Keep Your Volunteers Coming Back for More

Volunteers are vital to nonprofits.  Research has shown time and again that organizations that effectively engage and manage volunteers outperform peer organizations and have greater impact.  Significant time and energy are invested in recruiting, orienting and managing new volunteers.  To build your volunteer program, you need to retain as well as recruit.  Learn how to enhance the experience by supporting your volunteers, building community, and connecting to the cause to keep your volunteers coming back for more.

Learning Objectives

• Become familiar with a variety of different techniques for volunteer retention
• Identify what motivates volunteers to stay involved

Level

Introductory/Intermediate

Audience

Volunteer managers and staff who work with volunteers.

Presenters

Jayne Thurman, Director of Volunteers for Special Olympics New Mexico.  Jayne's background is in customer service.  she has spent a lifetime volunteering for various nonprofit organizations.

Esodie Geiger is the Project Leader for Reading Works.  Ms. Geiger received her BA in theater and English from the State University of New York in Geneseo.  As an avid reader and literacy advocate, she believes that parents who read have children who succeed.  It is Ms. Geiger’s desire to continue building a self–sufficient community one page at a time.

Kathryn Venzor is the Education Curator at the Albuquerque Biological Park, where she oversees educational programs at the Zoo, Aquarium, Botanic Garden and Tingley Beach. Venzor and her staff are responsible for training volunteers on how to promote the BioPark mission and educational goals to emphasize the importance of conservation and environmental education.  She began her professional career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York developing public programming working alongside Museum staff and volunteers. Upon completion of her graduate work in anthropology at NMSU in Las Cruces, Venzor worked as the Education Manager at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia where she was able to collaborate with teachers and content specialists to develop curriculum for the social sciences, and bring teachers and administrators from across the nation to Philadelphia for week-long content and curriculum development workshops.