Dear Evil HR Lady,
We’re a small non-profit and we rely heavily on volunteers. How can we motivate them when we can’t do the traditional things like give them paychecks or bonuses? Yes, their love of the cause is good, but it only goes so far.
To read the answer, click here: 7 Ways to Motivate Without Money
Hi Suzanne,
Tomorrow I’m working with some clients in the NGO community and you’ve given me some great tips and ideas.
Thanks! Laura
Working with volunteers must be the hardest thing to do. Thank you for the great tips, it’s great to see that there are ways to motivate without using monetary rewards.
I used to work for our community version of the YMCA. We relied heavily on volunteers, and the old manager did show much to show appreciation. Each volunteer was given ID that would either give them 10% off at the cafe, or a free meal/month; they each got a ‘day-off’ pass which allowed them to use the facility, see a show, etc. for free once/month without the obligation of ‘working’ (even though they would get to see the shows & use the facility during their volunteer time – they were still on duty); we would also have a potluck Christmas lunch, family BBQ, volunteer appreciation gala, etc. We had a very large volunteer base… sadly, when that manager moved away and a new one came in, many of these ‘appreciations’ were ended:( Without feeling appreciated and being told that ‘people should only volunteer for the pure joy of volunteering (yes, which is somewhat true), many loyal volunteers quit. Appreciation goes a long way!
Thanks Laura for the info but the answer would be?
We recently did a post and a vlog on this very topic. It’s so important to look at non-monetary incentives as they actually drive behavior more than cash incentives. It turns out that the positive influence of a non-monetary incentive also lasts longer than cash incentives too!
Here’s the post for those who are interested: http://www.myfirestarterpro.com/top-10-non-financial-ways-to-motivate-employees/