Non-profit Relationship Marketing
I hope that I am on the right track with this blog. I had an experience this weekend that I thought might apply to this topic.
I took a group of my WISE students to the food bank in Raleigh on Saturday for a 3 hour volunteer shift. This has become a "tradition" if you will for our organization in that we usually take a group of students there to volunteer about 3 times each semester. This was at least my 5th trip in this capacity.
We are usually greeted with open arms (figuratively, not literally), a smile, and "glad you to see you ladies again." This was not the case on Saturday! They have clearly been experiencing some staff changes, which is evident to me because I am on their monthly newsletter listserve. I distinctly remember 2 men who were usually there when I brought my students, but instead there was a new woman I had never met before now serving as Volunteer Coordinator.
She was not friendly, glad to see us, or even familiar with our group. Instead, she was frustrated with the size of our group and the fact that I forgot to bring in Volunteer Consent Forms for the students that were first-time volunteers from WISE (I'm usually very organized with this, but I was not anticipating this negative response. They usually have plenty of copies available, but she had to go make more, which of course increased her displeasure).
So we literally started the volunteering experience off on the wrong foot. Apparently another group that was there brought more people than they had signed up for, and she was under the impression that we had more participants than we signed up for. (Just so you know, according to my email records, we signed up for 12 and brought 15.)
Long story short, a volunteer experience that I usually enjoy was not-so enjoyable. But the thing that bothered me most was that this was the first time, and probably will be the last time, 13 of our students volunteered there. If I were these students, I would be completely turned off from volunteering there again. I would imagine they may share their bad experience with other students. As we've learned, word-of-mouth can be a pretty powerful thing! We are scheduled to go there another 2 times this semester, but I am not able to attend either of those dates.
The reason I thought of this experience was the fact that I would consider WISE to have a positive relationship with the Raleigh food bank. We have taken groups there on at least 10 different occasions and automatically think of them as somewhere we plan to volunteer on a regular basis. As I stated earlier, I am on their listserve, and I have even connected them with the Graduate Student Association for my major when we were looking at ways to volunteer within the community. When I left on Saturday, I felt like I needed to talk about my experience with my boss and decide whether or not it is appropriate for me to contact them about our negative experience. Not that I'm "threatening" to not bring our group back to volunteer, I just feel like they have a right to know about my concerns. Any thoughts???
I took a group of my WISE students to the food bank in Raleigh on Saturday for a 3 hour volunteer shift. This has become a "tradition" if you will for our organization in that we usually take a group of students there to volunteer about 3 times each semester. This was at least my 5th trip in this capacity.
We are usually greeted with open arms (figuratively, not literally), a smile, and "glad you to see you ladies again." This was not the case on Saturday! They have clearly been experiencing some staff changes, which is evident to me because I am on their monthly newsletter listserve. I distinctly remember 2 men who were usually there when I brought my students, but instead there was a new woman I had never met before now serving as Volunteer Coordinator.
She was not friendly, glad to see us, or even familiar with our group. Instead, she was frustrated with the size of our group and the fact that I forgot to bring in Volunteer Consent Forms for the students that were first-time volunteers from WISE (I'm usually very organized with this, but I was not anticipating this negative response. They usually have plenty of copies available, but she had to go make more, which of course increased her displeasure).
So we literally started the volunteering experience off on the wrong foot. Apparently another group that was there brought more people than they had signed up for, and she was under the impression that we had more participants than we signed up for. (Just so you know, according to my email records, we signed up for 12 and brought 15.)
Long story short, a volunteer experience that I usually enjoy was not-so enjoyable. But the thing that bothered me most was that this was the first time, and probably will be the last time, 13 of our students volunteered there. If I were these students, I would be completely turned off from volunteering there again. I would imagine they may share their bad experience with other students. As we've learned, word-of-mouth can be a pretty powerful thing! We are scheduled to go there another 2 times this semester, but I am not able to attend either of those dates.
The reason I thought of this experience was the fact that I would consider WISE to have a positive relationship with the Raleigh food bank. We have taken groups there on at least 10 different occasions and automatically think of them as somewhere we plan to volunteer on a regular basis. As I stated earlier, I am on their listserve, and I have even connected them with the Graduate Student Association for my major when we were looking at ways to volunteer within the community. When I left on Saturday, I felt like I needed to talk about my experience with my boss and decide whether or not it is appropriate for me to contact them about our negative experience. Not that I'm "threatening" to not bring our group back to volunteer, I just feel like they have a right to know about my concerns. Any thoughts???
posted by SIUchristina @ 11:04 PM
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