Seasonal Events and Holiday Volunteering

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Diwali, Chanukah. Holidays and festivals like these can create even busier times for organisations that run fundraising drives or develop special projects tied to these events in an attempt to reach more of the communities they serve.

As evidenced during the most recent holiday season, some organisations depend on existing volunteers to put in extra shifts. Others view a special seasonal time of year as a great opportunity to recruit new volunteers to their causes; these volunteers may come to help out at a one-off event only, while others can likely be retained and end up making longer-term volunteer commitments. Still other organisations or projects exist and operate only n the run-up to and during the holiday period itself. Do they get the same volunteers to return year after year? And if so, how do they make that work?

In this Along the Web, Arnie Wickens presents websites of various organisations that have created a reputation or brand identity from identifying their work with holiday seasonal times, based on effectively recruiting volunteers to maintain the work they do. This article offers a wealth of tips that will prove invaluable when planning the next crunch of seasons and holiday volunteering.