Effectively Recognizing Parent & Guardian Volunteers

Parents and guardians volunteer at their children’s schools for all sorts of reasons, whether it’s to ensure their kids have positive school experiences, connect with their community, or simply because volunteering feels good. No matter the reason, volunteering can be its own reward. However, it shouldn’t be the only reward. 

Appreciation efforts can help nonprofits of all kinds, including schools, boost their volunteer retention rates, decreasing the number of volunteers you’ll need to re-recruit for each fundraiser, event, or activity. To help your school improve its volunteer program, this guide will explain why volunteer appreciation matters and share a few helpful recognition strategies.

Why does volunteer appreciation matter?

According to Double the Donation’s volunteer statistics report, about one-third of the nonprofit workforce consists of volunteers. Plus, 62% of nonprofits share that recruiting volunteers is a “big problem.”

This means that parent and guardian volunteers are a core part of your school’s support system—and recruiting them is not easy. Fortunately, the most efficient answer to recruiting issues is to retain the volunteers you have, and acknowledging your volunteers’ hard work will make them more likely to continue helping your school.

Plus, showing appreciation has a few other incredibly important benefits:

• Earn community support. If your school develops a reputation for recognizing parent volunteers and creating a positive volunteer work environment, you’ll only earn more support from your community! Volunteers will recommend helping out at your school to others, and those with connections may be more willing to leverage them on your school’s behalf, such as to secure a sponsorship with a local business. 

• Retain skilled volunteers. Occasionally, your school may have volunteer roles that require special skill sets, such as social media marketing or graphic design. By recognizing the parent volunteers who have these skills, you can retain valuable, even irreplaceable volunteers, saving you the costs of hiring a third-party service. 
• Build supporter relationships. Parents already have a connection with your school through their children, and volunteering at your school should deepen that connection. Appreciation efforts make parent volunteers think even more highly of your school, deepening your relationships with these supporters, which can lead to even more support (such as donating!) down the line.

Appreciating your volunteers is essential for helping your school’s programs and activities find success. Along with ensuring you host fun and memorable events for your students, appreciation allows you to cultivate a supportive community that wants to see your school succeed. 

3 Volunteer Recognition Ideas

1. Experiment with eCards.

Appreciation eCards are a quick and easy but memorable way to recognize volunteers. Rather than waiting for a thank-you card to arrive by mail, your volunteers will get recognized almost immediately by receiving an eCard in their inbox. 

While your school can send eCards to parent volunteers to show your appreciation, incorporating a peer-to-peer element into your eCards might make them more meaningful. 

eCardWidget’s peer-to-peer recognition guide explains what this approach looks like: “Peer-to-peer recognition, also known as social recognition, describes the process of coworkers or teammates recognizing one another for their hard work… Ultimately, it’s a laterally-focused team-building activity that strengthens relationships to build a positive work environment.” 

Here’s an example of what an inclusive, peer-to-peer eCard strategy might look like at your school: 

• Create branded eCard designs. This might mean making eCards that are entirely your school’s colors and prominently feature your logo, or you can just add your logo in a corner and create whatever design you want. For example, to celebrate walk-a-thon volunteers, you might create eCards with photographs of running shoes or students running.

• Let students, teachers, and other volunteers write messages. Let anyone use your eCard platform to send eCards to volunteers. Specifically reach out to teachers to encourage them to send eCards and help their students write eCard messages.

• Schedule eCards to get sent out. Let eCard senders set their eCards to go out immediately, or you can collect eCards from students, teachers, and other volunteers and schedule a time for them to be sent out.

For an example of this strategy in action, check out these eCards from the Girl Scouts: 

As part of their communication plan, the Girl Scouts created eCards that anyone, including troop leaders, fellow volunteers, and scouts could send to troop volunteers they saw go above and beyond. 

2. Host appreciation events. 

Show appreciation for volunteers by giving them a chance to socialize, have some fun, and celebrate everything they’ve accomplished with an appreciation event. These events can be big or small depending on your school’s budget and your parent volunteers’ preferences.

For example, you might host:

• Casual lunches. Take your volunteers out to lunch. This can happen during or after any normal volunteer activity as an added perk for helping your school. Give them a break and encourage parent volunteers to use it as an opportunity to get to know one another. 

• Planned events. After a major event or fundraiser, host a planned appreciation event. This can be a fancy dinner or family-friendly picnic where they’re encouraged to bring their kids. These events do require planning and resources, but they show your volunteers you want to go the extra mile to celebrate their hard work.  

• Virtual gatherings. Parent volunteers are busy people and may not always have time to attend extra activities. Make getting appreciated easy by hosting virtual events. These should be light-hearted, casual events designed to help volunteers socialize. For instance, you might host a trivia night and create break-out rooms for teams to chat with each other and come up with their answers.

Tailor your events to your volunteers’ preferences. Be conscious that parent volunteers have a lot on their plates, and the easier it is to attend an event, the better. This means scheduling planned volunteer appreciation events far in advance and choosing dates and times when more of your volunteers will be able to attend.

3. Create volunteer awards. 

For parents who really go the extra mile, consider recognizing all of their hard work with an appreciation award. The recipients of these awards can be decided by your volunteer managers, or you can let volunteers vote for winners. 

For instance, a few awards you might hand out include:

• The Team Player Award
• Best Mentor
• Volunteer of the Year
• Most Hours Volunteered 

If you have only a handful of regular parent volunteers, try to have an award ready for all of them. These celebrations don’t have to be serious, formal affairs. Instead, treat them as fun bonding experiences for your entire volunteer team to give themselves a pat on the back with potentially silly awards like Best Dad Jokes and Most Enthusiastic Cheerer. 

Parent and guardian volunteers are true superheroes for your school, going the extra mile to ensure your school has the support and resources it needs to create positive experiences and outcomes for students. Celebrate these volunteers in various ways, starting with the ones listed above!