April is National Volunteer Month, and for many nonprofits, this serves as a reminder to reach out and encourage people to volunteer, while also showing appreciation and working to inspire local communities. 

Showing heart-felt appreciation is an effective and easy way to establish loyal volunteers and attract new supporters to your organization. 

As a nonprofit, you already know the value of having awesome volunteers, so we wanted to provide you with a variety of creative ways to show your appreciation! 

This downloadable pdf contains 100 ways to say THANK YOU within the following 8 categories:   

1. Outreach

There are many ways you can reach out to your supporters to show them how much they’ve had a positive impact on your organization.

An important initial practice is to discover the communication preferences of your volunteers.  We’ve mentioned this before as an important practice to follow with your donors, but it’s applicable to ALL of your supporters.

Find out how they like to be contacted and then reach out!

2. Inclusion

Who doesn’t want to feel included?  This isn’t only limited to invitations to events but can be applied to all your interactions with your supporters.

By acting in ways that make your volunteers feel more included in your organization, you’re showing respect for their opinion and putting some of the power in their hands.

3. Accommodation

You can fine-tune your relationships with your volunteers in a similar way to how you do so for your donors.

By accommodating their preferences, you’re making them happy, but also optimizing how your volunteers contribute to your organization.

4. Delight

Making your volunteers happy doesn’t have to involve a big investment of time, money or any other resources.  In the available download, we outline 15 simple ways you can delight your volunteers!

5. Give Back

There are gifts you can make or put together at little or no cost!  Plus, whatever cost associated with your appreciation gifts will most definitely be offset by the return you’ll receive in continued support from your volunteers.

6. Public Appreciation

As a nonprofit, it’s easy to come up with creative events – you’re doing it all the time for your yearly campaigns!

Appreciation events should be just as important because your appreciation is what will turn your volunteers into life-long supporters of your organization.

7. Personal Promotion

Giving a public shout-out to your volunteers costs you nothing but a few seconds of your time and could make a real, positive impact on their personal lives.

We include 10 specific ways you can be a personal promoter to your volunteers!

8. Career Contribution

Remember when you first got started in the working world?  For many of us, it was a scary place, filled with uncertainty and many rejected job applications . . .

So you can imagine the benefit of promoting your volunteers for their experience through your organization, new skills, and more!

With so many great and simple ways to thank your volunteers, why not start today?