4 Benefits of Volunteering for Association Members

Among the many reasons members may join your association, “access to volunteer opportunities” may not be the most common. However, your organization is in a great position to offer various volunteer positions to members, whether they’re helping you run events, engaging other members, or serving a charitable cause related to your industry.

Because volunteering isn’t core to the association experience, recruitment can be challenging. However, one way to make the process easier is for your association management team to make members aware of the potential benefits of participating in your volunteer opportunities. After all, if members know what’s in it for them, they may be more eager to become volunteers to experience those advantages.

In this guide, we’ll review four benefits of volunteering that your association can promote to its members to drive participation. Let’s dive in!

1. Personal and professional growth.

The most natural perk of volunteering is the opportunity for association members to help your organization achieve more or support a worthwhile cause. However, the personal benefits they can experience go even further. By volunteering, members can:

• Learn more about what fulfills them and what they’re passionate about as they serve in different capacities.
• Identify activities they enjoy doing that they may not have otherwise experienced, such as working with certain types of technology or mentoring others (more on this later!).
• Connect with like-minded peers who are passionate about their industry and giving back, fostering friendships and building a strong volunteer community.

Association members can also grow professionally by volunteering, specifically through:

• Expanding their knowledge of your industry and the inner workings of your association.
• Developing transferable soft skills like communication and problem-solving.
• Meeting new professionals in the field to grow their networks.

To that last point, Double the Donation’s volunteer statistics report explains that individuals who volunteer regularly have a 27% higher chance of finding employment. This statistic encompasses all volunteer organizations, not just associations whose primary purpose is to help professionals advance their careers. So, if your members are looking for new job opportunities in the industry, volunteering with you may be a great starting point!

2. More visibility in the association and industry.

While volunteering may not be a common reason professionals join associations, career advancement and networking opportunities are. By volunteering with your organization, members can network in a new way, increase their visibility in the industry, and advance their careers.

Your association can facilitate these benefits for volunteers by:

• Featuring volunteers in organizational communications like your newsletter, social media posts, or other community updates.
• Building professional development and networking into your volunteer opportunities through training sessions and dedicated socialization time.
• Recruiting guest speakers to talk to your volunteers about various aspects of your industry and having meet-and-greet or Q&A sessions with them afterward.
• Encouraging volunteers to add their experience to their resumes and LinkedIn profiles when they look for new opportunities in the field.

To streamline these activities, Protech recommends leveraging an association management system (AMS) with built-in member management capabilities. This way, volunteer engagement data is also consolidated alongside all of their other touchpoints with your organization.

3. Access to exclusive perks.

To further incentivize volunteering, your association could offer exclusive perks to volunteers in exchange for their hard work. This is also a great way to show appreciation for your volunteers—and when volunteers feel valued, they’re more likely to continue supporting your association long-term.

There are various perks to choose from depending on your volunteers’ preferences and your association’s budget. Some top ideas include:

• Volunteers-only events to build community among volunteers

• Early-bird registration access for events open to your full member base

• Special volunteer badges displayed in your member directory that members can earn based on how many hours they volunteer

• Exclusive newsletters that help volunteers keep up with everything happening at your association

• Volunteer discounts on online courses or other continuing education resources

• T-shirts or other branded merchandise so volunteers can show their spirit for your organization, both while volunteering and in their daily lives

Promote these perks alongside your volunteer opportunities, and get existing volunteers involved in marketing them to encourage other members to participate and earn the perks. For example, you could ask volunteers to post pictures of themselves wearing or using your exclusive merchandise on social media or your association’s community management platform with a specific hashtag to add a user-generated element to your promotion efforts.

4. More opportunities to lead.

Your association may also choose to open up leadership positions to your more experienced volunteers. For example, you could have these members:

• Lead portions of your volunteer onboarding sessions
• Pair up one-on-one with new volunteers who are interested in similar positions for shadowing
• Mentor small groups of less experienced volunteers once formal training concludes to continue their role development
• Join strategy sessions with your volunteer coordinators to provide firsthand perspectives on what your program is doing well and where there is room for improvement

Offering leadership opportunities to volunteers is a win-win for them and your association. Through leading, volunteers can develop even more transferable skills, add a new title to their resumes, and get to know their fellow volunteers better to build both personal and professional relationships. Plus, they’ll likely feel more fulfilled in their work if they grow in these ways.

On your organization’s end, leadership opportunities can boost volunteer retention rates since volunteers are less likely to become complacent or bored in their roles. Additionally, if you’re trying to fill other leadership roles in your association, such as board openings or management positions, volunteers who step up to lead may be a good place to start looking.

While the benefits above are strong selling points to start with when promoting your association’s volunteer program, the best way to understand what advantages it actually provides is to go straight to the source. Survey your volunteers periodically to ask how they feel they’ve benefitted from volunteering and what they’d still like to experience. From there, adjust both your promotion strategy and your program offerings to align with members’ needs and expectations.