National Volunteering Week is a week long celebration of volunteering taking place from Monday 15 May – Sunday 21 May 2023.
Each year across Ireland, National Volunteering Week includes a range of events, activities and online campaigns that showcase all that is great about volunteering
This year’s theme is Connecting Communities and aims to highlight how volunteering gives a sense of belonging – belonging to a community, a group, or a place.
Here are some ideas on how you can promote your organisation and recognise volunteers while raising your profile online:
Share Volunteering Stories
Volunteering stories can help you to recognise the achievements of individual volunteers- but they may also attract new volunteers to your programme.
If you have someone in mind for a story, you might ask them for an interview and write their story for them. You could also try sending out an email to suitable volunteers with a set of questions for them to answer. Make sure to ask for a picture to post with the story- preferably of the volunteer in action!
If you have tech savvy volunteers you could ask them to send in a video story. In this case we would advise asking them to answer just one question so that the video isn’t too long. It could be something simple such as Why do you volunteer? or How has volunteering helped you connect with your community?
Organise an Event
A volunteer event is a great way to thank volunteers during NVW. Some event ideas to consider:
- offer volunteers an opportunity to upskill with a training session
- hold a social event where volunteers can get to know eachother better such as a coffee morning or or afternoon tea.
Show volunteers your appreciation
Have your volunteers achieved something that you can measure and thank them for? You could show appreciation with a certificate, or just by sending an email or card showing what you have achieved over the year with their help.
Create an online campaign
You may not have time or resources to run an event, but with a little planning, an online campaign can help thank volunteers, generate interest in your organisation and promote the value of volunteers in helping you to achieve your goals.
Consider posting a thank you video from staff to volunteers, or post short stories and pictures of volunteers in action.
You can find more NVW resources, including posters, social media graphics and templates here:
Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtags #ConnectingCommunities & #NVWIreland so we can promote your posts!