Volunteers come once; what makes them stay is meaningful work, recognition and a sense of belonging.
The biggest problem of volunteer programmes is that the initial enthusiasm fades quickly. Our experience in the mentoring programme shows three conditions for volunteers to stay: a meaningful task, visible recognition and a sense of belonging to a community.
We assign every volunteer a "buddy volunteer" on the first day, regularly share the results of their work and certify their contributions at the end of the year. These simple practices doubled our volunteer retention.