COMMUNITY EVENTS
Hosting a community event for your staff and volunteers is a great way to thank your team for their hard work, while also helping them build relationships with each other. In particular, thanking volunteers is an important way to help them feel celebrated and to encourage them to stay involved with your organization. A celebratory event doesn’t necessarily need a big budget - there are many small actions that you can take to recognize your team.
Below are some ideas to consider to help plan an event:
INCLUDE SEMI-STRUCTURED EVENTS TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER
Fostering community within your volunteers can help them feel more connected to each other, as well as to the organization itself. Having a team of people who feel comfortable around each other can also lead to a better work environment, which can lead to a better environment for your organization’s clients, too. Consider using name tags with fun facts about each volunteer, or games at each table, to encourage bonding.
GIVE A CREATIVE GIFT
If you have the budget for it, consider giving out shirts, tote bags, or other organization merch! Other creative gifts can include things like a community recipe book, where you source recipes from staff and volunteers and put together a simple homemade book.
RECOGNIZE STANDOUT VOLUNTEERS
Award volunteers who have gone above and beyond to help your organization. If you have a smaller group of volunteers, consider giving out fun unique awards (or Paper Plate Awards) to each volunteer!
PLAN A NIGHT OUT
Get tickets to the movies or a local sports game - some events may have discounted group rates or special rates for nonprofits. This is a great way to show your appreciation without hosting an event in your own space. Even something as simple as meeting up in a park to play kickball or sit and have a picnic can help bring people together outside of work.
SHARE SKILLS OUTSIDE OF VOLUNTEERING
Many of your volunteers have skills and practices they do outside of their volunteering. This could include cooking, creating artwork, music, knitting/crochet work, sculpting, and more. Some of them may do this for a living, or it might just be something they do for fun for themselves. But finding a way to share this amongst the volunteer and client community can help bring people together.
Consider running a seasonal market to let them sell their goods, create a community cookbook of recipes, host an art show either in the hallways or in a community space, and more. If you host an art gallery, you can have an opening night and invite musicians to play a song or writers to share poetry, spoken word, or a short story. You can also invite your clients to participate as well, which can help your volunteers understand them as people with rich inner lives, rather than simply people who need their help.
ACKNOWLEDGE VOLUNTEERS WHO ARE LEAVING
Volunteers won’t be around forever, but many still can make an impact on their peers and clients in a short period of time. If the volunteer gives notice of their departure, try to plan a small acknowledgement ceremony to celebrate the work they’ve done. This can be as simple as addressing it in a newsletter or on social media, or bringing in snacks and saying a few words at the start of their shift. Consider if your clients may want to be involved as well and how to notify them their delivery person is going to change, or that a friendly face in the cafeteria will no longer be there. The people who make up your community will always be changing, but it is nice to acknowledge and reflect on these shifts, and get excited for the new volunteers to come.