How to communicate with volunteers in a club or nonprofit

To communicate with volunteers well, keep notices in one place and send each message only to the people it concerns. Put the date, the place and what you need at the top. Give volunteers an easy way to reply, keep in touch between shifts, and thank people by name.

This guide is for clubs and nonprofits whose volunteers are members, friends or neighbors, not staff. It covers what to tell volunteers, where to tell them, and how often.

Start with what volunteers need to know

A new volunteer has three questions before the first shift: what will I do, when, and who do I ask? Answer all three before they arrive.

Name one person to contact and say how to reach them. NCVO’s guidance on supporting volunteers says to make clear whom to contact and when that help is available. That includes people who volunteer in the evenings or at weekends.

Then write down the practical details a newcomer would otherwise ask about: the address, the start time, who to look for on arrival and how to cancel. Keep that note in one place, and make one person responsible for keeping it current. In Groupanda, you and your admins can pin a message, such as that note. A pinned message can carry a document of up to 10 MB, such as the instructions for a shift.

Choose one main place for volunteer news

Every extra tool is one more place a volunteer has to check. Keep one main place for everything about the work: who does what, the plan for Saturday, questions about a shift.

The exception is news nobody can afford to miss, such as a cancellation on the morning of a shift. Post it in the main place and send it a second way too, for example as a text message. The Australian Sports Commission’s volunteer guidance recommends more than one channel for important information, since people may otherwise miss it. Talk through anything personal by phone or in person.

Groupanda is a group chat app organized in channels, and you can add as many as you need. Every new group starts with an Announcements channel where only you post, and you can let your admins post there too. For each channel, you choose who can post: you, you and your admins, or everyone.

How do you write a message volunteers will read?

The Australian Sports Commission advises keeping messages brief, since many volunteers fit their role around a job and other commitments.

Three habits help:

• Lead with the facts. What you need from people, and where and when, goes in the first two lines. The background comes after. A first line such as “Saturday: clean-up starts at 10am, not 9” does most of the work.
• Keep to one topic. If you have three pieces of news, send three short messages, or give each team only the part that concerns it.
• Sign it yourself. Use your own name rather than the committee’s, so people know whom they are answering.

Send each message to the people it concerns

A message that matters to five people but goes to fifty teaches the other forty-five to stop reading. The people who look after the garden do not need the bar stock list, and the bar team does not need the planting plan.

Group the people you write to the way your work is organized: by team, by day or by place. Say in the first line which group a message is for, so everyone else knows they can skip it. If you are unsure whether messages reach the right people, ask a few volunteers which of your recent messages were useful to them.

In Groupanda, you can give each team its own channel, open to every member, so that team’s messages stay in one place. Members are notified about mentions by default, so mention the people a message is for. Each member also chooses their own notification level for each channel: all messages, only mentions, or muted.

Make it easy to reply

Volunteers do the work, so they often spot a problem before anyone else. Tell them where to send a question or an idea, and answer what they send. The easiest moment to ask for their opinion is right after a shift, in a short conversation or in the channel the team uses. NCVO advises that when you ask volunteers for feedback, you tell them what you learned and what you will do about it.

Ask volunteers to post practical questions in the team’s channel, where someone who knows the answer can reply.

Keep in touch between shifts

The people who hear from you most are the ones with a shift this week. Those without one can go weeks without a word from the club, so keep them in the loop too.

Once a month, post a short note in the main place: a thank-you first, then one thing worth knowing and the next date that matters. Volunteering Australia suggests a mix of regular contact, including phone calls for people who prefer a more personal conversation. It also suggests a private online group where volunteers can talk to each other, with taking part kept optional.

For more ways to keep a group talking, see our list of community engagement ideas.

Thank people by name

Volunteers give their time for free, so thanks matter more, not less. NCVO’s guidance on thanking volunteers notes that “it’s often unexpected thanks that have the most impact.”

Say what the person did and why it mattered. Telling the team what their work achieved this month, in numbers if you have them, shows everyone the difference they made. When you thank one person, do it privately, by phone or in a message of its own. Public thanks suit the whole team better. In Groupanda, that private thank-you can go as a direct message.

How often should you communicate with volunteers?

Let the work set the rhythm. People on a shift get what they need for it, everyone gets the monthly note, and a task goes only to those doing it.

If replies dry up, look at your messages before you look at your volunteers. Ask whether there were too many of them, or too few that mattered to the reader.

Frequently asked questions

What is volunteer communication?

Volunteer communication means the messages that keep volunteers informed and the ways they can answer. It covers plans, changes, thanks and questions, in both directions.

Should you email or text volunteers?

It depends on the message and the person. Keep the everyday conversation in one main place, use email for anything people will want to find again, and keep text messages for news that cannot wait. Ask each volunteer which way they prefer.

How do you reach a volunteer who has gone quiet?

Write to them personally and ask for nothing in return. Tell them they were missed, and leave the door open.

The short version

Answer a new volunteer’s three questions, keep volunteer news in one place, and put the date, the place and what you need at the top of each message. Send each message to the people it concerns, make replying easy, keep in touch between shifts, and thank people by name. When new volunteers join, our guide to new member onboarding helps them settle in. Finding them in the first place is covered in how to attract new members to a club. For announcements, channels and who can post in a club in detail, read how Groupanda works as a club communication app.

Sources

We found these pages through two searches we ran on the night of 29 to 30 September 2026 and a web search on 20 October 2026. We read them on 20 October 2026, and we checked the search results again on 27 October 2026. Each source below gives the date the page carries, on the page or in its metadata, or says that it carries none, and the day we read it.

• NCVO, Supporting volunteers. A named contact and when help is available, including outside office hours, and debriefs at the end of a shift. Also telling volunteers what you learned from their feedback and what you will do, and volunteers supporting each other. The page says last reviewed 12 April 2021. Read 20 October 2026.
• NCVO, Thanking volunteers. Unexpected thanks, showing volunteers the difference they make, and care when singling one person out. The page says last reviewed 12 April 2021. Read 20 October 2026.
• Australian Sports Commission, Keeping volunteers updated. Short messages and more than one channel for important information. The page has no publication or update date of its own, on the page or in its metadata. Read 20 October 2026.
• Volunteering Australia, Keeping Volunteers Connected and Engaged. Regular contact in several forms and a private online group with optional participation. No date is visible on the page; its metadata says published 6 May 2020 and modified 19 May 2026. Read 20 October 2026.
• Rosterfy, 8 tips for communication in the workplace that will help your volunteer organization thrive. Written answers to newcomers’ questions, with one person keeping them up to date, and two-way communication, since volunteers are the ones out delivering the work. No date on the page; its metadata says published 15 January 2026 and modified 16 January 2026. Read 20 October 2026.
• VolunteerHub, Communicating With Volunteers: Best Practices for Volunteer Programs. Key details where they cannot be missed, one subject per message and personal matters by phone or in person. Also sending each message to the volunteers it concerns, a clear way to reply and the gap between shifts. Also how often to write, email or text, asking volunteers how they prefer to be contacted, and what volunteer communication covers. The page says published 22 September 2014 and updated 2 September 2026. Read 20 October 2026.
• Zelos, How to communicate with volunteers: a practical guide. Fewer channels, the request first and signing with your own name. Also sending messages to the right volunteers, checking which messages volunteers needed, volunteers answering each other and the monthly update. Also a private thank-you, why volunteers stop replying and the message to a volunteer who has gone quiet. The page says updated 18 August 2026 and first published 24 September 2022. Read 20 October 2026.