PTA runs on volunteers, from the person helping out at the book fair all the way up to the National PTA President. One way to build your PTA’s volunteer base and strengthen your PTA as a whole is to support your volunteers. Here are some ways you and your PTA can make sure your volunteers feel the love.

While the main reason people initially volunteer for your PTA is to help make your school a better place for their child, there are many other reasons why they continue to do so:

  • To meet and network with other people
  • To better know what’s going on at the school
  • To find a sense of community
  • To make a difference

Note that many of these reasons tie in to interpersonal relationships, and your volunteer recognition is one way to help build those relationships. Best practices for effective volunteer appreciation include:

  • Make volunteer appreciation a priority. Consider creating a Volunteer Coordinator position for your PTA who helps sign volunteers ups for tasks and makes sure their work is recognized.
  • Say “thank you” often. Thank people after the event, at your PTA meetings, and in a variety of ways.
  • Be creative. Don’t just have one big volunteer recognition at the end of the year. Consider simple and fun ways to recognize volunteers throughout the year.
  • Focus on the individual. Most people aren’t volunteering for the personal accolades, but everyone appreciates being recognized individually.
  • Make it prompt. Make sure your volunteers at an event get a thank you as soon as possible after the event (and maybe in more ways than one).

While most volunteer recognition ideas focus on the “thank you for volunteering,” there are other ways to recognize volunteers. Here are several ways you can recognize or thank your volunteers.

  • Have distinctive name tags for volunteers at events.
  • Send personalized thank you notes by mail, e-mail, phone call, or text.
  • Hand out recognition awards, even if it’s something simple like a personalized certificate, a candy bar, or a $5 coffee shop gift card.
  • Highlight your volunteers on social media, whether it’s just thanking a list of volunteers at an event or individual posts with photos of each volunteer working at an event.
  • Share a video thanking them on Tik Tok, Facebook, or other social media.
  • Give them a perk—if you have an event that requires tickets, provide your volunteers with a free ticket for admission, snacks, or activities. Let Book Fair volunteers pick out a free book for their child (up to a certain cost) or designate a free book for their child’s teacher or the school library.
  • Recognize long-time volunteers who are leaving your school by donating a book to the school library with a nice book plate noting that the book was donated in their honor by the PTA.
  • Got a volunteer who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, organizing, logistics, problem solving, or other skills? Give them a recommendation or endorsement on their LinkedIn profile.
  • Set aside some close parking spots for your volunteers at a busy event.

Volunteer appreciation doesn’t have to be expensive or flashy. It simply needs to be public, frequent, and heart-felt.

Graphic © 2013 by Pump Aid Pictures under Creative Commons license.