Building a Thriving Volunteer Community in 2025 (& Beyond)
Double the Donation’s volunteer statistics report found that formal volunteering, the act of working with a registered nonprofit to volunteer, is on the decline. However, informal volunteering rates remain steady, meaning people are able and willing to help their communities but aren’t signing up with nonprofits.
While this is a challenge, it’s surmountable as the spirit of volunteerism is still strong. Your nonprofit simply needs to capture these prospective volunteers’ attention and channel their energy into supporting your programs, events, and organization. One of the most effective ways to do this is by forming a community around your nonprofit.
From the moment you recruit a volunteer to the moment they lead their own event, you should provide the tools and opportunities for them to engage with each other and develop a sense of community. This guide will walk you through some tips to build a community within your volunteer program in 2025 and beyond.
Provide a dedicated place for online engagement.
Volunteering should be a great experience for both your nonprofit and participants. While most volunteers sign up because they’re passionate about a cause, that alone might not be enough to maintain long-term participation in your program.
Building a community keeps volunteers engaged with your mission and makes them feel connected to a cause larger than themselves. The key to forming a community is providing opportunities for social interaction. Supporters who make friends with other volunteers are more likely to continue attending program-related activities to socialize and help your cause.
Encourage volunteers to grow these bonds and stay connected between volunteer shifts by creating a dedicated place for volunteers to engage online. Look at your current volunteer management strategy and review whether your tools can create such a space, whether it’s a website or just a group chat. Some platforms work well with external community-building tools like Slack.
To ensure your online space is effective, make sure your volunteers can:
Receive updates and announcements
Introduce themselves and connect with others
Comment on posts and react to messages
This way, whenever volunteers have an issue, a question, or just want to interact with each other, they know exactly where to go and feel supported by your organization.
Encourage networking between volunteers.
Once you have an established place where your volunteers can engage with your mission and each other, encourage them to leverage it. For instance, you might promote networking opportunities, which allow volunteers to meet each other and form mutually beneficial connections.
To jumpstart these relationships, consider leveraging a volunteer management platform with chat functionality. With this simple feature, volunteers can better:
Connect. Messaging tools allow volunteers to reach out directly to other supporters they have connections with. This can help volunteer managers coordinate with specific supporters and enable your volunteers to form friendships through your nonprofit.
Collaborate. If there is ever an issue, a group chat is a great place to get quick answers to questions. For instance, if you’re running a virtual volunteer program, supporters might encounter technological issues. With the chat feature, this issue can be quickly resolved!
Stay updated. Volunteer managers can spread the word to your entire team in seconds with a group chat, helping to fill missing volunteer slots, promote opportunities, and provide real-time updates during projects and events.
Encouraging your volunteers to engage and interact with each other is key to cultivating relationships and building a thriving community. Hand the baton over to your volunteers and empower them to connect.
Turn volunteers into event hosts.
One of the best ways to build a community is to provide volunteers (and thus your organization) with opportunities to grow. Turning volunteers into event hosts is a great way to empower your passionate supporters and deepen their investment in your cause. With volunteers leading activities themselves, your organization has more resources to grow while freeing up time for you and your staff.
Allowing dedicated and senior volunteers to lead events can supercharge your appreciation efforts and enable you to host more fundraising activities. This decentralized approach to volunteer management puts the power in your volunteers’ hands, and independent groups can step up and form strong communities.
Provide adequate training and tools to ensure these events run smoothly. Walk through how to use your management tools, meet with volunteer event hosts about their plans, and ensure your volunteer supervisors are available in case help is needed.
Your volunteer management software should provide the tools needed to recruit event hosts. Look for a platform with a straightforward approval process, as well as permission levels that ensure volunteer leaders have access to the tools they need.
Promote corporate volunteer opportunities.
Your nonprofit can be a part of your volunteers’ professional lives as well when you leverage corporate giving programs related to volunteering. Businesses offer a wide range of CSR initiatives related to volunteering, including:
Volunteer days. Corporations recognize the community-building power of volunteering, which is why some organize volunteer days as part of their team-building initiatives. If a business contacts you to line up a volunteer day, create an enjoyable experience to encourage new supporters to come back. Double the Donation’s guide to mandatory volunteering advises promoting social activities quickly to help corporate volunteers connect with your broader community.
Volunteer grants. Incentivize volunteers to dedicate additional time by educating them about volunteer grants. These are donations businesses make to the nonprofits where their employees volunteer, and almost all programs base grant amounts on the number of hours volunteered. Plus, some businesses have team volunteer grants that look at a group of employees’ collective hours, encouraging groups to volunteer together.
Volunteer time off. Some businesses offer a special type of paid time off known as volunteer time off (VTO). VTO companies provide employees with a set amount of PTO specifically for volunteering. This gives working volunteers greater flexibility to dedicate to causes like yours, allowing them to spend more time with your community.
Corporate volunteer opportunities make volunteering easier and more valuable. This encourages more supporters to spend time with your organization and makes them feel like their volunteering is creating a greater impact.
Host volunteer appreciation events.
Throughout it all, your organization would not be where it is without your volunteer community. Make sure they know how vital their support is by properly showing appreciation for their hard work.
Thanking your volunteers and letting them know how much their combined efforts mean to your cause not only makes them proud of what they’ve accomplished but it also encourages them to stay involved with your community.
You likely send thank you letters or emails to your volunteers after an event. To show even more appreciation, consider throwing them a volunteer appreciation event. These can be in-person, or you can take them online to connect with your entire community. Experiment with ideas like the following:
Film a thank you video. Have your staff members or beneficiaries show their gratitude in a personalized video.
Host a virtual volunteer appreciation gala. Encourage volunteers to dress up at home and provide some fun activities they can enjoy together virtually.
Livestream a concert or another live performance. Show your appreciation to volunteers by hosting a fun concert that they can experience from home.
Your volunteers deserve to know how much their effort is appreciated. For more inspiration, explore creative volunteer recognition ideas and reach out to your volunteers to ask how they would like to be appreciated.
Building a community within your volunteer program is all about engagement and retention. The stronger and tighter the community is, the more supporters will be invested in your mission and willing to go the extra mile to accomplish tasks. These tips can build your community’s foundation, empowering your volunteers to connect and grow together.