happy fundraiser sitting at laptop

Virtual volunteer fundraisers

Published: 04/05/20 | Categories: Funding, Author: Emma Morgan

Emma Morgan, Volunteer at WCVA, explains why you should consider creating volunteer virtual fundraising roles for your organisation.

The Covid-19 crisis is proving a challenging time for the sector with income from trading and fundraising events plummeting. Donations from individuals as a steady source of income are now more essential than ever to many organisations. Have you considered adding a volunteer fundraising role to your volunteering offer to supplement this?

You could potentially enhance the income of your organisation by creating fundraising roles. With many people furloughed or unable to attend their place of work, there is huge public demand to get involved and help organisations through the crisis by volunteering. Combining this enthusiasm to help with roles in fundraising could provide you with much needed additional financial resource in the coming months.

How can I bring in volunteers to fundraise?

Volunteers can be great ambassadors for your cause. Their enthusiasm and innovative ideas have the potential to both raise funds and levels of public engagement with your organisation. However before welcoming these valuable volunteers, it is worth spending some time considering how you will introduce the role to your organisation.

Who will coordinate and be in touch with the volunteers? Will you set any targets for the fundraising? As these volunteers will be motivating their own fundraising efforts what can you do to support and steer their enthusiasm?

  • You can set out suggestions for fundraising, such as sponsored walks, sponsored silence of something even more creative
  • Scheduling regular calls is a good way to induct and monitor volunteers whilst they are home based. This is beneficial to you the organisation, as it will allow you to monitor any progress and ensure they are following the Code of Fundraising Practice and it also helps the volunteers feel included as a valued member of the team.

Remember to consider

As volunteers cannot replace paid workers, they should be viewed as complementing existing staff roles; any fundraising they do is bringing added value to the organisation.

Recruitment and advertising

Once you have a clear idea of what fundraising opportunity you can offer volunteers, the next stage is to think about how to recruit them.

  • What kind of person (or groups of people) would be interested in fundraising for your particular cause? Think individuals, but also think about how groups of people might get involved i.e. employees, youth groups, families
  • How you will attract them to fundraise for your organisation amongst heavy competition?
  • How can you promote the fundraising opportunity in a way, which means that potential fundraisers will feel inspired to raise donations for you?

Advertise on Volunteering Wales

A great way to reach keen volunteers is to advertise, for free, on the Volunteering Wales website. Since the covid-19 outbreak thousands of people have signed up to the website, keen to help during the Covid-19 crisis. One advantage of using the site is that your virtual fundraisers can come from far and wide across the country. By branching out like this you may even recruit volunteers that have not heard about the great work you do.

To help you create an enticing virtual volunteer fundraiser role we have created a template for you to use. This will be helpful for uploading the role onto the Volunteering Wales platform (www.volunteering-wales.net)