Shifting from Benefits to Mission: Inspiring Volunteer Engagement

If you have worked in a non-profit organization like a civic club or church that operates primarily with volunteers, you have no doubt participated in discussions (and lost sleep) over how to better recruit, why willing people are scarce (the 20/80 rule?), or why volunteers easily leave or fail to show up consistently. And you may find yourself circling back around to some generic answers to the same question you think potential prospects must obviously have: “what’s in it for me?” You then assemble a variation of the same list of ideas your organization has probably developed each year for the past 30 years – typically with the same insufficient and frustrating results. You conclude the answer, of course, must be benefits, right?

I imagine most people already know that the benefits of volunteering include fun, community, meet and make friends, free coffee, self-gratification for doing something good, fun, relationships, free pizza, positive public exposure, networking and of course more fun. But often there is only a glimpse of the actual result and impact of the volunteering effort itself contained in the messaging. It’s almost as if the purpose of your organization is an afterthought or some coincidental outcome that hopefully happens if you can just keep people satisfied, happy, and entertained.

Next someone probably develops a one-off pitch with printed materials highlighting the need for help and featuring the many personal “rewards” of getting involved. It maybe gets featured in some brief public announcement or more often couched in a passionate plea of desperation. Maybe there’s even a little shame, guilt, and a challenge to duty sprinkled in just to make the offer compelling.

The campaign might get pitched once or twice – maybe in conjunction with a fair or showcase event once every couple of years. Then it’s rarely talked about again until the next frustration cycle or crisis hits. This strategy is just not effective recruiting, is not enough, and even misdirected.

The honest answer to the question “What’s in it for me?” is simple …nothing. Absolutely Nothing! Volunteering, by definition after all, is not a transactional relationship for reward. Don’t make it one.

Stop selling the benefits. Instead get serious and creative about developing meaningful opportunities for others to live beyond their selves when attracting and onboarding new participants. Instead, paint a compelling picture of how this role matters to someone else. Impress how the role can fit into a bigger plan and significantly change the lives or circumstances of others. This must be a team effort. Get your entire organization on board with the messaging. Ignite a passion for the mission or cause, especially if you’re trying to develop a high performance team of volunteers. Unless it’s a simple group project that doesn’t recur, don’t “recruit” volunteers. [Are you leading a team or a group?] Instead, identify and enroll people into the best roles for the right reasons based on compelling vision. Discuss how the organizational mission or cause may have profoundly impacted them or someone they love. The process and message must remain ongoing since volunteer teams are naturally organic and continuously changing. The strategy needs to get baked into your organization’s language and culture.

Benefits will still be there. It’s not that the benefits don’t exist or are unimportant. In fact, they’re absolutely critical to get right and execute well – just don’t lead with them as the primary value of the effort. Don’t cheapen a noble call to action with gimmicks. You see, benefits focus is still transactional. Mission focus, on the other hand, is transformational. People who fall in love with the purpose and mission will still experience the friendships, community, and all the signs of appreciation you can facilitate and lavish on them. The encouragement texts, thank you notes, care calls, free coffee, motivational and team building events, personal helps, fun, even public exposure are very important to encouraging and retaining people. Nurture a community culture. The difference is that their heart and mind will be aligned with others around advancing a purposeful mission and they will more likely be deeply invested for the long haul. People who are solely in it for the transactional will consistently fail to show up once something more important, convenient, (or fun) comes up. Or when they get challenged by an operational adjustment, disappointed by some natural change in leadership, community, or experience a shift in their relationships with others.

Never lose sight of the fact that volunteering is a sacrifice, a gift, an offering of people’s time, heart, mind, and resources. (They don’t owe you or your organization anything.) No matter what the role is, it costs them something. It costs their family something. Don’t ever minimize or trivialize that, pretend it’s irrelevant, or take it for granted. Acknowledge and honor their effort. Because it matters …a lot.

It takes intentional effort and resources to communicate and ignite a passion for a worthwhile mission/cause and shift your focus from the transactional to the transformational power of inspiring and empowering volunteers. Volunteers are not “free labor” and building high-functional teams is not always easy or cheap. The strategy must be intentional, organizationally integrated, and ongoing.

Develop the kind of organization, mission, and team that others would cheerfully and willfully give their time – even if the role is hard and there were no rewards whatsoever. Imagine having a purpose so compelling and opportunities so significant and meaningful that people would line up at the door, take a number to be next, and arrange their personal schedules for even the chance to be involved. Yeah, it’s really hard but let’s shoot for that!