Just like keeping your players, retaining volunteers is crucial to ease the constant need for recruitment. When you retain volunteers long term, they grow into skilled contributors who become valuable assets for your club!

Create the best possible experience!

A great overall experience is ultimately what will keep people volunteering at your club. Ask your volunteers what they want to get out of their experience and how your club can help to achieve that.  

The 2023 Time Well Spent survey found 46% of volunteers continue in their role due to the impact they are having. Think about whether your volunteers can regularly see the positive contribution they are making. 

Say Thank You!

Recognition and rewards are rarely the motivation of volunteers, however, the importance of a simple “thank you” can’t be understated.  

Thanking your volunteers seems simple but is often overlooked. You don’t need a specific time or reason to recognise your volunteers and the least expected thanks is often the most appreciated. 

Here are some examples of how you can recognise and reward your volunteers:

• Offer free CPD opportunities
• Promote the work of your volunteers on your website, social media channels or in your newsletters E.G a profile on the work a volunteer does
• Offer volunteers free or discounted club kit and membership
• Offer to provide a reference
• Mention or list your volunteers in your annual report
• Offer a life membership
• Appoint to a supervisory or senior role within the club
• Recognition or a shout-out at matches
• Hand out end-of-season gifts or thank you cards. Have members of your club sign the card which can make it even more valuable to a volunteer
• Offer small gifts such as sports vouchers
• Send them a surprise thank you message, letter or E-Mail
• Ask sponsors to donate awards, these can be vouchers, products or experiences
• Get your players to film a volunteer thank you video
• Host a volunteer thank you lunch or dinner
• Nominate them for a local, regional or national volunteer awards
• Participate in national volunteers week (November 1st-7th)
• Download the below thank you certificates and present them to a volunteer

Club - thank you certificate

General - thank you certificate

When rewarding volunteers, it is important to ensure gifts or incentives can’t be interpreted as taxable income. This can have implications for your volunteers’ tax or benefits claims. Gifts can be viewed as taxable income in the following cases: 

• You reimburse an expense above the amount of the expense. 
• You gift a volunteer something that will increase in financial value. 
• You make payments to a volunteer for their time. 

Further information is available on the UK government website here.

Help them grow!

Offering development opportunities to your volunteers provides a mutual benefit to them and your club.  

Listen to what skills your volunteers are interested in developing and see how your club can help to achieve this. A more skilled volunteer workforce can positively impact all areas of your club. 

Club Matters offer free development workshops on topics like governance, financial planning, volunteer management, fundraising and much more. You can find out more and book courses here.