Ways to say Thank You to Volunteers

Letting volunteers know they are appreciated can keep them engaged and continuing to volunteer. Here are a few ways to show appreciation.

• Directly say to the volunteer, “Thanks for volunteering today.”
• Print a set of business cards for the volunteer.
• Greet them by name.
• Send out volunteer e-Cards.
• Commemorate milestones of service such as one month, one year, five years, etc.
• Mention the volunteer in a newsletter, Facebook, or Twitter.
• Publish an article about the person on the blog.

More suggestions? Let us know your favorite by using Comments.

Best Practices for Volunteer Orientation

Why doesn’t a volunteer persist? Shawn Kindrick of Volunteer Hub offers several activities that can help the volunteer stay.

• Start with a personal discussion where one discovers what the volunteer wants from their activity.

• Give the volunteer a handbook that discusses the organization’s procedures and policies.

• Provide a mentor.

• Offer feedback on their performance.

Read the complete discussion here.

Maximize Your Volunteers

Author Susan J. Ellis, in her book titled From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Volunteer Program Success, sets out nine aspects of volunteers that can help the organization grow. Several of the aspects are given below.

The volunteers can:

• Bring other spheres of influence.

• Focus on a single issue.

• Be more frank about the organization.

• Be powerful advocates with elected officials and the media.

• Allow a nonprofit to experiment with new ideas, programs, and service models.

Read more here.

Volunteer Connect at the Bend Fall Festival

We set up our booth at the Fall festival about 8:30 a.m. on October 5th. It was a chilly morning with the sun warming it up by 1 p.m.

About 300 people visited the booth, giving us a chance to hand out info on Volunteer Connect. In addition, 34 people signed up to receive the newsletter.

Volunteers that helped Betsy included Sue, Dana, David and Tom. Sue, Tom and Betsy are shown in the photo.

Bend Fall Festival

Bend Fall Festival

Be sure to stop by our booth at the Bend Fall Festival.

Volunteer Connect and the Bend Fall Fest

Volunteer Connect will have a table at the Bend Fall Fest on October 5th and 6th, in the "Conscious Living" section on Wall Street. This is a great time for us to get the word out about volunteer opportunities to the community.

Please let me know if you would like to volunteer for an hour (or more) sometime between 10 and 6 (or later) on Saturday or between 11 and 6 on Sunday. I would love your company! (The first hour on Saturday and the last hour on Sunday are for set up and take down).

Email me or call (541) 385-8977.

If you can't volunteer, please do stop by our table to visit, and please spread the word!

Thanks, Betsy

About Project Connect

Project Connect is a program of Volunteer Connect, Central Oregon’s premier volunteer center whose mission is to connect volunteers to meaningful volunteer experiences.

The specific objectives of Project Connect are threefold:
1. To help homeless and low-income guests improve their lives by accessing needed services.
2. To involve volunteers and organizations in improving the lives of low-income and homeless population by providing a supportive environment in which to serve.
3. To inform and educate the region on how our service organizations, agencies and volunteers can help reduce homelessness and motivate them to be involved in the solution.

Project Homeless Connect (PHC) began in San Francisco in 2004. Volunteers and agencies gathered on one day, in one place, to provide health and human services to homeless people. Since 2004, PHC has become a national event held in more than 100 cities. Portland and Eugene were the first in Oregon to adopt the PHC model, uniting hundreds of volunteers and agencies under one roof to provide health and human services to more than 4,000 community members in need.

In 2007, the Central Oregon Community implemented the first Central Oregon Project Homeless Connect. After a successful first event the name was changed to Project Connect in order to welcome anyone experiencing need for services. Subsequently, Volunteer Connect became the host and organizing agency for the event. Over 11,000 recipients have been served by 3,000 volunteers since that time, making it the largest Project in Oregon.

Project Connect is a one-day, one-stop event serving guests who are low-income, homeless or at risk of homelessness. The event is held at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond. Guests include low-income and homeless people from Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

This year, the event will be held on Saturday, September 28th.

More info can be found here.

To volunteer, click here.

Contact: info@projectconnectco.org or (541) 385-8977