5 Tips to Engage Volunteers in Major Campaign Fundraising

A major nonprofit campaign, like a comprehensive or capital campaign, requires all hands on deck. If your organization is about to launch a campaign, you may have realized that your staff alone isn’t a large enough workforce to reach your goals. Volunteers can provide the helping hands you need, accelerating your organization’s impact during a campaign. 

Volunteers already play a significant role in fundraising—according to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 85% of volunteers donate to the nonprofits they volunteer for. With the tips in this guide, you can strategically turn volunteer fundraising interest into dedicated support for your campaign.

Let’s explore five ways to recruit and engage volunteers to help carry your major campaigns across the finish line. 

Use Predictive Analytics to Identify Prospective Volunteers

BWF’s predictive AI guide defines predictive analysis as “a type of artificial intelligence that uses data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to anticipate future outcomes based on past data trends.” 

To help recruit volunteers to join your major campaign efforts, create a predictive model to identify prospective volunteers who are most likely to be interested in the initiative. Here’s what that process looks like: 

1. Clean up the data in your volunteer management system. AI solutions require accurate, complete data to produce helpful, relevant insights. Before creating a predictive model, ensure your volunteer database is updated and organized. Identify and correct issues, such as duplicate entries, incomplete information, and outdated personal details. 
2. Run a predictive analysis to identify the best prospective campaign volunteers. Working with a professional fundraising consultant if necessary, create a predictive model to evaluate the data in your volunteer database. The model should evaluate criteria such as whether someone has volunteered with your organization in the past, their current giving level, and any relevant skills they have. Then, it should make recommendations for the best prospective volunteers to get in touch with. 
3. Reach out to prospects with personalized invitations to get involved. As you create these invitations, remember to treat AI solutions as assistants in your volunteer recruitment efforts—not full replacements. Customize your invitations to prospective volunteers by including any personal details you know about them. For example, you could send a note saying, “Dear Elizabeth, As one of our most dedicated event volunteers, we know we can always count on you to support our mission. We wanted to reach out with a personal invitation to explore our open campaign volunteer opportunities.” 

With predictive modeling, you can focus your volunteer recruitment efforts on supporters most likely to be interested in your opportunities. As a result, you’ll boost your volunteer outreach return on investment (ROI) and find volunteers with the passion, skills, and dedication to facilitate your campaign’s activities. 

Clearly Explain Your Goals and Volunteers’ Roles in Your Efforts

Potential volunteers need to know what they’re getting into before agreeing to join your campaign efforts. Give prospects all the necessary information by taking these steps: 

• Define your fundraising objectives. Let volunteers know the scope of your campaign, including your fundraising goal and projected timeline. 
• Explain the campaign tactics you’ll be using. Describe the strategies you’ll use to reach your fundraising goals, such as a combination of direct major donor outreach, events, and crowdfunding. 
• Describe volunteers’ roles and responsibilities. Outline where volunteers will lend support, whether via event planning and management, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate outreach, etc. Also, ensure prospective volunteers understand if they will be expected to donate to your campaign. 

Volunteers will feel more motivated when they understand how their work fits into your organization’s larger mission. Provide information on expected impact, such as how many beneficiaries will be helped because of the campaign, to help volunteers visualize their positive effect. 

Match Volunteers to the Right Fundraising Roles

Finding the right roles for every volunteer offers win-win benefits. Volunteers feel more fulfilled and comfortable in roles that suit their talents and interests, and your organization benefits from skilled support and higher volunteer retention rates. 

For example, let's say you’re creating a volunteer task force to help push your annual fund campaign forward. As part of this effort, you may need volunteers to take on tasks like: 

• Leading other volunteers
• Communications/community advocacy
• Event planning/hosting
• Networking/major donor cultivation
• Corporate partnerships 

To find the right fit, send volunteers a survey asking what skills they have and which positions they’re most interested in. Then, offer customized training sessions tailored to each role so volunteers have the unique insights they need to fulfill their roles effectively. 

For example, your training sessions for communications volunteers can focus on presenting your case for support as compellingly as possible. On the other hand, corporate partnership volunteers can practice identifying prospective sponsors for your campaign. 

Facilitate Open Communication

Transparent, frequent communication will help keep volunteers informed and motivated to reach your campaign goals. Make them feel included and supported at every step of the process by using these strategies to facilitate open communication: 

• Give volunteers the resources they need to communicate about your campaign effectively. Most volunteer campaign roles will probably involve communicating with others about your organization’s mission in some capacity. Equip volunteers with the tools they need to do so effectively by providing them with key talking points, your case for support, and supplemental marketing materials, such as flyers, pamphlets, or personalized donation pages.
• Meet with volunteers regularly to keep them informed, answer questions, and maintain momentum. Schedule virtual meetings over Zoom or Google Meet to align with your volunteer team on an ongoing basis. During these check-ins, answer questions, troubleshoot fundraising roadblocks, and spotlight volunteer successes. 
• Provide frequent campaign progress updates. Maintain volunteer motivation by providing ongoing campaign updates. Use a fundraising thermometer to show your progress. Make volunteers feel appreciated by having your nonprofit’s executive director personally deliver updates and words of encouragement. 
• Use volunteers’ preferred communication channels to stay in touch. Ask volunteers to identify their communication preferences when they first sign up. Use multiple channels, including email, text, and social media, to keep volunteers informed. 

Make sure volunteers have a way to contact your organization at any time to resolve any issues they may have. For example, let’s say an event planning volunteer is having trouble securing an affordable venue for an upcoming auction event. A more experienced volunteer or event-planning staff member can step in to offer guidance and support for reaching out to venues and finding a good fit for the event’s budget. 

Celebrate Volunteer Success

Engaging with and stewarding volunteers successfully can drive your current campaign to success and help you retain volunteers the next time you need their support. 

Acknowledging and celebrating volunteers’ successes is one of the best ways to make them feel appreciated and valued. Use volunteer meetings and an end-of-campaign volunteer appreciation event to highlight successes such as: 

• Fundraising wins, such as individuals who helped raise the most money for your campaign
• Event planning and management successes
• Commendable volunteer leadership or mentorship moments
• Highest number of volunteer hours served

eCardWidget’s volunteer appreciation guide recommends creating tangible recognition awards, such as trophies, medals, or certificates, so that volunteers “have something to bring home that symbolizes their hard work and connection to your nonprofit.” Offer additional tokens of appreciation, such as gift baskets, free merchandise, and gift cards, to show your sincere gratitude for their involvement.

Engaging with volunteers effectively increases the chances that they’ll stay involved with your organization for longer—perhaps even the entire length of your major campaign. Make volunteer engagement, stewardship, and retention a top priority throughout your campaign planning process to ensure you have the dedicated support you need to reach your fundraising objectives.

About the Author

James Barnard
Associate Managing Vice President of Annual Giving and Digital Marketing at BWF

James is an integral part of the team at the global fundraising consultancy at BWF. James uses his over 15 years of experience to help organizations build community and maximize their fundraising potential by optimizing their digital strategy and philanthropic marketing.

He has been active in CASE for years, serving as a conference speaker and CASE District III board member.

About BWF

We are your trusted partner across all philanthropic sectors, providing both consulting and services. BWF is committed to helping you build long-term capacity to achieve your goals.

As a firm, BWF continues to evolve and adapt as our organization, the workforce, the fundraising sector, and society changes. We embrace that this effort is an ongoing and dynamic process as we work to infuse a mindset of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into our culture.

Since 1983, nonprofits throughout the United States and across the globe have turned to BWF to empower philanthropy for their organizations. The impact we make today is thanks to years of growth, team building, strategic planning, service advancement, and pushing the envelope.