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Convert Volunteers to Donors

It’s no secret that social good organizations rely on volunteers and donors to achieve their mission. However, not all organizations are aware of how the value of volunteers stacks up against donors. The value of a volunteer who donates is on average ten times higher than an individual who solely donates. What’s more, this statistic excludes the value of a volunteer’s time, which sits at roughly $28.54 per hour according to Independent Sector. All of this data underscores the benefits to be had by carefully stewarding your volunteers and encouraging them to donate.


Conversion

Today’s volunteers expect to be in the driver’s seat of their engagement with your brand and organization. Crafting their experience requires that you focus on volunteers’ preferences and the causes they are trying to support by interacting with you. There are simple and intuitive strategies every organization can pursue to support their volunteers. Here are just a few:

Designate a section of your website to volunteering. We know you’ll have that “Donate” button on your homepage, and a “Volunteer” or “How can I get involved?” tab shouldn’t be too far away. If you don’t already have one, consider creating a unique landing page for volunteer opportunities. Consider segmenting these opportunities by user attributes like individual volunteering or group volunteering.

Send out personalized communications for your volunteers. Perhaps you feature volunteer opportunities in a monthly newsletter, but you can go a step further by sending out a special list to your volunteers with opportunities around special events like an end-of-year campaign or annual gala.

Survey your volunteers. Just wrapped up a service event? Follow up with participants to ask how their service went, what types of opportunities they’d like to attend in the future, how they can get further involved, and possibly even give.


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