❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site admins.
You've set up your site and added some awesome shifts and new members. But you aren't seeing any registrations! To boost volunteer engagement, you want to communicate, inspire, and engage with your volunteers about your site and your shifts! Here we cover:
- How to boost volunteer engagement
- Templates for boosting engagement
- Share big volunteer events!
- Disaster response and emergency volunteer opportunities
How to boost volunteer engagement
Templates for boosting engagement
When creating content to share with your volunteers, it's a good idea to think like a marketer.
- What appeals to them? What are their interests and skills? What skills do they align themselves with? These are important questions, as they'll help inform your creative decisions.
- You can generate excitement with color and font choices, images, language, etc., to engage with your volunteers.
We've created some templates that you can use to generate that excitement. You can either download and use these yourself or create your own!
✏️ Quick tip: We recommend using Canva to create amazing and fun content, but you're welcome to use any graphics editor program or software you prefer.
Social media announcement
You can use this template for Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Just copy and paste it into the post and personalize it as you see fit!
Social media announcement template
We have exciting news! We’re launching our new volunteer website! Come join us and sign up for volunteer opportunities at [Connect site URL].
[Provide any additional info for volunteers as needed.]
We aim to provide exciting and easy-to-find volunteer opportunities that match your unique skills and interests.
We’ll regularly update our content with new volunteer opportunities, events, announcements, and more!
Get involved, and let us know what you think! We think you're going to love it!
All the best,
[Your Name or Organization’s Name]
- Here is an example Facebook post using this template:
- You can personalize your social media post with font and colors or, if you like this template, click here to start customizing this design!
- You'll need a free Canva account to edit this design—but once you're in there, you can change the images, font, position, etc., and make it your own!
Note: This is just an example of what it could look like. Have fun customizing and personalizing your social media post with your own branding, voice, and style!
Newsletter
Does your organization send out newsletters? You can let your community know about your exciting new site and invite them to join with a newsletter. If you don't already send out newsletters but would like to, we've got a template to help get you started! You'll want to consider a few things before personalizing your newsletter:
- What level of formality do you want to use in your newsletter?
- Do you want to craft a bite-sized announcement newsletter, or share important impact and value statements that inform your community of the purpose of your site?
- Does your organization have branded colors, fonts, and logos that you might want to include in your newsletter?
Once you've figured out the tone and style you want in your newsletter, you can customize it how you want.
Newsletter announcement template
We have news!
[Date] [By Your/Organization Name]
We’ve launched our new volunteer website!
We aim to provide exciting and easy-to-find volunteer opportunities in our community that matches your interests and skills.
Join us and start making an impact today!
Sign up at [your Connect site URL]!
We think you’re going to love it!
All the best,
[Your Name/Organization Name]
- Here's an example newsletter that's been customized in Canva and created with the text from this template:
- You can personalize this with your own font and colors or, if you like this template, click here to start customizing your newsletter with this design!
Blog post
Blog posts are another fun and versatile way to share your exciting news! Here's an example template for how you might advertise this news on your blog:
Blog post announcement template
We've got big news to share!
We've launched!
We've launched our new volunteer website!
Our aim is to share awesome, fun, and easy-to-find volunteer opportunities that match your skills and interests.
Come join us at [your Connect Site URL] to start making an impact in your community!
Read More
- Be sure to insert a link for Read More that takes the readers to the main blog post or wherever you want to direct them.
- You can always change this to something else like Click Me or Learn More, etc.
- Here's an example blog post with the above template:
- You can personalize this with your own font and colors or, if you like this template, click here to start customizing your blog post with this design!
Do you want to email your community about your good news? Here's an email template with a header that you can customize to your liking!
Email announcement template
We've got big news!
We just launched our volunteer website where we'll share exciting new volunteer opportunities that you can get involved in!
We'll post new opportunities regularly that match your skills and interests, so you can have fun while making an impact in the community.
The site will be updated regularly with announcements, events, and more!
Come join us at [Your Connect Site URL] to start your volunteer journey!
Best Regards
[Your Name/Org Name/Signature Block]
Email Announcement Header
- Click here to start customizing your own email header!
Newspaper
The style and format of your newspaper announcement will of course depend on a few things:
1. Are you submitting your announcement to a local paper?
2. Are you managing your own newspaper?
3. What are your current branding colors and schemes?
- If you have an established marketing team, we recommend reaching out to them for guidance; otherwise, we have crafted a template with Canva that you're more than welcome to make your own!
- You'll also want to consider what information you want to include in your newspaper announcement. In the example, we've only shared the big news and a simple three-step process for volunteers to get started (but you can customize and personalize this however you want!):
Newspaper announcement template
We've got big news!
We've launched our new volunteer website where you can search and find exciting new volunteer opportunities!
We'll post new volunteer opportunities regularly that match your skills and interests.
The site will be updated regularly with announcements, events, and more!
Come join us at [Your Connect Site URL].
Start your volunteer journey with us and make an impact in your community!
How It Works
Step one: Sign up at [Your Connect Site URL].
Step two: Search for opportunities in your area by skills that interest you, or by your skill sets!
Step three: Respond!
- Here's an example of that template:
- Like this design? Click here to customize it with your own information!
Share big volunteer events!
Here's a template you can use for sharing upcoming big events with your volunteers. You can also use it as inspiration for creating your own:
- While this one is holiday-themed, feel free to customize it as you see fit!
- You can also resize this and use it in your rotator images or resize it and repackage it to fit your social media postings!
Disaster response and emergency volunteer opportunities
If your organization handles disaster or emergency response opportunities, then this is an example template you can use to share those opportunities with your community:
- Like the other templates, you're welcome to customize this as you see fit!
- Click here to start creating your own flyer!