How to Create a Winning Volunteer Newsletter: Ideas, Examples and Templates to Inspire

Keeping your volunteers updated about your organization, all of the upcoming events and opportunities is vital. The easiest way to do this is through emails, but are you sending too many?

Are your volunteers’ inboxes full of “Opportunity/People needed/Come out to help with this thing”? Because of this you may deal with poor engagement, low open rates and maybe even lapsed volunteers.

If this sounds like your organization then it might be time for a volunteer newsletter.

What is a Volunteer Newsletter

A volunteer newsletter is a regular email you send to your volunteers, this could be on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. It will contain all the information your active volunteers need to know, plus this is a great way to show appreciation and build a stronger relationship.

Rather than sending an individual email every time there’s a new volunteer opportunity or project update, you can compile this into one monthly newsletter. Plus your volunteer newsletter can share information on social events for volunteers, show appreciation and share impact stories from their efforts.

Keep in mind this will be different than a member newsletter. This email is just for your volunteers, ensuring they get the vital information they need about volunteering.

What Does a Volunteer Newsletter Do?

Sending out a volunteer-specific newsletter can reduce email by corralling all the necessary information into one place. While you’ll still need to send reminders and updates, a volunteer newsletter can do a lot of the heavy lifting for sharing information.

Remember: Many of those reminders and updates won’t go to your whole volunteer contact base – just the ones signed up for the opportunity and involved with the project. These reminders might also be in the form of a text notification or an alert from your volunteer app (if you have one).

How to Build a Proper Volunteer Newsletter in 5 Steps

Even if you don’t have a ton of volunteers or many opportunities to wrangle, a regular volunteer newsletter can accomplish a lot. Plus, it doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment! Here’s 5 simple steps to build a proper volunteer newsletter your volunteers will actually read.

1. Create a Simple Template

To save time building your newsletter each week, month or quarter, utilize a template. This will be the basic structure of every piece of communication you send to your volunteers. A good starting point is:

Straightforward Subject Line

Make sure your newsletter recipients know what you’re sending with a straightforward subject line. This could be something as simple as “[Organization Name] Volunteer Voice – November 2024 🍁” or “Shaping Change: [Organization Name] Volunteer Updates & Opportunities”

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

Highlight any opportunities to give time and make an impact on the community. Add a small description, number of hours and an easy link to sign up and volunteer.

Volunteer Recognition and Impact

In this section, you should be highlighting the good work your volunteers do. You can have a couple of things depending on the goal of your volunteer email newsletter. Consider including:

• Volunteer of the month spotlight
• Number of hours volunteers have contributed (this month, this year or last month)
• Impact story from a recent service opportunity
• Thank you note to all volunteers

Event Calendar

If there are upcoming volunteer events, share them in a calendar format to make scheduling easy. This will be things like larger community service projects, social events for volunteers, training opportunities, etc.

Organization Updates

This is where you can briefly update volunteers on your organization as a whole. For example, the amount raised during your last fundraising event or if renovations have been completed on the office.

Volunteer Resources

If you have content like blogs, webinars or case studies that your volunteers would find useful, link them here. This is all about offering tips on how to develop as a volunteer and providing educational resources.

Calls to Action (CTA)

Encourage your volunteers to be even further engaged by including a CTA to donate, attend an event, sign up for shifts or share feedback. You can even sprinkle these throughout your newsletter if they’re more applicable in other sections.

Footer

This is where you link all the organizational information a volunteer might need. Include contact information, social media, volunteer portal sign in, unsubscribe link and your organization’s website.

2. Determine Relevant Content

Your newsletter should only have information that relates to your volunteer-base. What you put in your email should help you achieve your purpose – informing, recognizing and encouraging volunteer engagement.

When looking for pieces to include, ask yourself if a volunteer would find it helpful to their volunteer efforts. It’s always good to get their feedback too on what they’d like to receive to their inbox!

3. Establish a Consistent Schedule

Depending on how robust your volunteer program is, you may want to send a volunteer newsletter more or less frequently. Many organizations see success with a monthly email, but weekly or bi-weekly might be needed. Use your best judgement – you know your organization the best! Don’t forget to ask your volunteers what they would prefer for the most engagement.

Once you establish your schedule, stick to it. Your volunteers will expect your newsletter on a specific day on a regular basis – don’t leave them hanging or confused by sending newsletter sporadically.

4. Analyze, Monitor and Improve

Use analytics to track how well your newsletter is performing. If volunteers aren’t opening your newsletters and you’re getting a high unsubscribe rate, you’ll need to pivot. Maybe the email is too long, the content isn’t relevant to volunteers or something else. Metrics like open rates, click-through rates and which links are clicked can guide you in refining future editions.

5. Utilize Software

Chances are your organization uses some sort of membership management software to communicate with members already. Use this software for your volunteer newsletter to optimize! In a membership management software, you can:

• Build newsletters from customizable templates
• Automate sending the newsletters
• Segment your volunteer audience from the contact database
• Schedule out newsletters in advance
• Manage volunteer events and build online registration forms
• Analyze data and report on newsletter success

Our software, WildApricot, can do all this and more! If you’re curious about implementing software to help manage not only your volunteers, but your whole organization, try a 60-day free trial!

Volunteer Newsletter Ideas to Include

You can use your volunteer newsletter to do a lot of things for your volunteers. Whether your goal is to highlight opportunities inform, share updates, entertain, recognize volunteers or a hybrid of many, consider including some of these in the next edition of your newsletter.

Update Volunteers on Your Organization

Your volunteers might not be aware of changes to your organization, including this in your newsletter will keep them up to date. These changes could be leadership changes, building renovations, fundraising initiatives or events.

Highlight New Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are connected to your organization to…volunteer – surprising I know. So make sure you highlight any chances to let them sign up and give their time. This allows them to have all new opportunities in one email in their inbox, ensuring they never miss a service moment.

Celebrate Good News and Break Bad News

If your organization has volunteer goals, such as hours or specific community accomplishments, you’ll want to share this news. If you’ve surpassed your monthly goal for hours on the third week, celebrate and share in the email. If something has set you back for completing a service job, like a shipping delay on building materials, include this bad news too.

Remind Volunteers of Important Dates

Any important dates your volunteers need to be aware of should be put in your volunteer newsletter. Consider dates like:

• Registration deadlines
• Due dates for forms, payments and hour submissions
• Service project days
• Volunteer appreciation events
• Social get-togethers

Alert Volunteers to Community Opportunities

Your volunteers likely share common interests, if there are opportunities in your community that align with those, highlight them in your newsletter. Some examples are free CPR training, an exhibit at a local museum, a book discussion, seminar with an important speaker etc.

Address Common Issues

Having a regular volunteer survey will allow you to see if volunteers are having issues with your volunteer program. Address these issues in your newsletter to offer solutions and make sure volunteers feel hear. These challenges could be:

• Transportation to service jobs
• Resources available for volunteers during activities
• Number of available opportunities (too many or too few)
• Digital issues (logging volunteer hours, signing up, editing profiles in the portal)

Introduce Volunteers to Each Other

Whenever you have new volunteers join your organization, it’s nice to highlight them in the newsletter. Make it easy for other volunteers to connect with one another and learn about the new faces they’ll see at service opportunities.

Thank and Appreciate Volunteers

Volunteers need to feel recognized for the hard work and time they contribute to your organization. Be sure to say thank you in every newsletter. A little appreciation can go a long way and you can even highlight upcoming appreciation events in your emails too. Implement a volunteer of the month spotlight to recognize someone who goes above and beyond each month!

Impact Stories

The work your volunteers do for your organization and community is substantial and needs to be heard by all. After a successful service job, ask the individual or community how your volunteers benefitted them. Put together an impact story and share it in your newsletter. This will go a long way in making volunteers feel recognized and a good way to improve engagement.

Answer FAQs

There will always be frequently asked questions about your volunteer program, use space in your newsletter to answer them! These questions could be about what to wear when volunteering, what to bring to events, how to get to a service job or how many hours they need to maintain “active volunteer” status.

Link to the Volunteer Portal

Your volunteers should know how to log into your volunteer portal and track their hours, but they may have lost the link or forgot how to get there. Having a clear link in your volunteer newsletter will save them time searching on their own (or messaging the volunteer coordinator).

Share Helpful Content

Including new educational content for your volunteers in your next newsletter can help them grow. This could be an on-demand webinar from someone in the industry about volunteer impact, a blog on sustainability and recycling or maybe a how to on safe practices for trapping stray animals. Depending on your organization and your specific mission, the resources you share will be different for every volunteer program.

Consider the most important things to include in your newsletter. You don’t want to overwhelm volunteers with too much information. Perhaps your monthly newsletter focuses on 3 things: share opportunities, appreciate volunteers and update them on the organization. Feel free to pick and choose from this list of ideas when building your next newsletter.

5 Tips for the Best Volunteer Newsletter

Of course, publishing a volunteer newsletter is only the first step. It takes a little more thought to make it a useful resource that your volunteers will want to read.

1. Keep It Short

If you want volunteers to read your newsletter, don’t overload them with content. If you’re mailing a print newsletter, you may be able to include some extras, but if you’re sending an email newsletter, brevity is in order. If you have longer stories to share, consider including a paragraph or two, and linking to the rest of the story on your website.

2. Highlight the Most Important Information

What’s the most important thing for your volunteers to get from the newsletter? Highlight that information with design elements like boxes, lines, and bold text. Put it in a prominent part of the newsletter, and include links so that they can take action immediately.

3. Consult with Volunteers

What do volunteers want in a newsletter?

If you don’t know, don’t just guess: ask them! Take a brief survey, bring it up in a meeting, or casually chat about it with volunteers. You’ll learn a lot and start off headed in the right direction.

As time goes on, you can also check in with your audience by looking at your email analytics. What kind of links do they click on? Which emails never get opened? That’s all data about what your volunteers want in the newsletter, too.

4. Create a Strong Brand

Your volunteer newsletter can help volunteers connect with your organization and build community. Volunteer newsletter names, fonts, and layout can all work together to make your newsletter feel like something special. Use a template to easily keep your newsletter consistent from month-to-month.

5. Always Include an Appreciation Section

Your volunteer newsletter is not just about news, it’s also an opportunity to tell your volunteers how much you appreciate them. Include your newsletter in your larger appreciation strategy by showcasing volunteers’ contributions, thanking them publicly and celebrating their service.

Read more: How to Write a Newsletter Your Members Will Actually Want to Read

5 Volunteer Newsletter Examples

If you’re looking to get started (or have a long-standing newsletter you just want to revamp) here are a few examples to inspire you.

1. Palatine Parks Volunteer Voice

This volunteer newsletter has a strong brand, with a name, logo, and photos of volunteers in action. It highlights upcoming opportunities by putting them in a brightly-colored box at the top of the document.

2. Brightwater Group

Brightwater Group has a print-style newsletter that they publish online. The information is presented in small sections with engaging headlines so that viewers want to read further.

3. Louisiana Master Naturalist Greater New Orleans

This is another print-style online publication, with the most crucial information confined to the front page. The main body features bold text so that even if you skim, you know how to join a committee. The list of volunteer events is succinct, with the option to click the title for more information.

4. Food Share

Page through the online edition of Food Share’s volunteer newsletter, and you’ll see how it helps volunteers learn more about new opportunities, like on this page about the senior nutrition gardening program. Eye-catching photos combine with just enough text so that volunteers know what the program is about and how to get involved.

5. KMC Red Cross

This volunteer newsletter from KMC Red Cross is a good example of keeping things to the point. The front page prioritizes two urgent volunteer opportunities and one short report on the organization’s service stats, along with an events calendar. The following pages dig in more with information about health and safety, youth volunteering, and more calendar dates.

Three Volunteer Newsletter Templates to Send the Perfect Email

If you’re using WildApricot, you’ll already know that we offer a wide variety of email templates that you can use to communicate with volunteers as well as members and donors.

(And if you’re not — you can start your free 60-day trial today.)

If you want to start sending out a volunteer newsletter, all you have to do is select one of our many templates. You can then customize the text and format to your liking using our drag-and-drop email editor. All of our templates are also mobile-friendly, so they can be opened on any device.

To get you started, here are a few we provide that would be particularly applicable:

1. For When You Want to Feature an Image

This template is ideal for situations in which you want your newsletter to have an image that pops to attract immediate interest, such as sharing a new initiative with volunteers.

2. For When You Have a Lot to Share

If you have a lot of blog updates or other links that you want to share with your volunteers, this template is a great choice!

3. For When You Just Want Something Simple

Don’t want anything too complicated? This template is great for simple text updates.

And even if none of these are quite right, it’s easy to create your own email template.

Bring Volunteers Into the Loop

Starting a volunteer newsletter at your nonprofit doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Ultimately, volunteers will get involved and stay at organizations where they feel included, welcomed, and appreciated and your volunteer newsletter can help them have those experiences. Even a short monthly missive, easily created with a template, can make your volunteers feel more included and keep them up-to-date on everything they need to know about your organization.

Over time, you’ll notice that volunteers seem more aware of each other and all of the volunteer opportunities, not just what they were personally involved with. And volunteers will be so glad you don’t send a million emails anymore!