difficult to break through the noise without an effective marketing and communications strategy. The good news is that this work can be done remotely, from anywhere in the world. All a nonprofit need do is ask, and volunteers with the requisite skills are ready to help.

It’s unclear how individual giving will be affected by a looming recession, but why wait to find out? Volunteers can help development teams in a myriad of ways, both in raising awareness, sharing stories, making targeted asks, and giving themselves.

Like individual giving, organizations are concerned about keeping their donors happy, engaged, and giving. Donor loyalty of huge interest, and it should be. It is much more difficult to raise money from a stranger than it is from a friend. And, volunteers can play a part in retaining your valued supporters, as they understand on an intimate level what your nonprofit has achieved because they have often been part of the process.