Volunteer Recognition & Award Ideas

For many organizations, volunteers are the backbone. You can make volunteer recognition special by being creative in ways that highlight their hardworking efforts. Recognizing them is important if you want to retain them and make new recruits. After all, these are people who selflessly give their time, energy and efforts to benefit others. Here are some tips to help make awards and recognition of their special time in the spotlight.

Have a Volunteer Recognition Blog Post

Feature your volunteer on your company or organization blog. Make it a point to interview them personally. Let them tell their story and you’ll both benefit. Spotlighting a volunteer in a blog post is a nice way to offer them recognition for their hard work.

Present Small Gifts of Gratitude

Everyone likes gifts. Recognize volunteers by giving them small gifts as a token of appreciation. It can be something as simple as a gift card to a local coffee shop or a store in the community. Items like coffee cups, T-shirts, or ink pens make nice gifts as well. Make sure to get them personalized.

Send Hand-Written Thank You Cards

Another token of appreciation that is never out of style is a hand-written thank you card. It can seem a little old fashioned with email and the internet. However, a hand-written card is a novelty. Be sure to personalize the message by thanking them specifically for tasks they did while they were volunteering.

Host a Volunteer Recognition and Awards Banquet

Hosting an annual banquet to honor volunteers is common in many organizations. Treat them to a meal and recognize them for their valuable contributions by presenting personalized awards. Executive leaders of the organization should be present. They can publicly acknowledge the contributions and efforts of volunteers with awards and plaques. You can choose awards for groups who work together. And of course, honor those who went above and beyond.

Wording for Volunteer Recognition Awards

The five W’s offer a great place to start when choosing appropriate wording for volunteer awards. This covers the basic information needed for meaningful awards.

• Who: Who are you recognizing? Use their name and title.
• What: What is the name of the award?
• Where: Name the organization sponsoring the award. It’s okay to include your logo.
• When: Give it a timeframe for reference. Include the date and whether it is presented annually, quarterly, or monthly.
• Why: What is the reason for the award? Include things like volunteers who have served for a certain number of hours, days, weeks, or years.

Be Creative

Make volunteer recognition awards more special by giving them unique titles that highlight the efforts of the volunteers. Some examples include:

• Early Bird Award for those who are always eager and the first in line to help your organization.
• Biggest Heart Award for those who are compassionate, kind and graciously giving encouragement to others.
• Band-Aid Awards for those who always seem to be able to fix anything that breaks.
• Forever Smile Award for those who you are sure you’ve never seen with a frown because they are always smiling and spreading good cheer.
• Forever Service Award for the one who has been with the organization from the start and just continues to show up.

Order your Personalized Volunteer Recognition Awards

Order your personalized volunteer recognition awards from Suburban Custom Awards. You can include an engraved personal message and your organization’s logo for no extra cost. We can help you with wording to ensure you create memorable awards for your volunteers.