I want to share an article about a nonprofit’s effective communication with volunteers, which is posted on Nancy Schwartz’s blog. She is a motivational coach and NGO consultant. Her article The 13 Principles Driving New York Cares’ Volunteer Communication Strategy describes the case of effective communication example from an NYC-based volunteer organization called that runs programs for 1,000 local nonprofits.

One of the most interesting concepts that Nancy emphasizes is a “Volunteer Engagement Scale” that categorizes all volunteers based on the frequency and intensity of their volunteering with NY Cares.  Segmenting volunteers in this way allows the organization to tailor its communications to different kinds of volunteers — some people might respond well to frequent communications about volunteer opportunities, while other people (e.g. “episodic contributors”) might be put off by constant volunteering appeals.