Basketball Camp THINKTANK: Phase Three
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If you missed out on Phase One or Phase Two of the Basketball Camp THINKTANK you can head HERE for Phase One and HERE for Phase Two!
Phase three is all about the coordination of volunteers for an event.
How do you get people to volunteer at an event you create?
I have done a lot of volunteering over the years at a number of different entities and organizations. I have had great experiences, average experiences, and truth be told very boring experiences. I’ve never had bad ones; but definitely boring ones that did not make me feel excited or interested to continue volunteering.
Therefore I believe the number one thing you get to focus on is making the volunteer have just as much fun as the participants.
That’s my goal. If that happens then volunteers are willing to come back year after year and it cuts down on your time for getting volunteers and you also give the kids a great experience because the volunteers are enrolled in making the experience second to none for the kids!
How do you ensure volunteers have fun? Here are four things I focus on!
1. Ask people to volunteer who are interested in what you are creating. I ask my family, friends, and network that have an interest in basketball, working with kids, and giving back to the Columbus community.
2. You get to give them roles that fit with their personalities.
3. I also believe you get to not ask so much of them that it seems like a burden. If we ever extend the basketball camp to multi-day we believe we’ll get different volunteers for each day. There’s a large difference between asking people for three to six hours of their time as opposed to four days.
4. THANK THEM! I have sent hand written cards with pictures to volunteers, give them shout outs at the camp, and looked them in the eye and told them how much it means to me that they donate their time.
The first year getting volunteers was really difficult. I had to ask people to buy into giving their time to something I was just starting and they had no idea what it was going to be like.
Every year I try to put as much focus on the volunteers having as great of an experience as the kids at the basketball camp.
Since we focus on that each year it gets easier to get volunteers. If we keep the experience sky high for them then I think it will continue to be a seamless process.
The work is in making sure they feel your gratitude!
By the way…are you interested in volunteering?
If you live in Central Ohio and are a fan of basketball or helping kids on Friday July 7th we are looking for volunteers for AM, PM, or all day shifts.
Basketball knowledge or coaching background is a plus and a clean background test is required!
Phase four will be about how to create sponsorships and revenue for your event. Then phase five will be details about securing insurance and waivers for events.
Then we’ll get to the fun stuff and the vision of the camp; which is to “Give 125 kids in Central Ohio a day they’ll never forget!” Yes it's growing in 2017!
Looking to implement more passion and purpose into your digital marketing or have questions about building ideas from the ground up?? I’d love to hear from you, email mike@MarketingFunWithMike.com and get my Bi Monthly Vlog HERE!
Related Posts
1. Volunteer THINKTANK Phase Two
2. Volunteer THINKTANK Phase One
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Mike