As someone who volunteered throughout high school, from my freshman all the way till my senior year, I learned how to create really powerful, strong professional relationships with the people I was volunteering with and for.
Before I get into how to build those important connections through volunteering, it is important to talk about WHY you should even put in effort to establish those relationships. Through my own volunteer experiences, I have learned it is crucial to build connections as part of your volunteer work, not only to create meaningful volunteer experiences (as I detailed in my previous article, How to Volunteer Meaningfully) but also as an integral life skill. Most jobs, internships, and professional opportunities depend on collaborative efforts in a workplace, and for you to be successful at such collaborative work, you have to know how to build connections. Building connections through volunteering can also be helpful in a number of ways: a strong professional relationship can allow you to have a wide network of friends and acquaintances; a strong professional relationship can lead you to know a more diverse group of individuals; finally, a strong professional relationship can help you when you apply to future schools, jobs, or internships as you can call on your past coworker to write or provide you with a really great recommendation.
Not only should you try to build relationships with your superiors in volunteering (such as your boss or elder coworkers), you should always try to build relationships with the people you are helping through your volunteering (if you are volunteering with people). Many times the relationships you make with the people you help through your volunteering can be extremely powerful and impactful.
Now that we know why it is important to build connections, let’s get into HOW to build connections with your volunteering superiors:
- Be consistent and committed. Establish a routine to volunteer. If you decide to volunteer twice a week, make sure to show up. If you made a commitment, you have to follow through. Your superiors will notice if you do not work on a regular basis and this will reflect poorly on you.
- Put in the hard work. As I’ve said in past articles, give volunteering your all and make sure you are fully invested in your volunteering work. Your superiors will notice if you consistently put out high quality work and are passionate about the volunteering you are doing. Doing so will strengthen your relationship with your superiors as they will see that they can rely on you as a trustworthy, hardworking individual.
- Take initiative. Take charge of your volunteering and work on tasks independently. Show your superiors that you are forward-thinking and that you can successfully carry out tasks without your superiors having to get involved. This will show your superiors that they can trust you to complete tasks, and over time you will start gaining their trust.
- Follow up. As a rule of thumb, your superiors have far more work to do than you do. So, it is inevitable that they may forget about a task they assigned you or you may need further clarification about a certain task. In this case, make sure to follow up. Doing this will show your superiors that you are responsible, committed, and determined to your volunteering.
- Stay connected. When you have finished volunteering at a certain place, do not forget about the relationships you formed there! Make sure to stay connected with your superiors and send them emails at least once a year checking in with them. This last step is crucial because if you do not stay connected with your past coworkers, your professional relationships will not last. Staying connected shows your past coworkers that you were genuinely invested in forming a connection with them.
Most importantly, remember that following these steps will not instantly form close-knit connections with your volunteering superiors; if you continue to follow these steps for extended periods of time and adapt the steps to what you see works best, then results will start to appear.
If you help people through your volunteering, building connections with those individuals is slightly different.
- Identify what population you are working with. Are you working with young children? Are you working with individuals with special needs or disabilities? Are you working with senior citizens or the elderly? Different age groups and populations require different methods of interaction. If you are working with young children, you will have to explain terms in simpler words and cater to their needs. If you are working with senior citizens, you may have to be mindful of illness or talk louder and slower. Make sure to use different skill sets with each population you interact with.
- Experiment. If you have never worked with a certain age group or population of individuals before, it is totally acceptable to try out different methods of interaction to see which ones are most successful. It may take you some time and a few failed attempts before you figure out a method which works for you.
- Adapt and innovate. It is extremely important to work with any changes that come at you. Suppose one method of interaction is completely unsuccessful, that’s okay, but make sure to understand what went wrong and use that to come up with better strategies.
- Stay connected. Like I mentioned earlier, staying connected is extremely important, regardless of what age group or population of individuals you work with. Sending an email or card/letter to the individuals you helped through your volunteering shows them that you cared and that you are genuinely interested in their wellbeing.
Connecting with those you are volunteering with and for is extremely crucial. If you have any particularly meaningful volunteer relationships or moments, make sure to take note of them: write them down, store them in your memory — you never know where you might need to call on these moments.