Volunteers are key to delivering the work done by many non profits in the UK. We’ve created a guide to help you make the most of your volunteers. Keeping volunteers engaged happy and effective in their work will benefit your project as well as your volunteers.
Strategies for engaging volunteers – the 6 Cs
Volunteers can bring so much value – time, passion, energy and expertise. And they can gain a huge amount through volunteering too – community, purpose, experience. It’s a two-way relationship and it’s important to recognise that by deciding to work with volunteers you are committing to supporting those individuals.
Your volunteers will stick around and work well if they feel:
- connected to the project, team and service users – Connection
- clear on their work, involved and heard – Communication
- that their work is useful, effective and well-managed – Coordination
- cared for, looked after, and have their needs met – Care
- acknowledged and appreciated – Celebration
- heard and embedded in the project – Co-creation
This guide is full of tips and advice on how you can do this.
It was put together using the lived experience and practical advice from community projects in the ActionFunder network, the ActionFunder team and partner organisation Business Under Development (BUD).
