Improve Volunteer Retention
12 weeks · 4 milestones
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Volunteer retention cannot be measured without a before-state. This milestone establishes the baseline: how many of the volunteers from the first initiative returned for a second, and what do those who did not return say (if anything) about why? The GOVERNANCE principle is that you cannot retain volunteers by paying them more or threatening consequences — improvement can only come from genuine value. The baseline must be honest, including honest counts of attrition and honest attribution of causes.
Proof required
Submit: (1) a volunteer roster from initiative 1 with return status for initiative 2 — a table: volunteer name/alias, participated in initiative 1 (yes/no), participated in initiative 2 (yes/no), and if they did not return, the reason given or your best evidence-based assessment of why; (2) a calculated baseline return rate (number who returned ÷ number from initiative 1, expressed as a percentage); (3) a 150-word honest diagnosis of the 2–3 most likely causes of your current retention rate, based on conversations, feedback, or observation — not speculation.
What gets checked
- Return rate is calculated correctly from real data — the calculation must be shown, not just stated; a 'high retention' claim with no numbers does not satisfy this standard
- Non-returning volunteers' reasons are documented specifically — 'some people got busy' does not satisfy the diagnosis standard; each non-returning volunteer should have a specific stated or inferred reason based on real evidence
- Diagnosis identifies causes the leader can act on — 'people have busy lives' is not actionable; 'the briefing process was unclear and volunteers did not know what they were committing to' is
Resources
Enroll free to unlock learning resources →Mastery
Volunteer Canada — Understanding Volunteer Turnover
Go further: systematic research on voluntary attrition causes to validate or challenge your baseline diagnosis.
Unlocks after completing Foundation + Depth