Celebrating a year of Volunteer Impact
What impact have your volunteers made in 2022?
Demonstrating volunteer impact can be challenging. According to a 2014 VolunteerMatch survey, 45% of non-profits don't measure volunteer impact. BUT if you're relying on your volunteers to help carry out your mission and you're not quantifying this in some way, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with and recognize these critical team members!
Even if you need to make some good-faith guesstimates or assumptions – capturing and sharing real community impact is an incredible way to say thank you!
Once you know (or have a rough estimate) of the number of volunteer hours folks are contributing, you can do some powerful stuff! In 2022, the national average value of a volunteer hour, as defined by Independent Sector is $29.95! With this info (total hours X $29.95) you can start talking about the total dollar value of volunteer time to your organization. You can also figure out how many full time employee positions these hours are equivalent to (total # volunteer hours/2080 hours). Looking at your volunteers’ contributions in this way can be surprising, inspiring, and really speaks to the data-minded people on the team!
But this isn’t the end of the story - you can also dig into any program or service data you have to show how many programs or hours of service volunteers made possible.
Here’s a quick example:
Let’s say you run a lost dog recovery program to help reunite people with run-away pets. If you have 20 volunteers and each one spent 3 hours each week manning the rescue dog hotline, and each week 10 dogs are returned to their owners, you can show that over the course of the year:
156 hours spent on the line per person
3,120 total hours volunteered
$93,444 value to the organization
1.5 FTE equivalent
520 dogs reunited with their owners
4.5 average hours to find and return a dog to its family
Isn’t that impactful?!
And hard data isn’t everything. For many people, a story or personal note of appreciation is most meaningful. So consider holding up a story of real life-changing impact or have staff and other volunteers share how being part of the organization and team has positively impacted them. There are lots of meaningful ways to show your volunteers you’ve noticed the impact of their time and efforts - find your own example of how volunteers have made a difference!
Here are some ways you might share this information:
There are so many ways you can shine the light on the incredible work your volunteers are doing! Get your organization’s leadership involved - your CEO, Executive Director, or another face of the company can share a personal thank you message including a couple points about volunteer impact on the organization and mission. Lots of modes work here - email, letter, newsletter, video - cater this to what you know about the best way(s) to reach your volunteer team. You might consider hosting an end of year celebration - bringing staff and volunteers together or maybe just a small group that work closely together. In any case, be sure to share a heartfelt message with the group and highlight a few feel-good pieces of impact data. Personal messages really resonate with people, you might do a handwritten card or the next time you talk to a volunteer individually let them know how much you appreciate all the hours they put in this year or how they went above and beyond to make a connection with a client/student/patient/etc. that you serve.
Finally - go public! The community should know how much your volunteer team means to your organization and what you were able to accomplish with their help. Leverage your social media platforms, website, and any photos you might have to really bring your message to life. Donors often get a lot of attention in annual community impact reports - make sure your volunteers’ contributions are acknowledged and celebrated too.
This data is powerful! Taking time to capture and highlight it shows your volunteers how much their time matters, how their contributions are part of the bigger picture (your organization's mission), and that you value & appreciate them.