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SHARE Detroit Overview - How to create a profile and more!

We are honored to have your organization as a member on our platform. Please use these tips to reap the most benefit from your Share Detroit profile. 

1. Add key staff members to our Wednesday email to nonprofit members. This newsletter will keep your organization up to date on the best ways to use ShareDetroit.org for your success. Please add your executive director, volunteer coordinator, development director and other leaders to our email list.
    
2. Promote your profile. Organizations actively sharing their profile are generating the greatest public response. Use this Share Detroit member logo in your website footer, in eNewsletters, in email signatures, etc. to link to your Share Detroit profile.
    
3. Follow and tag @Share.Detroit on Facebook and Instagram to promote your volunteer, donation, and wish list needs and link to your Share Detroit profile.
   
   Mention a specific way that donors can use Share Detroit to support you. What exciting volunteer opportunity do you have listed? How will a specific wish list item be used for good?
   
   Consider sharing visuals: actual wish list items in use, or volunteers in action! Feature top volunteers and members of the populations you serve in your social posts, linking to your Share Detroit profile, to help donors visualize their potential impact. Canva Pro is a great tool to use for help creating social media images. Apply here for free Canva Pro access for nonprofits.
    
4. Share what's happening with Karly Moore, Share Detroit's Director of Community Impact. Let's collaborate on stories to share and inspire the giving public! Please email Karly quotes and photos of volunteers in action, along with updates about your initiatives. 

Keep scrolling for more resources!


How can you turn volunteer prospects into committed volunteers?

1. Respond quickly: Make sure you’re receiving notifications from share@sharedetroit.org. Check your spam folder. Send a stock email immediately thanking them for their interest and giving them a date by which you’ll follow-up (if you’re too busy to do so right away.) If your needs have changed, promise to keep in touch (and update your volunteer posting.) If applicable, invite them to a volunteer orientation with date options.
2. Get acquainted: What motivated them to contact you? What are their specific skills or interests?  Contact preferences?
3. Provide resources and value: Can you help them use their skills, develop job experience, expand their network, provide job references,  or fulfill required hours for school or work?
4. Stay in touch: They took the first step by contacting you.  Keep in touch even if volunteering doesn’t work out: invite them to join your newsletter, invite them to events and send them a note.  Staying on their radar can lead to future engagement!
5. Illustrate the impact: Provide them with examples of how you rely on volunteers to accomplish your mission. Connect them with a current rock star volunteer to hear it firsthand.
6. Thank them, and then thank them again.
7. And don’t give up! Volunteer interest ebbs and flows; it’s the nature of volunteer work!  People’s availability and priorities change so try to remain available and in touch.

  
UPDATE YOUR LISTING:  If your volunteer needs are filled or changed, adjust the listing on your SHARE profile.  You can “unlist” the posting while preserving the content by simply entering a past date and unchecking any repeating.

Send your story ideas to karly@sharedetroit.org for an opportunity to be featured on social media and in blogs.