Volunteer Retention Rate
Percentage of active volunteers from the previous period who remain engaged in the current period
What is Volunteer Retention Rate?
Volunteer retention rate is the percentage of volunteers who were active in one period who are still active in the next. It shows how well an organisation keeps its volunteers.
Recruiting and training volunteers takes effort, so keeping the ones you have is more efficient and builds experience.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Human Resources
- Sub-function
- Volunteer Management
- Industry
- Not-for-Profit / Charity
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- People
- Unit
- %
- Measurement frequency
- Annual
- Formula
- (Volunteers active in both periods / Volunteers active in prior period) × 100
How to calculate it
Divide volunteers active in both periods by volunteers active in the prior period, and multiply by 100.
For example, if 300 volunteers were active last year and 210 were active this year too, retention is 70%.
Define active clearly, and look at retention by role and length of service.
Where it is used
Improving the volunteer experience
Find why people leave.
Planning recruitment
Estimate the volunteers needed.
Valuing volunteer support
Show the effect of good management.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Many volunteers leave for life reasons, not dissatisfaction.
- Flexible roles help retention.
- Track by role.
More Human Resources kpi library
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