How much effort do you put into recruiting returning volunteers and getting your volunteers to recruit their friends?  By far the lowest cost and most efficient way to recruit volunteers is to retain volunteers from year to year and get those volunteers to refer their friends.  Form my years of providing technical assistance to VITA organizations, they are often failing to articulate volunteer renewal and referral strategies and don’t put enough energy and resources behind these efforts.

In this post, I will focus on renewal and follow-up with a post on generating referrals.  I am distinguishing renewal from volunteer retention which I consider year-round efforts to delight your volunteers that put you in position for successful renewal.  If you are not delighting your volunteers during the rest of the year, renewal will be very challenging.

Renewal Strategies:

1. Have at least three times as filing season approaches that you make discreet appeals to last year’s volunteers to volunteer again, below are examples of timing.
   • When you start registering volunteers for the season
   • When volunteer training begins
   • When it is the last chance to train before the season

Note: Three appeals are the minimum. Most programs communicate with their volunteers too little and not too much.

2. At least once (again a minimum), appeal to former volunteer who did not volunteer last year. The clear majority of active volunteers from one year who do not renew the following year indicate scheduling demands from their personal or work life was the reason they did not volunteer. These factors change from year to year. An email saying, “We want you back” can bring back some great experienced volunteers.

3. Engage your site leaders in encouraging their volunteers to renew
   • Draft an email they can easily forward to their volunteers
   • Provide a contact list of their volunteers from last year
   • Consider reimbursing or otherwise supporting a preseason social gathering

4. Create some benefits for being a returning volunteer, some examples follow.
   • Give returning volunteers a chance register for sites and training first
   • Reserve some training and site slots for returning volunteers only
   • Host a returning volunteer cocktail party
   • Have streamlined training for returning volunteers
   • Provide opportunities for deeper engagement and specialized training

The import thing is that you articulate your volunteer renewal plan and put resources both staffing and financial behind that plan.  A small investment in generating renewal will pay big dividends for your program.