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AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah does not buy a lot of "cheap plastic stuff" to promote volunteerism. We strategically order key items to recognize volunteers and promote volunteerism at AAA. For example, AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah hosts nearly 500 community service events involving teams of employees each year. These events are led by employee volunteers who agree to take on additional leadership responsibilities to coordinate and manage these events. AAA provides these team leaders with excellent quality, professional-looking, button-down long sleeved shirts to thank these team leaders. The employee volunteer team leaders wear these shirts with pride and these shirts serve as a great recognition item. Executive management knows about these long-sleeved shirts and often give "kudos" to those employees who are wearing them.

AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah also sends out an annual gift item to EVERY employee who has registered at the AngelPoints volunteer website at www.aaavolunteers.org. This inexpensive gift item has encouraged other employees to register at www.aaavolunteers.org so they can also receive the gift item.

Lastly, AAA provides specific gift items relevant to the event. For example, our Habitat for Humanity volunteers often receive leather AAA work gloves; our AIDS Ride Bike Team and Bike for Breath Bicycle Riders receive a AAA Cycling Jersey; our American Cancer Society Relay for Life volunteers receive Pink AAA Car Key Chains; our volunteers who help clean up National Parks like Yosemite receive hats to protect them from the sun; and our Junior Achievement employee volunteers receive small AAA gift items to give to all the kids they are teaching.

Roger Hancock
AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah
AAA Volunteers - 2007 Points of Light Foundation Awards for Excellence in Workplace Volunteer Programs recipient

A few thoughts:

1) when thinking about items to give away to promote programs, think of items that have a long shelf life. If your employees keep these items around at work or at home, they will constantly be reminded of your programs and your brand

2) include the url of your site on all of your items. constantly reminding your employees of where to go to get involved will build good habits and drive participation

3) try to tie in the nonprofits or people that you serve. one client included the artwork of the kids they helped on the items they gave away. this could bring more meaning to the "stuff" you give away

4) good old fashioned thank you notes for all those that participate in your programs is a great way to recognize volunteers and promote your programs on an ongoing basis

At Coors, our volunteers provide more than just services to our community, they provide leadership through their volunteerism. To encourage them to keep the momentum up in volunteerism - we distribute a "You Are Looking at a Leader" magnetic mirror that volunteers can attach to their cubicle wall, or file cabinet.

The mirror is in the shape of an oval and the outer edges are made of flexible-rubber type material forming a neat square around the mirror. We print "You Are Looking at a Leader" at the top of the mirror, and at the bottom of the mirror, we print "Thank you for volunteering through www.coorsvolunteers.com !". This way, they always have the URL handy as a gentle reminder to log-in and register for events, as well as to log their independent volunteer hours.

At every event, we start out with a welcome announcement and the first thing we do is remind our volunteers that their service provides fantastic community development and it also provides a great example of leadership for their co-workers, their families and their children. This really seems to resonate with them, the heads begin to nod and you can almost see the energy rising throughout the crowd. Thanks AngelPoints for giving us a forum to learn about how other companies encourage volunteerism through fun activities and give-away items. I really appreciate learning through other teams' best practices!

Volunteers serve in many capacities including advocacy, program support, community outreach, fundraising and more. All of us have dedicated volunteers who provide service throughout our agencies and communities every day, but how do you manage the volunteer program? More often, departments are finding it necessary to establish a structured volunteer management program that assists in the promotion, recruitment, training, supervision and recognition of volunteers in an organized and efficient manner.

You may ask where to begin when establishing a structured volunteer program--P.E.P. is a volunteer management tool used by many volunteer managers in the field and it stands for Preparation, Engagement and Perpetuation. P.E.P. can be adapted to fit any agency's need.

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