Volunteers Equal Contributions – In More Ways Than One

Volunteers provide valuable service to your school. Homeroom moms, cafeteria cooks, PTG officers, and electrical and technical experts, and many others give of their time and talent, and some schools have programs to recognize their outstanding volunteer service.

Some time ago, a Diocese had a distinctive approach to honoring those who volunteer by presenting them with a CHEERS (an acronym for Catholic Honors for Educational Excellence and Recognition of Service) award to nominated individuals. School staff members, as well as students, could be nominated for the “Educational Excellence” component, while volunteers could be recognized for their service to the school. A certificate was prepared, and members from the Diocesan office visited the school to surprise the individual, just like those “Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol” awards.

But volunteers can also bring monetary contributions to your school. Your volunteers may work for, or be retired from, a corporation which rewards its employees for community service. Employees and/or retirees log the amount of time they volunteer and then submit it to their corporation’s Human Resources office, which then awards a contribution to the school based on the amount of hours served by the employee or retiree. These companies may also match (sometimes even double or triple match) a monetary contribution made to your school!

At your next parents’ meeting, be sure to ask if there are folks who work for companies that participate in such a program. If they don’t know, ask them to ask their human resources department about it. It may give someone a reason to give a little more of their time and talent so that someone else can match it with some treasure.

How is this a “Marketing Matter?” After all isn’t marketing’s intent to increase inquiries to the school so it can increase enrollment?

That’s true, but marketing drives two activities – enrollment AND development. Within development, I like to call it “networking,” just to keep it distinct from marketing to increase enrollment.

Whatever you call it, you need to do it so that others can hear about the great things your school is doing so that parents can enroll their children, and businesses, community members and alumni and give of their time, talent and treasure to assist in the continued growth of your school.

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