Turning Your Volunteers Into Social Advocates

Turning Your Volunteers Into Social Advocates

If you’re tasked with raising money and getting people to your fundraiser events, you’ve probably faced this challenge before: Spreading the word about your fundraiser without spending an arm and a leg. It’s not an easy feat, but by using your volunteers to get the word out, you can have bigger success while spending less.

Give Gentle Reminders to Share During Events

Once a volunteer signs up to help at your event, you have her interested and connected to your cause. Tap into this motivation by asking her to share about your events. This is an easy way for your volunteer to give back and a powerful way for you to reach more people without investing in advertising.

The best way to do this is to create ideas for social media posts. The easier you make it for your volunteers to share, the more likely they are to do it.

Have Volunteers RSVP On Facebook for Events

When you set up an event on Facebook, it’s visible to everyone on your Facebook page. Although that’s valuable, the true value lies in what happens as people start RSVPing for your event. When someone says she’s interested or going to your event, Facebook shares that RSVP with her friends in her network. This is an easy way to break through Facebook’s increasingly strict algorithm and get your event and cause in front of more people in your community. Better yet, it’s free.

Ask your volunteers to RSVP for your event. You can make it easy for them by simply inviting them directly from your Facebook event, so all they have to do is click a single button. The results can be powerful and wide reaching.

Don’t Stop Once the Event is Over

It’s easy for everyone to breathe a huge sigh of relief once an event is over. You pack up, go home, and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. But the work cannot stop there if you want your non-profit to continue to raise the kind of funds you need to operate and fulfill your mission. You must continue raising awareness about your cause and much of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of your volunteers.

Once the event is over, make it easy for the people who selflessly gave their time to share about your non-profit’s cause. Continue reminding them of the importance of this type of sharing by scheduling social media shares on your regular volunteer schedule. Doing this puts the onus on the volunteers to be your cheerleader and helps you keep the momentum going that you built during your events.

Turning Volunteers Into Advocates

Volunteers sign up with you because they’re passionate about what you’re doing. Harness that excitement and dedication to your cause by using these people to be your voice in your local communities. Doing so will help you extend your reach and extend the amount of money you’re able to raise.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007, and 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.