What Are the Biggest Barriers to Volunteer Engagement (And How to Overcome Them)?

What Are the Biggest Barriers to Volunteer Engagement (And How to Overcome Them)?

Volunteer engagement is critical to your nonprofit’s mission. Without engaged volunteers, you won’t be able to staff your events, run your programs, or provide much-needed services to your beneficiaries. However, volunteer engagement also presents a major stumbling block for many volunteer coordinators.

So, what are the most common barriers to volunteer engagement, and how can nonprofits overcome them? In this article, we’ll provide practical advice for how to turn your volunteer engagement strategies from a stumbling block into a strength—boosting satisfaction, retention, and impact along the way!

What is Volunteer Engagement, and Why is It Important?

Volunteer engagement refers to an individual’s ongoing involvement with your organization. Engaged volunteers regularly respond to communication, attend events, and sign up for and complete volunteering shifts. Simply put, volunteer engagement is what allows your nonprofit to actually make an impact.

When you prioritize volunteer engagement, you will see ripple effects throughout your entire organization. Volunteer engagement is important because:

• • You have invested time, money, and energy into each of your volunteers, and engaged volunteers provide the strongest ROI.
  • Enthusiastic volunteers are more productive and produce higher quality work, expanding your organizational impact and enhancing experiences for donors, beneficiaries, community members, and even other volunteers.
  • Better volunteer engagement directly leads to better volunteer retention, less turnover, and increased volunteer-to-donor conversion rates.
  • Engaged volunteers act as ambassadors for your organization: raising awareness, improving your community reputation, and recruiting new volunteers, donors, sponsors, and supporters.

Volunteer engagement is the most important part of the volunteer lifecycle, so your nonprofit cannot afford to ignore it.

The Most Common Barriers to Volunteer Engagement

Every organization wants to cultivate strong volunteer engagement; however, many struggle to mobilize their volunteer base. Let’s take a look at some of the most common barriers to volunteer engagement and discover actionable ways to overcome them.

1. Lack of Awareness

The first barrier to volunteer engagement is deceptively simple: lack of awareness. If an individual doesn’t know that your organization exists or that it offers exciting volunteer opportunities, they cannot work with you.

So, how can nonprofits make volunteer opportunities easier to find? The answer is careful marketing campaigns targeted toward your ideal volunteers. Build a multi-pronged strategy, including:

• • An optimized online presence. Help potential volunteers find your organization with an SEO-optimized, up-to-date website. Build specific landing pages geared towards recruitment that highlight available positions, professional development opportunities, and current volunteer success stories. Then, include clear calls to action so that when a new recruit discovers you, it’s easy for them to sign up. You can also leverage Google Ad grants to help drive extra traffic.
  • Active social media accounts. Social media gives people all over the world the chance to organically discover your organization—if you use it properly. Develop engaging photo, video, and text content that resonates with your ideal volunteer. Make sure to post consistently across a variety of social media platforms to maximize your reach.
  • Community outreach. Get in contact with businesses, civic organizations, and schools and universities in your area; you will likely find a pool of enthusiastic talent to draw from. You can also leverage local news, radio, and journalism to reach individuals right in your area. And never underestimate the impact of a good, old-fashioned flyer!
  • Leverage peer-to-peer connection. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing strategy. Let your volunteers know whenever you are starting a recruitment campaign, and encourage them to refer their friends and family, share your social media posts, and invite people to events.

With a little bit of marketing know-how, you can find enthusiastic, talented individuals who are excited about joining your organization.

2. Complicated Onboarding Processes

Finding a new recruit is just the beginning of the volunteer engagement process. In order for an individual to be active with your organization, you need to get them successfully onboarded. Onboarding presents a critical moment when many individuals fall off, so it’s important to consider what makes volunteer sign-up easier for new participants.

Use these best practices to streamline volunteer onboarding:

• • Landing pages. Create onboarding-specific landing pages with links to training materials, organizational policies, sign-ups, and forms.
  • Online forms. Instead of fumbling with paper liability waivers, intake forms, and volunteer placement surveys, host all of your forms online through a secure volunteer management software solution.
  • Mobile access. Look for mobile device-friendly platforms that allow your volunteers to complete forms and sign up for shifts on-the-go.

The easier you make it for volunteers to get started with your organization, the more engaged they will be.

3. Limited Training and Support

In order for a volunteer to be active with your organization, they have to know what is expected of them. Why is training important for volunteer engagement? Well-trained volunteers are 83% more likely to stay with your organization, so comprehensive training and ongoing support are crucial, both in the short- and long-term.

Make sure your volunteer training program has:

• • An overview of your organization’s mission, goals, and values
  • A volunteer handbook that outlines important policies and processes
  • Detailed role descriptions and clearly defined volunteer expectations
  • Ongoing support options, including mentorship programs and office hours

Robust training structures ensure that volunteers always feel prepared and supported!

4. Scheduling Conflicts and Time Constraints

Even if your volunteers want to be more engaged, their schedules can make it harder for them to get involved with your organization. So, how can nonprofits help busy people volunteer?

Build flexibility into your program so that you can accommodate as many schedules as possible. Consider offering:

• • Virtual volunteering shifts
  • Micro-volunteering opportunities
  • Shorter shifts at varied times of the day/week
  • Family-friendly volunteer positions and childcare
  • Easy online self-scheduling

If you go the extra mile to help your volunteers fit your nonprofit into their schedules, you will maximize their ability to contribute to your organization.

5. Poor Communication

How does communication impact volunteer engagement? Volunteers disengage when they don’t know what your organization is up to or what is expected of them, and they also disengage when their inbox gets overwhelmed with messages. That means that effective communication is key to volunteer engagement.

You can improve your approach to volunteer communication by:

• • Targeting your messages to specific, relevant volunteer segments.
  • Giving each message a clear purpose and considering the best medium for conveying it (i.e., text, email, in-person, etc.)
  • Using automated communication options for time-sensitive messages, like shift reminders, thank you notes, and feedback surveys.
  • Responding to volunteer messages in a timely manner.
  • Making it easy for volunteers to ask questions by providing contact information for organizational leadership, office hours, and proactive check-ins.

Remember, communication is a two-way street. Prioritize your volunteers and their needs every time you reach out, and make sure that they have a way to get in contact with you, too.

6. Feeling Undervalued

Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization, but they don’t always realize how much they matter to your nonprofit. Nothing motivates continued volunteer engagement more than feeling appreciated, so it’s important to show volunteers how much they mean to you.

What are the best ways to recognize volunteers? Try these techniques:

• • Personalized thank you messages
  • Incentives and points-based rewards systems that gamify the volunteering experience
  • Volunteer appreciation events
  • Social media shout-outs and newsletter features
  • Opportunities for professional development
  • Leadership roles within your organization
  • Gathering and implementing volunteer feedback
  • Sharing volunteer impact data

When you foster a culture of recognition, volunteers are more engaged, productive, and satisfied!

Boost Engagement with VolunteerHub

No matter what barriers your organization is facing, VolunteerHub can help improve your approach to volunteer engagement. Our comprehensive volunteer management platform has helped manage billions of volunteer hours, and we have the insider experience to boost your engagement levels.

VolunteerHub makes it fun and easy for individuals to get involved with your organization. Our advanced features like personalized landing pages, automated communication, customizable user groups, check-in kiosks, and software integration streamline every step of the volunteer lifecycle.

Request a demo today to learn how VolunteerHub can help you create a more engaging, inclusive volunteer experience.

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