Working With Volunteer Fundraisers
Campaign volunteers and peer askers, distinct from board governance: how to recruit them, brief them, pair them with staff, and thank them, so that the people who love the mission can invite others into it.
Through the Environment lens
Passionate members recruited during a campaign moment often want to do more than the will-and-won't-do list allows, chase a pledge, answer a policy question, argue a point, so the boundary-setting in the briefing matters more here than in most sectors: their enthusiasm is real and needs channeling, not dampening. The "not the board" distinction is worth stating plainly too, since a movement culture that prizes activism can blur the line between a volunteer solicitor and an organizer in ways that confuse both roles.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Volunteer Involvement · Securing the Gift
Learning objectives
- Explain why a peer's invitation reaches donors that staff cannot, and distinguish volunteer fundraising from board governance.
- Recruit volunteer solicitors with an honest ask, brief them in the Invitation Framework, and pair each with a staff partner and a short list of relationships.
- Equip volunteers with a role description, a conversation guide, and a way to report back, and thank them as the donors they are.
- Analyze a volunteer-led effort and identify the decisions that made it finish.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 18 min
Video lesson
The volunteer who asks: why peers raise what staff can't
VII Multiply · Volunteer Involvement
- 20 min
Field guide· PDF
Recruiting, briefing, and pairing volunteer solicitors
IV Invite · Volunteer Involvement
- 18 min
Template· DOCX
Volunteer solicitor kit: role description, briefing agenda, and conversation guide
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 14 min
Case study· PDF
Case study: twelve volunteers, forty conversations, and a campaign that finished
VII Multiply · Volunteer Involvement
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Major & Principal Gifts
Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Donor Communications & Stewardship
The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.