The OpenWater Blog

The Big Impact of Micro-volunteering

Planning your awards ceremony requires lots of work and organization. Once you have taken care of the details – accepting submissions, picking winners, selecting speakers, finding a site – there’s still more to prepare: the event itself!

When does everything need to be set up? Who is going to set up? What about registration? Who’s going to take pictures? How are we going to keep track of attendees as they arrive? How are attendees going to find their way around?

One source you could be accessing to help with those added little details is micro-volunteers. Don’t know what those are? I didn’t either until I read this article on AssociationsNow recently.

Micro-volunteers are people within your organization who do not hold high level positions and do not have a great amount of time to devote to volunteering. Instead they contribute in small ways like sharing your content on Facebook, retweeting your tweets, or … helping out with small tasks at events!

Because this kind of volunteering works with small, one-time roles, it may seem more trouble than it is worth to get organized. However, according to Peggy Hoffman micro-volunteers now make up 59.5% of volunteers. That is a huge number that you don’t want to miss out on.

Here are some ways they can help you out with your awards ceremony:

• Greeters – Welcome attendees and show them where they need to go
• Set up/strike – Arrive early/stay late to help set up and take down things in the event space
• Photos/Videos – Organically capture the spirit of the event
• Registration – Have them man the front desk to help attendees check in

If you’re worried about getting people to put in the time, give them an incentive. Some ideas:

• Discount on registration for the event
• Small gift/merchandise from the event (everyone loves free t-shirts)
• Recognition during the event
• Special group photo of all volunteers
• Shout-out in your organization’s next newsletter or blog post talking about the event

So on top of finding a new way to take care of the little details of an event, you are also building loyalty to your organization. Micro-volunteers that contribute in some small way feel more engaged and valuable to the organization and may become more involved in the future. Hoffman says that “83 percent of micro-volunteers would recommend it to friends and family, and 95 percent plan to continue micro-volunteering in the future.”

How has micro-volunteering helped your organization?

Miriam Hancock

Miriam Hancock
Miriam is the Marketing Coordinator for OpenWater. When she isn't writing and designing content she paints and cooks for her own personal blog.

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