Volunteer Engagement & Retention Brainstorming for a Global Refugee Nonprofit

We’re looking to strengthen how we engage and retain our volunteers at Creshendo. In this one-hour session, we’d like to brainstorm with a human resources expert or volunteer management professional on what a strong, sustainable volunteer retention system could look like for a small but growing nonprofit like ours.

Our goals for this session include:
• Getting feedback on our current volunteer onboarding and engagement approach
• Exploring best practices for keeping volunteers motivated and involved long-term, especially in virtual or remote settings
• Understanding what low-lift systems or check-ins we could implement to boost volunteer satisfaction and consistency
• Discussing ideas for volunteer recognition and appreciation that feel meaningful but are still doable for a small team

Creshendo is a global nonprofit supporting refugee communities, and we work with volunteers across many time zones. Our volunteers are involved remotely, so we’re especially interested in ideas that work well for distributed teams and international groups. We already have a Volunteer Engagement Lead and basic onboarding in place, but we need guidance to take our retention efforts to the next level.

By the end of this session, we hope to walk away with a clearer direction and a few actionable ideas we can start putting into practice right away.