How do I motivate volunteers?

As we mentioned above, volunteers come and go. To make sure they come and stay you need to make sure they are getting appropriate value from being part of the Startup Grind community. Here are some tips:

Engage them and give them access: Many people join Startup Grind to get experience and meet people they look up to. Give them a chance to meet the speaker and ask her/him a question.

Give them more responsibilities: If you have more volunteers you could consider creating a new role called “Head of volunteers”. The idea behind this role is that volunteers gain more experience by managing other volunteers. You can rotate the role from time to time to send out a clear message: “Do your best and you will be rewarded.”

Acknowledge their work: Some people volunteer to improve their resume. That's totally fine. If they were helpful and showed up consistently, acknowledge that by writing them a LinkedIn recommendation or by giving them a simple certificate stating they volunteered with Startup Grind.

Look for the WHY: Each person's motivation will differ. Before you let a new volunteer join the team ask them WHY they want to do this and try to be as helpful as possible. Of course, test them out before you open up your network or give them a special access.