4 Tips to Turn Volunteers into Digital Ambassadors

Peer-to-peer marketing is one of the most powerful ways to spread the word about your nonprofit. Since 88% of people trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel, mobilizing your supporters to promote your cause to their personal networks can have an immense impact.

Your volunteers can lead these peer-to-peer marketing campaigns, becoming digital ambassadors for your cause and sharing your mission with their families and friends. Through a digital ambassador program, you can provide highly engaged or long-time volunteers with an additional involvement opportunity that simultaneously expands your reach.

This guide explores ways to transform volunteers into digital ambassadors who can elevate your digital fundraising and marketing efforts. Whether your volunteers are digital natives or technologically challenged, these tips will make it easy for supporters to advocate for your mission online.

1. Set guidelines for your digital ambassador program.

Starting with an intentional planning process ensures your ambassador program runs smoothly, supports your outreach goals, and helps your organization achieve a higher return on its marketing investment. Develop an effective digital ambassador program by taking the following steps:

• Establish criteria for choosing digital ambassadors. Use your volunteer management software to identify long-time or highly engaged volunteers. Ideally, these volunteers will have an online presence, whether a personal blog or social media account. Carefully vet volunteers’ profiles or sites to ensure their content is appropriate for your nonprofit’s audience.
• Provide guidelines for promoting your organization. Give parameters for what is appropriate to post on behalf of your organization, and highlight specific messages or taglines your organization prefers to use. For example, if you’re promoting an upcoming text-to-give campaign, you might ask volunteers to use the tagline, “Mobilize change on your mobile device!” You may also recommend how often to share social media content and the best time to post to boost engagement.
• Equip volunteers with marketing collateral. Share videos, infographics, and high-quality photos that volunteers can use to discuss your organization online. Also, provide them with informational resources, such as statistics about your organization and links to your most important landing pages, that they can leverage to enrich their content.

With clear guidelines, volunteers will feel more comfortable becoming brand ambassadors for your organization, allowing you to conduct a smoother recruitment process and get up and running quickly.

2. Recruit volunteers for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

Volunteers can take an even more active role in your online community by becoming peer-to-peer fundraisers. In peer-to-peer campaigns, participants create personalized fundraising pages and share them with family and friends to raise money on your organization’s behalf.

Streamline your peer-to-peer recruitment process and get more volunteers on board with these tips:

• Identify the right volunteers to get involved. Start by asking past peer-to-peer fundraisers and volunteers who donate to participate since they have experience with your fundraising process. You may also ask long-time volunteers who haven’t yet participated in fundraising but are looking for ways to get more deeply involved.
• Teach volunteers how to use your peer-to-peer platform. Help volunteers develop their fundraising pages using your peer-to-peer fundraising software. Demonstrate how to use features like gamification and social sharing tools so they can get the most out of your platform.
• Create a peer-to-peer fundraising guide. Develop a guide for your peer-to-peer volunteers to reference throughout the campaign. This guide may include tips for personalizing their online donation pages, best practices for creating social media posts about the campaign, and guidelines for who they should contact with donation requests.
• Motivate volunteers throughout the campaign. Remind volunteers to keep sharing their fundraising pages and congratulate those who reach their goals. Qgiv’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide recommends motivating volunteers by offering incentives like free t-shirts for joining the campaign, using a fundraising thermometer that tracks progress, and sharing frequent campaign updates.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns will help your nonprofit raise more funds and introduce your mission to a new audience. Your volunteers have the power to inspire more people to become lifelong supporters and advocates for your cause, allowing you to continue scaling your mission.

3. Interact with your volunteers’ content.

Building a strong digital presence for your nonprofit doesn’t just involve creating social media posts. You should also devote time to interacting with your online community, including your digital ambassadors’ content.

Engaging with volunteers online can make your organization seem more friendly and approachable. To develop a more casual, community-focused online presence, you can:

• Comment on and share volunteers’ posts. Comment on volunteers’ Instagram posts or Facebook updates, and share their peer-to-peer fundraising or awareness messages. Use positive, encouraging language, and personalize these comments as much as possible.
• Make your digital content easy to share. Tag volunteers in your content and turn on post sharing so they can easily find and share relevant posts and photos they’re in with their personal networks.
• Spotlight digital ambassadors. Use a section in your nonprofit’s newsletter to highlight your digital ambassadors. Link to a blog post on your website with more information about the program and the volunteers involved. You can also share this post across your social media pages to spread awareness of the program.

Volunteers will appreciate public recognition from your nonprofit and feel more satisfied in their digital ambassador roles. Plus, when other audience members see your digital ambassador program is engaging and fulfilling, they might feel motivated to get involved.

4. Show your appreciation.

Between 2022 and 2023, the national formal volunteering rate increased by 5.1%, with a growth rate of over 22% in just two years. According to AmeriCorps, “This is the largest expansion of formal volunteering ever recorded and truly showcases that the spirit of volunteerism is on the rise in America post-pandemic.”

To keep up this momentum, you need to recruit and retain volunteers. When volunteers feel appreciated for their work, they’ll be more likely to stay involved and continue promoting your organization within their social networks. Show your volunteers how much you care by:

• Sending genuine and frequent appreciation messages. Express your gratitude by writing personalized thank-you notes for digital ambassadors. Leverage your nonprofit’s CRM to pinpoint and reference each volunteer’s specific contributions, such as posts they created that effectively drove donations or a successful peer-to-peer campaign they just wrapped up.
• Offering gifts and incentives. Send volunteers gifts like branded t-shirts, gift cards to local businesses or restaurants, potted plants, or tickets to your events. You may also offer digital marketing training with a certificate that volunteers can share on their resumes or LinkedIn pages.
• Collecting feedback. Sourcing volunteers’ opinions helps improve your program and demonstrates that you care about their input and want to provide them with the best possible experience. Send surveys regularly to gather their thoughts and update volunteers on how you’ve incorporated their feedback.

Your digital ambassadors can drive a lot of new interest in your nonprofit’s work. By showing appreciation for their efforts, you make it clear to volunteers that they play a central role in advancing your organization’s mission.

For volunteers looking to go above and beyond, a digital ambassador program is the perfect outlet to turn their passion into action. As your program matures, assess your participation and retention rates so you can make improvements as needed and maximize the program’s success.