Tips for communicating with volunteers

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Last week I was asked for some insight into volunteer communication on the back of my involvement with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). I have been working with CIPR for a number of years and leading the internal communications group has given me some understanding of what to consider when communicating and engaging a network of volunteers.

These were the tips I shared and I’d be interested to hear from anyone working with volunteers who can share any further tips or advice for those communicating and engaging with this stakeholder group:

  • There will be different roles for the volunteers, so understanding them and their level of engagement with the centre is important
  • Be clear about what is a must do, nice to do and completely optional. Volunteers have limited time so it is good to know what is required
  • Recognise their contribution – whether this is doing something in-kind or having an event for them – make sure they feel valued
  • Give them plenty of notice – provide key dates and minimal information and then more detail closer to the date – the more notice they have to plan things the better
  • If the volunteers work together, explore running a workshop for them to discuss their purpose/reason for volunteering and then sharing a common goal and ways to share information and ideas – either with an online platform
  • Explore a suite of channels for them – just like you would for employees – they might want a regular newsletter of information that is specific to volunteers separate from other employee comms
  • Have clear guidelines available for them when they join – what is expected in terms of time etc. and provide a clear structure of meetings/touchpoints with the centre

What would you add to the list?

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Join our community

Subscribe to join our community and we’ll be in touch with helpful advice and updates about how we can take your organisation from chaos to calm. Our community gets invited to a quarterly 90-minute Ask Me Anything online session with Jenni Field, as well as early access to events, discounts and research.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.