Volunteers are some of your nonprofit’s most valuable supporters, dedicating their time and talents to further your mission. They also represent a prime group of potential donors. Since they already believe deeply in your cause and have positively responded to recruitment efforts, volunteers are naturally predisposed to support your organization financially—if you approach them correctly. The key is to build on their existing commitment and help them understand how their new financial contributions can further their impact.
In this guide, we’ll review how to persuade volunteers to support your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts—in addition to their volunteer support—by implementing a structured engagement pipeline, creating tailored marketing materials, and making the giving process as simple as possible.
1. Develop a Volunteer Engagement Pipeline
A structured volunteer engagement pipeline helps your nonprofit cultivate relationships over time, guiding volunteers toward a deeper involvement with your nonprofit and, eventually, financial contributions. A standardized approach helps ensure that volunteers remain engaged, appreciated, and more willing to make a monetary donation when the time is right.
An effective volunteer engagement pipeline includes the following key components:
- Identification: Determine which volunteers have the potential to become donors. Conduct prospect research to identify individuals based on wealth indicators and/or their level of dedication to your nonprofit. Analyze your information on each volunteer to help narrow your pool of potential donors.
- Cultivation: The potential donors should be placed into specific communication streams that deepen their engagement with your nonprofit. You might further personalize their involvement by offering special perks or experiences. For instance, if a volunteer helped run the hole-in-one contest at your charity golf tournament, consider sending them a commemorative item from the event to reinforce their connection to your organization (and further express your thanks!).
- Engagement: Offer this group of volunteers special leadership opportunities, such as a position on an advisory board or golf tournament planning team or invitations to exclusive networking events, to deepen their commitment to your nonprofit.
- Solicitation: When the timing is right, ask volunteers for their financial support. Frame the ask in a way that demonstrates how their contributions further the impact they’re already making as dedicated volunteers.
- Stewardship: Maintain strong relationships with these volunteers regardless of whether they donate. Continue providing meaningful engagement opportunities and show your appreciation. Continuing with the golf tournament example, you might designate special signage (similar to sponsor signs) thanking volunteers and publicly recognizing them for their dedication to the event and your organization.
2. Create Volunteer-Specific Marketing Materials
To effectively convert volunteers into donors, marketing materials should be tailored to be specific to volunteers’ unique experiences with your nonprofit. Volunteers likely have a deep emotional connection to your cause, so the right messaging can effectively strengthen that bond and demonstrate how a financial contribution can amplify their impact.
Use these strategies to develop volunteer-specific marketing materials:
- Understand your audience. Before you create any new collateral, you should have a comprehensive understanding of your audience of volunteers. Fifty & Fifty suggests segmenting your audience based on where they are in the marketing funnel. Volunteers are past the awareness stage and likely in the consideration stage, so your messaging should focus on encouraging a deeper commitment, rather than a basic introduction to your work. Use any demographic and psychographic data you’ve collected to help shape your marketing materials and messaging.
- Highlight the impact of their time. Demonstrate how a volunteer’s financial gift can improve the impact they’ve already made. Show metrics of how their volunteer hours translate into financial value and how a donation extends the impact. For example, if a volunteer hour is worth $25, you can explain how a $100 donation extends the impact of four additional volunteer hours.
- Speak to existing connections. Speak directly to the existing connections volunteers have with your nonprofit. Feature testimonials, photos, and videos that remind them of their experiences. For instance, if you’re trying to target volunteers who managed your golf tournament’s on-course games, include photos of them in action enjoying themselves on your marketing materials. Reminding them of the fun they had reinforces their bond with your organization.
- Test and optimize. Once you’ve created your customized marketing materials, use A/B testing and relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate which messaging and tactics resonate best with your volunteer audience. These metrics will help you refine and improve your approach over time.
3. Make Giving Simple
The easier it is for volunteers to give, the more likely they are to do so. To remove barriers and allow volunteers to give in a convenient way, make the process as streamlined and simple as possible.
These ideas can help make giving simple for volunteers:
- Leverage corporate philanthropy opportunities. Educate volunteers about employer-sponsored giving programs, like volunteer grants or matching gifts. With volunteer grants, employers donate money to nonprofits where their employees volunteer a certain number of hours. Matching gifts can double the volunteer’s impact, so invite them to check with their employer to see if they will match their donation (with little to no effort required by the volunteer).
- Offer user-friendly donation options. Provide simple, tech-savvy ways to give, such as text-to-give, which allows volunteers to donate via text message, or online donation forms, which should provide a streamlined checkout and a mobile-friendly design. Both options make the donation process quick, effortless, and easily accessible.
- Customize giving pathways. Offer many different ways to give so volunteers can choose what suits them best. This might include a one-time donation, recurring donations, or planned giving contributions.
Final Thoughts
These strategies can help your nonprofit seamlessly convert volunteers into donors, allowing them to contribute in ways that feel meaningful and manageable to them. Throughout the entire process, it’s essential to show your appreciation for your volunteers, whether their contributions come in the form of a monetary donation or their time. By fostering deeper connections, offering personalized messaging, and simplifying the giving process, your nonprofit can successfully transform volunteers into donors for long-term support for your mission.