Community feedback: How to retain volunteers 

A good VMS is there to help you streamline and build your volunteer programme. But that’s just the start. When you transition to a VMS, you’ll gain access to tools, workflows and templates with the power to transform your entire volunteer retention strategy by:

1. Strengthening individual and group connections with smarter relationship management
2. Creating engaging, personalised content that resonates with volunteers
3. Regularly sharing news and social media updates that keep volunteers in the loop

Sound good? In this section, we’re exploring the real impact of digital volunteer retention tools. Looking at more than just features, we asked some of our non-profit community to share their experiences and explain how Access Assemble has helped them build successful strategies for retaining volunteers.

Personalise your communications

Managing a volunteer programme often means staying in touch with hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers. With so many people involved, it can be easy for someone to feel lost in the crowd. A good VMS will help you overcome this and build stronger, more personal relationships. After all, the closer someone feels to your organisation, the more likely they are to stay on. 

It will do this by offering a range of tools that help you:

• Communicate directly with volunteers through a dedicated hub
• Group volunteers by location, role, or interests for more targeted communications
• Send, log and track personalised emails and updates

What our community is saying:

The RSPCA has over 17,000 volunteers spread across its national society and local branches. With Access Assemble on their team, they’ve got everything they need to manage their communications and make sure that every volunteer feels heard.  

“One of our biggest challenges is how we communicate and reach such a large number of volunteers, but Assemble has really helped us to do this effectively. For example, we use the internal message centre if we want to speak with volunteers directly, which is ideal as it securely stores the history of these 1-1 chats.”

Brian Reeves, Head of Volunteer Experience - RSPCA

Find out more about the RSPCA’s experience

Engage and retain your volunteers

Along with personalised messages, regularly sharing organisational updates, news and impact stories is a great way to help your volunteers see the difference they make. It also provides valuable context, linking their efforts to the broader mission and fostering teamwork across the organisation.

Keeping volunteers informed doesn’t have to take up hours of your time. With a good VMS, you can:

• Create and publish tailored email and newsletter updates
• Send LIVE ‘push’ notifications through your volunteer app
• Build a dedicated news hub with articles and social media content

What our community is saying

Before Diabetes UK moved over to Access Assemble, the team used a CRM system to manage their volunteer data and communications. This meant that a lot of their work was done manually. Not anymore!

“One of the things that's made a real big difference to us is our news feature, highlighting things that are important. Giving volunteers a place where they seek out different opportunities, different ways to get involved, share their experience of living with diabetes. People have been really responsive to that. Assemble has really opened a lot of doors for us in terms of thinking about how we bring more people into the charity. We wouldn't have had the coordination or the ability to do that two years ago.”

Andy Broomhead, Head of Volunteering - Diabetes UK

Hear more from the Diabetes UK team

Provide valued feedback and recognition

As with any gift, volunteer contributions deserve recognition. Celebrating milestones, anniversaries, and achievements are a great way to do this. Feeling inspired? Why not take some time to spotlight and share volunteer stories with your wider supporter community—it’s a great way to highlight individual efforts, raise your programme’s profile, and help retain volunteers.

A VMS makes this process easier by helping you:

• Track key dates and send automated anniversary reminders
• Monitor volunteer impact and flag major milestones
• Integrate and use third-party systems to send a personalised ‘Thank You’

What our community is saying

Thanks to Access Assemble, Barnardo’s now has a clear view of volunteer activities and can consolidate data from local offices into a central hub for easy sharing and celebration.

“It has been a pleasure to see how Children’s Services and volunteer managers have taken to Assemble. There has been a huge change in culture and as a result we’ve seen greater collaboration between teams and an increase in engagement from volunteers. Simple features, such as the ability for volunteers to see a running tally of how many hours they have contributed is so rewarding and a real motivator.”

Ben Hughes, Project Manager - Barnardo’s

Read more about the Barnardo’s experience

Stay in touch with ‘alumni’ volunteers

All good things come to an end, and at some point even your most committed volunteers will move on. That doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye. As volunteers grow into their role, many will build a strong, emotional connection to your organisation, and will welcome the chance to stay in touch. 

Don’t be afraid to develop a bespoke ‘alumni’ journey that keeps former volunteers updated and engaged. They will value the connection, and you never know when someone might return as a donor or legacy giver!

Speak to our experts about retaining volunteers for the long term

Retaining volunteers is the key to building and sustaining a successful programme — and a VMS can make all the difference. Access Assemble is there to help you transform your strategies for retaining volunteers and find new, creative ways to build relationships that go the distance.

Want to find out more about how to retain volunteers? Connect with a member of our team today.