Defining Event Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities

When nonprofits want to deliver an excellent event experience, they often lean on volunteers. By defining event volunteer roles and responsibilities, you are streamlining event preparations and ensuring its success.

Event volunteers can fulfill a wide range of important roles, from selling tickets and engaging guests to setting up the stage and cleaning up after the event. When you recruit event volunteers, you need to know exactly what their roles are. Otherwise, confusion is inevitable.

Volunteering duties can vary from one event to another. Let's take a closer look at how volunteer roles can work!

Core Event Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities

Core roles and responsibilities volunteers can include:  

• Marketing – You may need volunteers to market the upcoming event, write posts on social media, monitor event landing pages, contact participants, and more.
• Supervision – If you recruit a large number of volunteers to handle an event, you also need someone to help you supervise them. A supervision assistant can simplify teamwork and make sure all volunteers are in the right places.
• Providing Information – Many events require a volunteer to provide information, engage visitors, give directions, manage lost and found, and much more. These volunteers have excellent people skills and should be willing to work with visitors of all ages throughout the event.
• Customer Service – You may need volunteers to help with ticket sales, provide information about event schedules, solve problems that may arise at the entrance to the venue, and more.
• Security - If the event is sizable, volunteers can assist with security tasks, such as checking bags, controlling the crowd, and enforcing non-smoking or no-drinking policies (if any).
• Basic Errands – These errands may include transporting equipment from one place to another and helping the core event team with minor activities.
• Photos and Videos – If you need photos and videos of the event, you can rely on volunteers to provide content for social media and other channels.
• Donation Requests – Volunteers can approach participants for sponsorships and donations on behalf of the nonprofit.
• Clean Up – You are likely to need volunteers to clean the area or venue after the event.
• Follow Up – Your volunteers can help follow up with the attendees by sending out "thank you" notes and arranging surveys.

Not all of these roles are applicable to all the events you need volunteers for. They change according to the event type.

How Volunteering Duties Change According to an Event

When you recruit event volunteers, you need to outline core duties according to the event type. If volunteers used to work with you for one type, they might be surprised at how their duties change for the other. That's why it's imperative to be transparent about event volunteer roles.

• Auctions – At an auction, a volunteer may not request donations or make photos, instead they could be sourcing auction items, setting up the venue, and helping participants take necessary action.
• Concerts – At concerts, volunteers focus on security, selling tickets, taking photos, and running a variety of basic errands. They may also ask for donations and assist with cleaning up.
• Runs or Walks – Runs and walks require volunteers with strong marketing and people skills. They may also need to provide supervision and give directions to participants.
• Art Exhibits – For art exhibits, volunteers could help with the setup, coordination, supervision, and security.
• Galas – Galas require a large number of volunteers so you would need to find people to help with volunteer supervision, security, food, setup, cleanup, and much more.

Each nonprofit event requires a different approach to planning, setting up, and following up. That's why you may need to get volunteers with different skill sets.

How to Create Event Volunteering Job Description

When you are recruiting volunteers for an event, you need to have a straightforward event volunteer job description. This can help volunteers choose participation and ensure a smooth collaboration in the future.

An event volunteering job description should include:

• List of Responsibilities (e.g., engaging with visitors, serving refreshments, setting up and cleaning up, requesting feedback, taking photos, and obtaining permission forms)
• Benefits of the Role (e.g., developing new skills, working with an enthusiastic team, networking, adding volunteering to the resume, contributing to an important cause).
• Skills Required (e.g., friendly and polite manner toward adults and children, reliability, first aid skills, experience with photo and video).
• Age Requirement (usually at least 18 years of age)
• Experience and Training (you can list the required experience or promise to provide volunteer training onsite)
• Commitment (time, location, and duration of the event)

You can take advantage of the information you include in this description to write an irresistible volunteer opportunity description for recruitment purposes.

Training Volunteers for Upcoming Events

While you may get lucky and find volunteers who have experience arranging similar events, the majority of new volunteers require training. By investing your time in volunteer training, you are contributing to the success of the events and making the process easier for event volunteers.

Besides improving the outcome of the event, volunteer training streamlines volunteer retention. When volunteers feel satisfied with their contribution, they are likely to come back.

Around 79% of volunteers who consistently donate their time to a nonprofit also become donors. This makes keeping the satisfaction and retention of event volunteers high even more important.

Improving Event Volunteer Recruitment

Event volunteer roles and responsibilities can vary dramatically according to the event you are planning. If you want everything to go smoothly, you need to create a clear job description and provide appropriate training.

Recruiting and managing event volunteers that have various duties can be complicated. With the right event management software, it's possible to track attendance, handle volunteer responses, fill all the roles, and much more.

To learn more about Galaxy Digital's event management software and many other volunteer management solutions, please request a free demo today.