Fundraising Event Volunteer Guide
10 Ways to Empower Your Event Volunteers and Turn an Average Event into an Unforgettable (and More Profitable) Experience
It’s pretty tough to run a nonprofit fundraising event without volunteers. There are simply too many tasks to be done for a paid stuff to handle them all.
And everyone knows this. The problem lies in effectively preparing and utilizing your volunteers to make your event a great experience for attendees. Many nonprofits fall short in this area. And a poor guest experience translates to lower event proceeds.
People spend more when everything goes according to expectations.
People spend less when their minds get distracted by confusion, poor service, and disorganization.
I have volunteered at numerous events for many different nonprofits. I’ve been to small events with less than a hundred people, and large events with over five hundred. I’ve seen events make as little $20,000, and events that raised over $1 million. I’ve watched what they do behind the scenes, how they prepare their volunteers, and how the guests respond.
So here’s a summary of ten things you can do to position your event volunteers for success, create a great guest experience, and raise more money.
1. Break Up Your Event Volunteers into Departments
A typical fundraising event that includes a live and/or silent auction will require a minimum of 30, but often over 50 volunteers. One person simply cannot manage all these people, in part because they won’t all show up at the same time since some tasks happen at different points throughout the day.
So your first critical task is to break up your volunteers into departments and assign a leader to each group. People need to know who’s in charge. I can attest from personal experience that volunteers show up pretty clueless. It’s your job to give us a clue.
Here are some of the most common fundraising event volunteer groups you’ll need people to fill:
- Live auction volunteers (6-12 people)
- Silent auction volunteers (2-8 people)
- Food service volunteers (depends on number of attendees)
- Check-in/registration volunteers (4-10 people)
- Greeters who smile and welcome people (2-4 people)
- Set up volunteers (as many as you can get)
- Take down and cleanup volunteers (the more the merrier)
- Prize fulfillment (4-6 people)
- Fundraising game sales and signups – during silent auction (2-6 people)
- Audio visual volunteers (depends on number of paid specialists)
By breaking up your volunteers into these groups, you will also have an easier time recruiting people. If you just ask for general volunteers, people wonder what that means. But if you ask for greeters, setup crew, audio specialists, spotters (live auction), and all the rest, now people can see themselves and their strengths in some of these roles.
People generally self-select based on their perception of their own abilities.
A greeter should be friendly and confident meeting new people. A recorder should be good with numbers. A prize fulfillment person should have a good sense of organization and attention to detail. A fundraising game sales person should be personable, confident, and enthusiastic – and hopefully be good at selling.
2. Require Each Department to Meet Before the Event Begins
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay
Whoever leads each group should lead a meeting before the event to inform their volunteers of the specifics of their tasks.
Again, many of your volunteers will be first-timers. Especially for roles associated with silent and live auctions, you will need to explain to them how auctions work, and why the volunteer’s role is so important.
Some specifics will depend on the specialty, but here are the main things to cover in this meeting
Everyone Knows Their Role and Their Goal
The common goal must be clearly stated: To raise the most money possible.
Emphasize how important the guest experience is. If guests are distracted by non-fundraising related incidents, their minds will fixate on those rather than the cause they have come to support.
I once attended an event that served the main course for each table on one large platter. The platter had 8 pieces of chicken on it. There were 10 people at each table.
Whoops.
Our whole table was talking about that. That means we weren’t talking about the event, the nonprofit, why we came, or other things that foster a giving environment.
Besides the common goal of raising money, each volunteer department will have specific goals. Get the food delivered promptly. Clean up messes. Record each bid amount and bidder number. Close out silent auction items. Answer questions. Sell raffle tickets.
In your meeting, consider breaking it up into three categories:
- What should happen
- What could happen
- What will happen
You have ideal scenarios – what should happen. Then there are the what-ifs – the things that could go wrong and what you do if that happens. You can plan ahead for some of these. And then there are things you know will happen.
Give clear directions – ideally with printed copies if the details are intricate – for what should happen and what will happen.
Give the Basic Schedule
This should be on the printed handouts. No one should have a question about what’s happening, when it’s happening, or how they fit into the festivities.
Explain Basics of Auction Fundraising
Every event volunteer should be at least moderately aware of how live and silent auctions work. The main reason is because guests have questions, and they could turn to any volunteer to ask them. Many event volunteers will be first-timers, so do not assume they know all the specialized terms you are familiar with.
Like ‘fund-a-need’. What’s that? Many guests have never heard the term. Many volunteers haven’t either. Explain it to them. Bid sheets? What are these for? If you have special fundraising auction games like the Thin Green Line, explain those to all your volunteers. Guests will have questions!
If you have a special presenter, like a celebrity or other person of interest, tell your volunteers about them and why it’s such a great opportunity for guests to hear from them. You never know what guests will want to know. Each volunteer can act as a walking testimonial for the event – while it’s happening.
Empower them by giving them something to say when people ask.
Encourage Familiarity with Venue
I recommend having as many volunteers as is reasonable be there early enough to walk through the whole venue. They should know where the bathrooms are, where the volunteer break room is, where the bar is, where the food will be prepared and served, and all the other basic layout features.
The larger the venue, the harder it is to find things.
I would also recommend that as many volunteers as possible take ten minutes to walk through the silent auction. This is actually one of the most important things you can have them do, for two reasons.
First, guests will have questions (noticing the refrain here?). For instance, the auctioneer or emcee may be walking around talking about silent auction items. Sometimes it’s hard to hear. If your volunteer overhears a guest say, “I couldn’t hear – what item was he talking about?”, your volunteer can go to that person and clarify the details.
Do you see how this kind of proactive service can translate to more money?
An excited volunteer has the same power as a person who refers a friend to buy from a certain store.
As a silent auction volunteer, I once saw a guest looking at a particular item. I went up and gave him more details about the item, because I had more knowledge about it than was in the written description. He made a bid for the item soon afterward. Even though I was ‘just’ a volunteer, I made a sale right there, and helped the organization raise more money.
All your volunteers should think that way, and seize opportunities as they arise.
The second reason to have your volunteers become familiar with the silent auction is because they may end up bidding on some items!
3. Make Sure Everyone Knows the ‘Answer Person’
No matter how well you plan, your fundraising event volunteers (and the guests) will have questions people can’t answer. Who is the ultimate person to look for to get these questions answered? Who is in charge of the whole event? This will likely be your primary event coordinator. This is the person who knows everything.
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay
I’ve volunteered at events where I was asked questions people couldn’t answer. I was told about this person in charge, and that she was the one to go find. The conversation went something like this:
“Yeah, she’s running around here somewhere. She has blonde curly hair, glasses, and I think she’s wearing a blue dress. Maybe about this tall. She’s really friendly and you can’t miss her.”
I missed her. I’m not a police detective.
Every event volunteer needs to know who this person is. If you have to bring a picture to make it clear, do it.
4. You Are Customer Service Specialists!
If someone asks an event volunteer a question they can’t answer, you don’t want them to just say “I’m not sure, sorry.” No. On this day, your volunteers are ALL customer service specialists. They are all responsible for creating a fantastic guest experience.
All of them.
They shouldn’t tell the person asking to “go talk to that person over there.” Instead, they should walk them over and hear the answer themselves. Why? You got it – because someone else might ask the same question again.
I used to work in a grocery store. Almost every day, someone would ask me where the cream cheese was, because it wasn’t in the dairy section. Imagine how pathetic it would be if every time someone asked me that, I told them to go ask the manager. And what would the manager think of me if I did that?
Your volunteers should be excited and positive about serving the guests.
Don’t bury yourselves in tasks so much that you ignore or barely acknowledge the real people who are the reason you’re here. Yes, even your audio/visual specialists need to buy into this. If they’re fixing an audio problem and a guest asks where the bathroom is, you stop what you’re doing and show them, in a friendly way. Create a positive guest experience! Every volunteer helps make this happen.
I was in the silent auction department at one event, and one item description was confusing. It was selling tickets to a play. A guest asked me about it, and I didn’t know the answer.
So I went to the silent auction department leader and found out, and gave the answer to the guest. But I took it one step further. After that, I watched other people looking at that item, and clarified the detail for them without even being asked.
That’s customer service. People don’t bid when they’re confused.
5. Serve Food to Your Event Volunteers
These people are working for you, for many hours, for free. No one forced them to do this. So feed them, and feed them well. You don’t want them running out of energy halfway through the event.
You need to budget for this. It is a critical, non-optional expense for a fundraising event.
My first time ever volunteering for an event, I was shocked when I received food. I wasn’t expecting it. But I appreciated it a lot, especially because I was there for about five hours.
6. Give Your Volunteers Bidder Numbers
You never know what people will do. Your volunteers may will decide to bid on some silent auction items, or give during the fund-a-need portion of the live auction.
Don’t deny them this opportunity to support your organization.
7. Pass Out Thank You Cards or Gift Bags at the Event
Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay
At a minimum, give a simple thank you card to each event volunteer. Some events take it further and give a few special gifts to their volunteers. Whatever you do, please don’t just let your event volunteers wander off into the night with nothing but…themselves.
Yes, you should also send an email thank you note, and if you have their address, you could mail the thank you card (you should get their address either way – always be growing your mailing list).
But an immediate thank you gift speaks the loudest, because it means you planned ahead.
8. Ask for Feedback
Send out a quick volunteer survey after the event, and get their feedback on what went well and what could have gone better. Then, use their feedback to improve your next fundraising event.
Asking for feedback shows you value their time and their experience. It increases the chances they will volunteer again, and preserves a positive view of your organization.
9. Create an Email Segment for Fundraising Event Volunteers
Most volunteers prefer to volunteer for single-day needs rather than ongoing commitments. Here’s some data from a study of volunteers with much more about their preferences and behaviors.
So, create an email segment for your event volunteers, and add to it every time you do a new event of any sort, including golf tournaments, socials, or any other kind of live event.
This segment becomes your first go-to source for future volunteers. After all, if someone volunteered once and had a good experience, they are pretty likely to be open to doing so again. Knowing every year you’re going to need 30-50 volunteers, why would you want to start from scratch, when you could have a growing list of warm volunteer leads sitting there?
10. Next Year – USE Your Email Segment
As I’ve said, I have volunteered at many fundraising events over the years, for many different organizations. I have NEVER been reached out to as a former volunteer and asked to volunteer again.
This is a tragic lost opportunity.
Am I not the most probable kind of person who would volunteer, since I did so last year?
Furthermore, as the study referenced above points out, volunteers very often become donors. So here you have a large group of people who care enough about your organization to give up several hours of a day on its behalf, and you just let them dangle in the wind until they blow away?
These are highly probable future donors, in addition to being easier to recruit for future volunteer opportunities.
Create your event volunteer segment. And then use it. They should be your first step in recruiting volunteers for any event.
More Fundraising Event Resources
46 ideas for silent auction items
7 Live auction strategies for a record-breaking event
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