Volunteer Survey Questions to Boost Satisfaction & Retention

Want to improve your volunteer experience? Understanding your volunteers better by asking the right questions in your volunteer survey is crucial for retention and program improvement. 

Your volunteer program is a critical component of your nonprofit. Volunteers help your small staff get more done and further advance your mission. Your volunteer program also allows your members to become more engaged with your organization and cause.

One of the best ways to get more members to volunteer and to retain the volunteers you already have is to get to know them on a deeper level. And one of the best ways to do that is with a volunteer survey.

What is a Volunteer Survey?

A volunteer survey is a questionnaire that asks people about their volunteer experience with your organization. The goal is for you to gain insights to help you provide a better volunteer experience so that your volunteers will continue to volunteer with your nonprofit and even recommend volunteering to other members.

Ideally, you would send the survey shortly after a volunteer activity, so that you can get feedback while the experience is fresh in their minds.

What Are Good Survey Questions For Volunteers?

When surveying volunteers, ask a variety of questions tailored to each role to ensure relevance and engagement. You might also have a slightly different set of questions for each type of volunteer opportunity. But no matter what, your volunteer survey should include questions about:

• Recruitment Experience
• Role Fit And Satisfaction
• Training And Support
• Communication
• Future Intentions

Recruitment Experience

This section includes questions like, “What is our organization doing well?” This is a chance for volunteers to express what’s working with your organization’s volunteer program. Prompt your volunteers to reflect on their entire volunteer experience – from sign-up and orientation to training and support – asking which aspects were most helpful and enjoyable. Further, you may ask, “What could we have done differently during the recruitment process?”

Role Fit and Satisfaction

Questions in this section might include, “What were the most challenging aspects of volunteering?”  Or, you might ask them to think about things like:

• Did they know all they needed about your organization to perform their role?
• Did they understand the expectations of their volunteer role?

Training and Support

Following that same line of questioning, this section includes questions like, “Did you have the tools, training, and support you needed to complete their volunteer opportunity?” and “Did you feel appreciated for your work?”

Make sure they understand that by providing this type of feedback, they’re helping your organization to improve the volunteer program.

Communication

Similar to the previous two categories, you may want to ask whether they felt they had all the information they needed and whether they were offered open lines of communication during their volunteer experience. You may also want to ask, “What other types of volunteer opportunities interest you?” 

One common reason non-volunteers gave for not having previously volunteered was that no one had asked them to. So, this survey is your chance to find out what other types of volunteer opportunities might interest them that they haven’t yet been invited to do.

Future Intentions

One of the most telling measures of volunteer satisfaction is the question, “Would you recommend volunteering to a friend?” It helps you determine how well your volunteer program is meeting volunteers’ needs and uncover ways to grow and evolve it.

For volunteers who answer “yes,” this question is a subtle prompt to recommend volunteering with your organization. You might even go a step further by asking them to make the recommendation today and provide them with a volunteer page link to share. This approach can be powerful, as many nonprofit volunteers report becoming volunteers after being asked to serve by another member.

For volunteers who answer “no,” this is an opportunity to dig into why they might not have had a good experience. Ask them to elaborate on the specific changes that could be made to motivate them to recommend others. Consider asking whether they would be willing to have a brief conversation with your volunteer program staff about how the organization can improve the volunteer experience.

Volunteer Survey Best Practices

• The ideal length of a volunteer survey is 10-15 targeted questions. You want enough questions for your volunteers to address all aspects of their experience, without making the survey so long that they don’t want to spend the time completing it.
• Send your survey to volunteers as soon as possible after their experience; within a week at the longest.
• Be sure to regularly review responses from your volunteer survey and plan to incorporate what you learn into your volunteer program. 
• Schedule regular meetings with your team to review the volunteer survey responses and consider how to incorporate the feedback into your volunteer program.
• If you need more details, follow up with select volunteers. Just consider whether, based on their survey answers, they’ll likely be open to more contact from you.
• For volunteers who suggest changes, your organization might consider presenting them with improvement ideas and asking for their feedback. Then, let them know when you make changes that are a direct result of their feedback.

Get More Members Volunteering Today

Sending a volunteer survey is part of evaluating your volunteer program to help you attract and retain more volunteers. Incorporating these simple questions into your volunteer survey can help you gain insights to strengthen your volunteer program. It’s not just about volunteer satisfaction; it’s also about making your volunteer program better for future volunteers. 

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