Christmas is the perfect time of year to shower your volunteers with a little extra appreciation and thanks for all they do in your ministry! But it can be tricky to come up with creative ideas year after year and not feel like you’re stuck in a gift-giving rut. That’s why I’m excited to share this guest blog post from Jaden Howard, a DKM Vendor, on 5 tips for Volunteer Appreciation! These tips come from and helped create her Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Volunteer Appreciation Event.
What an honor to love and appreciate such an awesome team of volunteers! The goal of volunteer appreciation is to express gratitude and to make your volunteers feel seen and known. Although we all want to be like Oprah and shout out “you get a car…. you get a car” at all of our volunteer gatherings, we understand the limits of a ministry budget and the challenge of finding a gift for a wide range of different kinds of people. As you consider your next volunteer appreciation, here are 5 helpful tips to keep in mind!
- Think About Gifts People Actually Want: One of the hardest parts of volunteer appreciation is finding a gift people will actually enjoy. Take time to consider, “Is the gift I’m giving one that everyone on my team can enjoy?” For example, if you are giving out food, will certain volunteers with allergies feel excluded? Will that fancy floral candle make your male volunteers feel excited? Does that candy bar really express the value this person brings to the team? If you have an idea, feel free to run it by a few volunteers, or ask the question, “What kind of gift would you be excited to receive?”
- Provide Choices Where/When You Can: When giving gifts to your team as a whole, feel free to provide an option of choice(s) to ensure volunteers are getting something they feel excited about. This might look like providing a variety of flavors of a food gift that your team can choose their favorite from. Not every gift has to look exactly the same, and allowing your team to have a choice can add to their enjoyment of the gift!
- Presentation is a Gamechanger: Providing a gift wrapped with intention shows an entirely different level of appreciation to your volunteers. For example, imagine I gave you a $5 gift card to a local ice cream shop. So fun! Now imagine I took that gift card, placed it in a cup from that shop along with a fancy, colorful spoon, wrapped it in cellophane and ribbon, and placed a note card on the front. Wow! Does this take more time? Yes! Is it worth it? Yes!
- Make It Personal: You have the ability to make each gift a personal representation of your appreciation to each volunteer. This can be done by adding a handwritten note, calling out a specific way that volunteer impacts your ministry, or by providing a gift that each specific volunteer would enjoy. Let’s use our ice cream gift card as an example. Maybe during your onboarding process, you ask each volunteer what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. You can keep a log of this on a digital spreadsheet. When it’s time to pass out their $5 gift card to a local ice cream shop, include with it a card that says something like “Sally, enjoy a scoop of Butter Pecan on us!” You will leave your volunteers saying, “Wow, they remembered my favorite ice cream flavor!” Making a gift personal helps volunteers feel seen and known. This option isn’t just for small serving teams. If you need help creating a personal feel to your gift, invite your team leads to join in on honoring their team, or ask a group of parents who want to show appreciation to the leaders who care for their children.
- It’s OK to Give Different Gifts: Romans 10:17 talks about giving honor to whom it is due. As you consider giving gifts to your entire team, you may find that there are a few volunteers on your team who stand out among the rest. It is perfectly OK to provide a different or larger gift to those who have gone above and beyond on your team. This may look like acknowledging the person who has been serving for many years, or the person who comes in to help even when they are not scheduled, or the person who has been flexible and worked with multiple age groups when you needed help. Feel free to acknowledge their efforts in front of the rest of the team. If you need help choosing these individuals, invite your team leads to choose a person from their team to honor. Or even encourage your volunteers to nominate other volunteers whom they believe deserve “double honor”.
No matter what your volunteer appreciation looks like this Christmas, we hope these tips help!
Author Bio: Jaden lives in North Carolina with her husband and quickly growing family. She has been in full-time children’s ministry within the local church for the last six years, but has spent over thirteen years leading, serving, and caring for children and youth across a variety of ministries. Her biggest passion is making the Good News of the Gospel accessible to children and families! Find all of Jaden’s resources on Deeper KidMin here.
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