Maximizing your volunteers’ impact is the key to maximizing your organization’s success. To this end, you need to know how to effectively train your volunteers. Effective volunteer training unlocks your volunteers’ potential, helps them feel engaged and assured of their abilities, and prepares them for the tasks you need them to perform.

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In this blog post, we’re going to break down everything you need to know about effective volunteer training.

Understanding Volunteer Training

Volunteer training is the programs or resources you provide that give volunteers the knowledge to perform their roles effectively. Volunteer training can be as simple as a pamphlet for a food drive or as complex as a training course for high-level volunteer management. Having some form of training because it establishes a baseline of knowledge for roles, lays a foundation for expectations, and ensures volunteers feel secure and prepared to perform their roles.

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Well-trained volunteers allow you to achieve organizational goals. Effective volunteer training can have a huge return on investment by leveraging volunteers’ abilities to positively impact your organization.

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Not only does high-quality volunteer training have many benefits, but low-quality training—or non-existent training—can reduce the value of your volunteers’ efforts. Untrained volunteers can feel lost or confused. They may not perform their roles successfully,  and this fear—or realization—of failure can cause volunteers to never come back. And, as you probably already know, volunteer retention is a hugely important determinant of long-term success.

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So, it’s clear you need to know how to train new volunteers. But how do you start?

Assessing Volunteer Training Needs

Knowing how to train new volunteers often boils down to knowing what new volunteers need training on. And if you don’t know how to assess those needs, the problems can be hard to diagnose. 

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First, you want to explore different methods for identifying training gaps. This can be as simple as an onboarding survey where you evaluate volunteer skills. Such a survey allows you to evaluate trends in skill gaps where training would be highly effective, but this data can also be compromised with self-reporting biases. Another method is sitting down with volunteers before the training programs and interviewing them to learn their goals for volunteering. Experiment with different tactics to find the best one for your company.

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Assessing your volunteers’ needs allows you to tailor training programs to what volunteers would individually benefit from. Tailoring programs can be highly effective in ensuring each volunteer has their specific needs addressed, which allows them to feel ready for their role. This helps volunteers feel confident in their abilities, and the tailored training makes them feel valued and appreciated. This can boost retention greatly.

Designing Effective Volunteer Training Programs

So you’ve gathered insights on volunteer needs and analyzed trends in skill gaps. Now, you need to design your volunteer training program. Effective volunteer training programs are accessible, efficient, and direct. They clarify the skills volunteers will be learning and deliver those skills quickly. They are respectful of the trainee’s time and direct in the information necessary. Most importantly, they engage the trainee and ensure high rates of knowledge retention.

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A crucial aspect of effective volunteer training programs is clear objectives and learning outcomes. The trainees should know exactly what they are going to learn from the training program. This is great for two main reasons:

• The volunteer trainee knows what skills they are going to need for the role and why attaining the skills in the program is important.
• The trainee knows what the learning goal is, so they can better self-diagnose if they have not learned the skills they need to learn.

Tell trainees out of the gate why they are taking the training program and what tangible skills they will gain from it helps them appreciate the necessity of said training program.

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Creating engaging and interactive training materials is integral, sure, but it can also be much harder than it seems. A few tips to keep in mind are:

• Plan for accessibility. Make the training easy to begin and ramp up in difficulty as necessary, and ensure you have accessibility options for volunteers.
• Check for understanding. Whether it’s quizzes, random questions, or responses throughout the program, ensure you check in with volunteers if they understand the program and retain relevant information.
• Ask for feedback. After the program is completed, gather feedback from volunteers to continue improving the program for future trainees.

Delivering Volunteer Training

Delivering your interactive and tailored volunteer programs is the next step to effective volunteer training. There are many methods you can deliver volunteer training through, so research them and decide which one would work best for your organization. The most common methods are:

• In-person training. Volunteers come on-site to perform training. This method typically consolidates all training into a single, long session. Volunteer activities that involve physical activity or coordination between volunteers are best for this type of training.
• Online. Volunteers perform the program in a digital format. This is perfect for younger volunteers, or for volunteer activities that are remote. Read more about Making the most of virtual volunteers.
• Workshops. Volunteers have the option to attend numerous workshops on specific skills across a period of time. These can be in-person, online, or hybrid. This is a great format for one-time volunteer opportunities.

Volunteer training is integral to successful volunteer onboarding, which means you need to deliver said training throughout and after the onboarding process.

The Role of Technology in Volunteer Training

Technology has emerged as a useful tool in optimizing volunteer training processes and delivering training remotely. From e-learning platforms to mobile apps and a plethora of digital tools, organizations are harnessing the potential of technology to transform the way volunteers are prepared for their roles. In this section, we'll delve into the remarkable ways in which technology is enhancing volunteer training and explore real-world examples of organizations leading the charge.

E-Learning Platforms: A Hub of Knowledge and Skill-Building

E-learning platforms have revolutionized volunteer training by providing a centralized hub of knowledge and skill-building resources. These platforms offer a diverse range of multimedia content, including instructional videos, interactive quizzes, and downloadable materials. Volunteers can access these resources at their own convenience, allowing for flexibility in their training schedules.

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For instance, a disaster relief organization may utilize an e-learning platform to educate volunteers on emergency response procedures. Volunteers can access modules covering topics such as first aid, crisis management, and disaster relief logistics. As they progress through the modules, interactive quizzes assess their understanding, ensuring that they are well-prepared for real-world scenarios.

Mobile Apps: Training on the Go

Mobile apps can be invaluable tools for on-the-go volunteer training. These apps provide volunteers with immediate access to critical information and resources, irrespective of their physical location.

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Consider a conservation nonprofit that employs mobile apps to train volunteers working in remote areas. The app can offer features such as field guides, wildlife tracking tools, and safety protocols. Volunteers can reference these resources in real-time while conducting wildlife surveys, ensuring they are well-equipped for their tasks.

Digital Tools: Customized and Scalable Training

Digital tools allow organizations to tailor volunteer training to specific roles and adapt it as needed. These tools may include online forums for peer learning, virtual simulations for hands-on training, or even artificial intelligence-driven chatbots for instant support.

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A volunteer-driven medical outreach organization, for example, might employ a digital tool that simulates patient scenarios, providing volunteers with realistic practice in diagnosing and treating medical conditions. As volunteers gain experience, the tool can adapt to introduce more complex scenarios, ensuring ongoing skill development.

Assessing Training Effectiveness

Evaluating the success of volunteer training programs is crucial to improving them over time and ensuring their long-term effectiveness. The best way to analyze their effectiveness is to gather feedback from the trainees who partake in them. Encourage volunteers to give feedback on the programs, highlighting points of improvement and points of strength. This helps you understand what may need to be improved and what’s working well already.

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You can send surveys out to volunteers who complete training or gather feedback in-person after a training session. You want to gather as much input as possible from as many volunteers as you can so that your feedback is holistic and well-rounded. You can analyze trends in pain points and strengths so you can act with the most information possible.

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Continuous improvement ensures that your volunteer training program is always growing stronger and furthering the benefits said program offers. You never want the program to grow stagnant or ineffective, because then you’re just wasting time and resources.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Like all things nonprofit, training programs have their challenges. Common pain points can be volunteer engagement, knowledge retention, and budgetary constraints. Never feel discouraged if you struggle with these issues, because many nonprofits have and many have overcome them. Many of the best practices we’ve discussed above also work for curtailing these problem points.

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One challenge that can be intimidating is managing diverse volunteer groups. Like employees, volunteers come from all walks of life and can have infinitely varied struggles, strengths, or weaknesses. The best way to manage diverse groups of people is to empathize with them and listen to their suggestions and perspectives. If you take the time to understand your volunteers’ struggles and points of strength, you know how best to engage with them.

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Budgetary constraints usually boil down to effective spending. Training programs don’t need robust budgets to be robust. Look at spending trends and figure out which aspects of your program have the best and worst return on investment.

Rounding Out

Volunteer training is integral to your organization’s success, which means investing in volunteer training is integral to your success. You should feel empowered to prioritize volunteer training, not just as a one-time investment, but as an ongoing cycle of developing training and creating more effective volunteers.

As CEO of Civic Champs, I lead our team of passionate change leaders to create technology solutions to create a seamless and rewarding volunteering experience for both volunteers and service organizations.