Whether they’re serving as tour guides, helping to run your educational programs and summer camps, or managing special-event ticketing, volunteers take on a variety of responsibilities to round out your museum’s staffing needs.

For volunteers who want to help out again and again, they need to feel like an integral part of your museum’s efforts and community. One of the best ways to accomplish this with your current volunteers and recruit new supporters to your cause is to build out a dedicated volunteer program.

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In this guide, we’ll walk through four strategies to help you develop a volunteer program for your museum, including how to:

1. Leverage Volunteer Management Software
2. Write Clear Volunteer Role Descriptions
3. Communicate Regularly With Your Volunteers
4. Tap Into Corporate Volunteer Opportunities

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Every museum is different, so as you implement these strategies, make sure to tailor your efforts to your unique supporter base. Taking any initiative to the next level starts with having the right tools—let’s begin there!

1. Leverage Volunteer Management Software

A volunteer management platform is a key part of your museum software toolkit. This solution allows you to centralize all operations related to your volunteers, such as scheduling, onboarding, and gathering program feedback.

The best volunteer management platforms offer the following advantages for your museum:

• Customization and flexibility in all major aspects of management, from creating signup forms to developing detailed profiles for each volunteer.
• A user-friendly interface so team members can perform tasks with minimal training required.
• Data security measures to protect sensitive information about your museum and its volunteers from breaches or leaks.
• Reporting capabilities so you can easily evaluate which aspects of your volunteer program are going well and where there is room for improvement.
• Integrations with your main museum management platform and supporter database to allow for seamless information transfer.

Additionally, make sure the solution offers all of the specific features your museum needs for a price that aligns with your budget.

2. Write Clear Volunteer Role Descriptions

Crafting and posting role descriptions is the most critical part of recruiting volunteers. They can inspire more signups by letting volunteers know what to expect from their positions and providing deeper insights into your museum.

Getting Attention’s volunteer recruitment guide recommends including the following elements in each of your role postings:

• A concise but explanatory job title (for example, “Weekday Morning Tour Guide” or “Fundraising Gala Setup and Teardown Committee”)
• The location where volunteer activities will take place
• The time commitment required for the role
• A bulleted list of the volunteer’s key responsibilities
• Any special requirements or restrictions associated with the role (such as age limits or necessary skills)
• Any benefits the volunteer will gain from the opportunity (these can be concrete, like a free meal, or abstract, like the ability to help educate children in the local community)

Attach the registration form and any other required documentation to the posting so interested volunteers can sign up right away, and include contact information for the role’s supervisor or your volunteer coordinator in case questions arise. Then, share the posting via your museum’s website, email, social media, and print communications to maximize its reach.

3. Communicate Regularly With Your Volunteers

In addition to recruiting volunteers through multiple platforms, you should also develop a multi-channel communication strategy for your existing volunteers. Try these tips to keep volunteers in the loop about everything going on at your museum:

• Create an online volunteer portal. These platforms provide centralized locations for volunteers to input their scheduling preferences, trade shifts with other volunteers as needed, and access key information and documents. Plus, since volunteers can interact with each other in the portal, it helps strengthen the sense of community they feel at your museum.
• Ask volunteers to sign up for text alerts. Text messaging is one of the best ways to get in touch with volunteers quickly, making it perfect for notifying volunteers about last-minute changes or unexpected situations that could affect their work.
• Develop a volunteer appreciation strategy. Recognizing volunteers’ hard work shows that your museum values their individual contributions. When showing gratitude to volunteers, scale your level of appreciation to their level of involvement. For instance, a personalized thank-you email is sufficient for a first-time volunteer. However, someone who has helped out monthly for several years deserves greater recognition, such as a handwritten card, small gift, or invitation to a volunteer appreciation dinner.

As you send out various volunteer communications, Doubleknot recommends leveraging tools with automation and segmentation capabilities. These features make it easy to establish regular communication cadences by scheduling messages in advance and ensure they reach the volunteers who would benefit most from them.

4. Tap Into Corporate Volunteer Opportunities

Businesses of all sizes often encourage their employees to volunteer for various causes in the community. These corporate volunteer initiatives can boost their reputations as socially responsible companies, increase internal employee engagement, and help the businesses form mutually beneficial partnerships with nonprofits and cultural organizations—like your museum!

Research the companies in your area to see if they offer any of the following volunteer programs:

• Volunteer grants, where businesses make financial contributions to nonprofits based on the number of hours their individual employees volunteer with those organizations.
• Team volunteer days, where a company schedules an outing (mandatory or optional) for a group of their employees to volunteer during or after their normal work hours.
• Paid volunteer time off (PVTO), where businesses designate a few days’ worth of their employees’ PTO to be used for participation in volunteer activities.
• Skills-based volunteerism, where employees use their professional skills and knowledge to help a community organization free of charge. While these opportunities may or may not be facilitated by their employer, your museum can receive assistance with graphic design, tech support, financial management, and even translation through them.

It’s also helpful to track your volunteers’ employment status in your database. That way, if any of their employers offer corporate volunteer opportunities, you can contact each volunteer individually about submitting their hours for a volunteer grant, using their PVTO or professional skills to help your museum, or talking to management about organizing a team volunteer event.

Once you’ve started building out your museum’s volunteer program using the above strategies, ask your volunteers for feedback on what they think is working well and where there is still room for improvement. Giving them a place to make their voices heard, taking their suggestions seriously, and continually improving your volunteer program can all increase volunteer satisfaction and retention at your organization.

Shannon has been helping nonprofits grow their digital and direct marketing programs and use technology to reach new audiences, raise more, and improve efficiency for over 17 years, working for organizations such as the ACLU, The Clinton Foundation, and The Metropolitan of Art among many others. 

She’s been working at Doubleknot for the past 5 years, helping clients implement Doubleknot solutions to boost revenue and streamline operations so they can focus on what matters most: their mission!