Things Free Arts love: VOLUNTEERS!!

If I had learned ONE thing thing from my classwork is the importance of relationships when it comes to nonprofits. It what makes the organization thrive--from getting volunteers, to donors, to whatever--relationships is what makes it go.

What amazes me with Free Arts is the fact that there are about 450+ volunteers and about 10 staff members, yet they all seem to know the volunteers names. They have developed great relationships with their volunteers, which I fully believe is why the volunteers stick around for years. And most of the volunteers LOVES Free Arts! They love working with the children and they love the relationships formed with other volunteers and staff.

I was talking to Lynn, who heads up volunteer recruitment, and she was telling me about how a large chunk of the volunteers come to Free Arts through word of mouth. Today, I was listening in on volunteer orientation and many of them had similiar stories to how they came in contact with Free Arts: "Oh I know so and so and they always talk about Free Arts and what a wonderful organization it is and I just knew I had to get involved!" 

It's exciting to see the passion that the volunteers have.

The volunteer program is under a lot of changes right now--they are trying to make it more streamlined so they can keep up with older volunteers more and get them reconnected, as well as come up with a way to thank their volunteers at the end and keep them involved. However, with or without these changes--I believe Free Arts is doing a really good job at keeping its volunteers happy.

I'm excited to see what type of growth the changes will bring to the organization in the volunteer department..