You’ve likely heard that communication is key. And it is key to almost all of the important things in life, including the success of your non-profit organisation. But what happens when you have too much of a good thing?
Too little communication will leave your volunteers confused and frustrated. Too much will have them disengaging. The truth is that it’s not just communication that’s key; it is effective communication. So How much is too much? How do you ensure you’re notifying them of what they need to know, without overdoing it?
We’ve shared some strategies for effective communication in the past. In this blog, we’ll share our tips on the best time and place to stay in touch.
Understand Your Volunteers – Where & when do they read content?
People communicate in different ways. Communities of volunteers are typically made up of contrasting demographics, so while younger people might be happy to receive messages via video communication on TikTok, older generations might not.
The best way to understand your volunteers needs and preferences is to ask. Have a conversation with your volunteers about how they receive your communication, and if they struggle to receive communication through online platforms, offer your support.
Consider taking some time to sit down and walk through communication platforms with your volunteers, listen to any concerns they may have and try to explain why certain platforms are a requirement of your organisation. A small act can go a long way in making volunteers feel supported and valued.
Tip for Volaby users: A recent addition to SMS automation on the Volaby platform, is the ability for users to also be able to reply to confirm their attendance. Reminders will be sent to volunteers rostered for an activity, allowing them to reply with either Y or N to confirm their attendance. The SMS will be sent to each rostered Volunteer 24 to 48 hours before the activity begins.
Consider the Content – Do volunteers value this information?
Before communicating with volunteers, ask yourself one simple question: What is the value of this information?
The biggest challenge we see is that organisations focus on communicating messages that are important to them as an organisation, but actually might not be the most important thing to volunteers.
Whether you are communicating a recent shift opening, or a meaningful statistic on the positive impact your organisation has made on a community, take the time to consider if this is what volunteers need or want to know about. Ultimately, if the content isn’t valuable or interesting to volunteers, you are going to be fighting an uphill battle to get them to engage.
Tip for Volaby users: You can now segment Bulletins to specific programs or roles within Volaby, making sure that your content is only going to relevant audiences.
Provide an Exit – Is there an option to Opt-Out?
People change their minds. Some people may have opted into certain methods of communicating without realising in the onboarding stage. The key here is to make it easy to opt-out or to change communication if they wish to.
To make it easy, make sure there is a visible “unsubscribe” option in emails and in text messages. Make the wording around the option user-friendly, so they know what they are unsubscribing from and what will happen when they click the link. I.e. – “Receiving too many messages from us? Click unsubscribe to opt-out or to edit your email / SMS preferences”
Tip for Volaby users: The Volaby team is currently working on improving our communication preferences and controls over the coming months.
Avoid The Spam Filters – Are they even getting your e-mail communications?
We’ve all received those dodgy e-mails with promises too good to be true, and e-mail providers are continually working on filtering these out. Unfortunately, legitimate e-mails can also be caught up in these filters and end up in people’s spam folders.
Here are the top 5 things that will trigger an email server’s spam filter:
- Email engagement is poor. If someone is not opening or clicking on things within the email, the server will often recognise these as spam. That typically serves as a guide that a user has disengaged. They either don’t check their emails, you are sending too much, or you are not sending them anything worthwhile. Try to re-engage with them; are you sending them content that is useful or interesting? are you addressing them by their first name in the subject line and within the body of the email?
- Content is spam-like. Some keywords in the subject line and body of the email will automatically send an email into spam, as will certain symbols and poor spelling and grammar. Using words multiple times like “free” or “urgent” will trigger a spam filter, as will phrases like “risk-free” or “dear friend”. Check your spelling and grammar.
- Your email is non-responsive. A responsive email can be viewed on various devices, such as a phone and a laptop. An email that doesn’t appear as it should will not only trigger some spam filters, but it will also cause the user to flag them as spam manually as people will take one look and think, “this doesn’t look right”.
- You have a low ratio of text to images. Spam filters cannot read images. Spammers know that, so they often send spam that’s nothing but an image so that that can include everything they need to within the image. But, spam filters also know this – if they can’t read it, they’ll simply block it.
- You don’t follow the best practices of your email marketing service or best HTML practices. A HTML email is when you send an email that includes images such as your logo. Email marketing services like Mailchimp tell you what size to make your logo and other images to optimise deliverability. Make sure you follow these recommendations. Some other HTML practices to note include using standard fonts, and not including too many images.
Lots of people won’t check their spam folder either. If you don’t hear from them after a few weeks – then you can check in on them, via a phone call or in person at a volunteer activity. Ask them if they’re receiving emails or having any issues opening them. Consider setting up a troubleshooting document they can refer to for help, or even direct them to a video link on the web.
Need Help Communicating with Your Volunteers?
At Volaby, we understand
a) how important it is to communicate with volunteers, and
b) how much time is often spent on communicating with volunteers for them only to say, “hey, I didn’t receive that!”
Our volunteer management and social impact data-capture software was created by Orange Sky to help to automate some of those admin tasks, take the guesswork out of managing volunteers, and spend more time where it matters – making a difference!
Our platform automates the core operational messages via e-mails and text messages to make sure volunteers always have the most important information they need. Our bulletin function also makes sure that relevant information can be seen directly in Volaby, where volunteers naturally engage.
Our platform is made by nonprofits, for nonprofits and their volunteers. We’ve made it easy-to-use and intuitive for everyone who uses it. We invite you to get in touch and trial Volaby for free today, with no obligations.
We look forward to speaking with you soon.