Kin Blog

Inexpensive ways to thank volunteers. 

Social media can a noisy place, so it's important that you employ the following tactics to ensure your message makes it through.

Address Your Impact

In a previous post we spoke about the value of storytelling in non-profit and how it can help you effectively reach your audience in the digital age. A key part of telling your story is addressing the direct impact of your organization and your specific event. If it’s a recurring event, share pictures from past events, but also let your audience know last year’s outcome and the tangible benefits (and how those benefits might increase with a boon in participation).

Age and Generation makes a difference when communicating. Especially when it comes to communication methods, work attitudes and feedback expectations. Check out this post for some things to remember when communicating cross-generationally.

Canadians seek different volunteer experiences throughout their lifespans as their circumstances and priorities change. Traditionally, volunteering has been a feel-good way to give back to the community; but now, it has also become a means for young people to gain skills for the labour market. A lot of Canadian high school students need 30-40 volunteer hours as a requirement to graduate. Having students help with your Kin events is a win for both you and them.

As National Volunteer Week draws to a close, I hope you feel valued and appreciated by your community and those who benefit from your gifts of time and energy. If you are part of Kin, not only do you volunteer for your club’s specific events and causes, but you might also have involvement in helping grow membership and recruiting extra volunteers.  Volunteer Centres are a pillar in any community and are there to serve volunteers, non-profits, and as a result, the community’s needs. Connecting with your local volunteer centre has many benefits - some obvious, and some less known.

With the emergence (and dominance) of social media and other online tools in our daily lives, getting through to your audience can be tricky at times. How do you get through to someone who is constantly seeing ads, jumping around different social media sites and scanning headlines but rarely reading full stories throughout the day? One way is through storytelling, and telling your story properly.

We give so much of ourselves as volunteers, and sometimes we lose balance in our lives. Work-life balance is one thing, but even more special and elusive is the work-life-volunteer balance. 

Over the last several months, we’ve seen many Kin Canada clubs celebrate major anniversaries. There have been 40, 60 and even 90 year milestones reached, which as a result, make us reflect on the accomplishments of the past (almost) 94 years Kin Canada has been around – and look forward to the future with determination to make the next 94 years just as noteworthy.

While Kin Canada clubs perform countless service projects and fundraisers each year, there’s a lot of additional coverage about them around this time because of the holiday-centered projects and events.

A hot topic in the non-profit sector is how to properly recognize volunteers. Knowing how to do this and engaging your volunteers will go a long way in providing a good volunteer experience. (Not to mention the benefits of when those positive experiences are shared with others; word of mouth is arguably the most effective marketing tool out there!).