Volunteer engagement post COVID lockdown
Volunteer engagement post COVID lockdown
Reengaging our volunteer group following COVID lockdown and anxiety over public events
Capacity to Deliver -
NSWLP-024
The issue
Post COVID lockdown Tamworth Regional Landcare experienced a severe decline in volunteers willing to attend field days, volunteer events and public meetings. People had grown accustomed to staying home and were reluctant to come back out and reengage with community.
The solution
Coming out of the COVID lockdown phase, we had to reengage with our members as well as change some of the ways we interact and promote our events.
* We kept committee meetings to a bimonthly zoom as people were now comfortable with this medium and were happy to dial in.
* We changed every second committee meeting to a 'Landcare Learnings'. These meetings are designed as peer led discussions where a topic is discussed, a movie is shown or a project is presented. These are growing continually in popularity and increasing our reach.
* We also increased our reach and message by building a better website with back-end feedback which showed us which pages were being used, what topics members were interested in and which emails were being read. We used this information to tailor our communications.
* Our local Landcare coordinator completed an online detailed course in social media, promotions and the use of algorithms to ensure our social following was growing and that our message was heard.
* We ran increased promotions to grow memberships and donations for our 'donate a tree program'.
The impact
* Having committee meetings via zoom attracts people for a quick direct meeting which they are not required to travel for. Moving general business to a bimonthly zoom and allowing other meetings to be purely about 'interesting' topics and discussion improves and retains our membership and attendees.
* Improved email and socials communication has almost doubled our membership numbers and continually grows our Facebook followers.
* Post COVID quite a few events were delayed due to attendance, but now we average 30-40 attendees at events.
Key facts
- Evaluating our membership and changing how we engage and communicate with them has seen an increase in volunteers, attendance and membership in our Landcare organization.