How to Involve Volunteers in Your Fundraising Program

By Joanne Oppelt and Linda Lysakowski

If you're like most nonprofit fundraisers, you probably involve volunteers in running your special events, and perhaps involving them in the office to stuff envelopes and do other clerical duties.

Did you know you could be raising a lot more money each year by involving volunteers in ALL your fundraising activities? Yes, we sa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanne Oppelt Consulting, LLC
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781951978129

Joanne Oppelt

During Joanne Oppelt's 30+ years working in the nonprofit arena, she has held positions from volunteer to executive director in both small and large organizations. Integrating fundraising with strategic planning, marketing, operations, and financial systems, she builds up organizational revenue streams, creating sustainable funding structures. Her extensive background puts her in a unique position to understand the challenges nonprofit leaders face-both internally and externally. As principal of Joanne Oppelt Consulting, LLC, she specializes in helping nonprofits improve their ROI and realize continuous net surpluses. She currently provides consulting services, multi-module online courses with private coaching, person-to-person fundraising advice, annual summits, virtual get-togethers, and weekly newsletters.The creator of The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System and co-creator of the Nonprofit Quick Guide series, Joanne is the author of six books and coauthor of fourteen. She has taught at Kean University and is a highly sought-after speaker and presenter. She holds a master's degree in health administration and a bachelor's degree in education, with a minor in psychology. She can be reached at [e-mail] or through her website www.joanneoppeltcourses.com.

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Chapter One

Expanding Your View of Volunteers in Fundraising

Your organization may already use volunteers in your program activities and/or to help with clerical work, but you can also involve volunteers in your fundraising program. Volunteers can play a critical role in fundraising, working along with the board and staff. The key is learning how to recruit the right volunteers for the right job and provide these volunteers with the tools they need to be effective fundraisers.

Volunteers can be some of the best advocates for your organization. Your ability to recruit volunteer fundraisers can help lend credibility among your constituents by showing that community members are enthusiastic about and committed to your organization.

Some Key Concepts for Involving Volunteers as Fundraisers

◆ Volunteers will be effective only if they honestly believe in the mission of your organization.

◆ Volunteers should be invited to give of their time, talent, and treasure.

◆ Volunteers must be given meaningful work, not just busy work.

◆ Volunteers require staff support to be effective.

As with donors, volunteers will become involved in your organization for many reasons, including their own family history, religious influence, altruism, wanting to give back, community spirit, investing in their own or someone else’s future, or because it is fun. If they do not believe in your mission, however, they will not be effective fundraising volunteers.

One question that often comes up is, Do we ask volunteers to also give financially? They are giving their time, and we don’t want to also ask them to make a financial donation. You have probably heard this from some of your key volunteers—board members. We could put it bluntly and say, while time is great, you cannot take it to the bank and deposit it. But there is a much more positive way to think about this issue. Think about your own charitable giving. Like you, we are busy people and do not have a lot of time to volunteer. But we do have our favorite causes for which we find the time. Linda often says she has two organizations for which she makes time to volunteer—her church and its outreach ministries, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She says when she does her taxes at the end of the year, who gets the most charitable contributions from her? Her church and AFP! So, if people are passionate enough to give you their time, they will most likely also give when they are asked to contribute