Dedicated volunteers are the backbone of successful fundraising efforts. Pulling off a profitable school fundraiser relies on the hard work of families, guardians, community members, and school staff. However, recruiting, training, and managing volunteers can be a hassle.

This guide covers five volunteer training best practices for school fundraisers to help you simplify your volunteer management process. A streamlined welcome and training process will help your school recruit and retain valuable volunteers. Eventually, your passionate and informed volunteers could become ambassadors for your school’s values, so take the time to start their relationship with your school off on the right foot.

1. Communicate Volunteer Expectations Clearly

Briefly communicate your expectations ahead of each opportunity to avoid confusion. For fundraisers or volunteer roles with more specific expectations, consider hosting a short training session to cover all the requirements.

If you aren’t sure which volunteer expectations to include, start with these: 

• The date and time they’re needed
• The location of the volunteer opportunity
• How much time they should expect to spend volunteering
• Supplies they’ll need to bring
• What they’ll be doing

For example, let’s say you read through Funds2Org’s sports fundraiser recommendations and decide to host a soccer tournament. You need volunteers to serve as referees for the event. So, you host a quick training session going over the responsibilities of a referee, including keeping the game fair, enforcing the rules, and maintaining the safety of the players.

2. Create a Volunteer Training Guide

Guides are spectacular resources for busy volunteers. Hopefully, your guide answers all your volunteer’s questions or gives them the tools to find the answers they need. Volunteer guides can be brief but should contain the latest information.

This guide can include the following:

• Your volunteer leader’s contact information. If a volunteer has a question or concern, make it easy for them to contact the appropriate volunteer leader. The leader should indicate their communication preferences (such as email, phone, or text) so your volunteers know the best way to reach them. 
• Volunteer code of conduct. Include volunteer norms, expectations, and values in a short section of your volunteer guide. For instance, if your volunteers will work with students with disabilities, provide detailed guidelines or a best practices section.
• How to track volunteer hours. Volunteers may not track their hours because they do not know how to or simply do not understand the necessity. Remind your volunteers that tracking their hours can translate into valuable grant opportunities for your school. Using the right volunteer management software can make this process painless.
• Fundraising best practices and tips. For instance, providing a customizable email template would be extremely helpful if volunteers will participate in peer-to-peer fundraising. This way, volunteers can easily send personalized emails explaining your school’s campaign.
• How to apply for a volunteer grant through their employers. Make the volunteer grant application easy for your volunteers. Provide simple step-by-step instructions explaining how to apply and why their grant application makes a difference. Double the Donation’s guide to volunteer grants recommends using a corporate giving database to identify volunteer grants and matching gift opportunities to help boost funding.

Once you’ve recruited volunteers, email them your guide to ensure they have ample time to review it and ask questions before your event. 

3. Assign Roles that Align with Interests and Skills

To improve the volunteer experience at your school’s fundraising event, assign roles to volunteers that align with their interests. You can gather this information through their volunteer application form or ask volunteers what interests them most during their first training session.

With that information in mind, assign roles that best fit your volunteers. For example, if a volunteer has expressed interest in social media marketing and has previous experience with graphic design, ask them to create marketing materials for your upcoming fundraiser. Or, if another volunteer is an extrovert and has volunteered with your school before, you may ask them to help guests check-in and direct them to specific activities.

In addition to interests and skill set, consider volunteer availability. Even if a volunteer is well-suited to a specific role, they may be unable to commit the time the role requires.

By keeping these factors in mind while assigning volunteers their roles, you’ll show them that you want them to have a positive experience. In the future, they’ll be more likely to volunteer with your school again!

4. Offer a Variety of Volunteer Training Sessions

Parents, teachers, and community members will likely volunteer for your school fundraisers. You may even have a few corporate employees participating in their company’s volunteer grant program. All these individuals are busy with their personal lives and responsibilities, so you’ll need to tailor your training sessions to meet their needs.

The best way to do so is to offer a variety of sessions of varying durations and frequencies. Some of your volunteers may prefer to attend a “boot camp” style in-person training session that takes half a day on a weekend. Other volunteers will prefer three or four shorter weekly virtual training sessions.

Regardless of which sessions they attend, your volunteers should learn about the general guidelines of volunteering at your school, any fundraiser-specific information, and any role details they need to succeed. By meeting them where they are and offering them training in a manner that is most convenient for them, you’re sure to have the help you need to ensure your school fundraising event comes to life.

5. Ask for Feedback

Just like you would ask attendees to fill out an event feedback survey after a fundraiser, it’s valuable to ask volunteers for feedback after the training process. Send them a brief survey to give them an avenue to comment about the overall experience. Ensure anonymous responses to encourage volunteers to answer honestly and voice suggestions to improve the volunteer training process.

To provide a full picture of the volunteer experience, include a variety of multiple-choice and open-ended questions on your survey. Here are a few example questions you can ask:

• Did you feel adequately prepared to fulfill your volunteer responsibilities? 
• What was the most beneficial aspect of the training process?
• Are there any recommendations for components we should add to the training process? 
• On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to volunteer again? 
• Do you have any suggestions for new fundraising ideas?

Asking for and implementing valuable feedback is the fastest way to improve your volunteer training program. This is also a great step to strengthening your relationship with volunteers by showing your dedication to making their experience positive.

In addition, if your team is brainstorming fundraising suggestions, you can also ask your volunteers to offer any new, creative ideas. Volunteers will be much more likely to participate when your fundraisers appeal to their interests and preferences. 

With clear expectations, a thorough training guide, and the necessary training sessions under their belts, your volunteers will feel empowered and ready to tackle their role at your upcoming school fundraiser. A thorough process will save you stress and confusion and ensure that the volunteer process and your event go smoothly. And, volunteers will feel valued and appreciated for their time, making them more likely to support your school in the future.

Wayne Elsey is the founder and CEO of Elsey Enterprises (EE) and a member of the Forbes Business Development Council. Among his various independent brands, he is also the founder and CEO of Funds2Orgs, which is a social enterprise that helps schools, churches, nonprofits, individuals and other organizations raise funds while helping to support micro-enterprise (small business) opportunities in developing nations.