Whether you organize a Day of Caring, operate a volunteer center, or respond to requests for volunteer opportunities as they arise, your United Way is in the business of promoting local volunteerism. But, how much good are your volunteer opportunities really doing for your United Way?

On the surface, organizing or promoting volunteer opportunities seems like an all-around win. First, volunteering has low barriers to access, which means people from all walks of life can be involved. This makes volunteering a great opportunity to build relationships between the whole community and your United Way. Second, volunteering is a great way to cultivate donors; after building an emotional connection with a nonprofit through volunteering, community members are seven times more likely to become donors. Lastly, volunteering simply makes your community a better place, as it brings more hands to support your work.

While this is all true, looking at the kind of volunteer opportunities most United Ways provide reveals that many United Ways are missing the mark and failing to truly create opportunities for their own volunteer-to-donor conversions.

This is because most United Ways have a long history of serving as matchmakers that connect volunteers to other nonprofits that have their own volunteer opportunities. Whether the mechanism for matching volunteers with opportunities is a Day of Caring, a volunteer center, or passing requests for volunteer opportunities to other nonprofits, the volunteer opportunities most United Ways organize do not actually involve volunteering for United Way.

While mobilizing local volunteers certainly does good for communities, acting as matchmaker does little good for United Ways. When United Ways pass through volunteers to other nonprofits, they form emotional relationships with those nonprofits instead of United Way. This means that the volunteers United Ways pass through are seven times more likely to become donors to whatever nonprofit they were sent to – not United Way!

If your United Way is acting only as a matchmaker to other nonprofits, you are missing out on valuable opportunities to cultivate new relationships and donors. If you want your efforts to promote local volunteerism to benefit both your community and your United Way, you need to offer your own volunteer opportunities.

Admittedly, if your United Way doesn’t have its own initiatives, organizing in-house volunteer opportunities can be a challenge. However, if your United Way is in this position, don’t worry! Our next blog post will cover how your United Way can build your own unique volunteer event.

Until then, remember the importance of connecting volunteers with your United Way. Before you match volunteers to another nonprofit, take time to look internally and identify opportunities for volunteers to build relationships with your United Way. Once you’ve identified your own volunteer opportunities, use your position as a matchmaker to start converting your own volunteers to new donors.