10 Ways to Lose Your Volunteers

Volunteers are incredibly important if you want to see your children's ministry thrive. In fact, without volunteers there is no children's ministry.

Leading volunteers effectively not only includes bringing them on the team, but keeping them on the team for the long haul.

Let me ask you a question. How do you keep volunteers? To find out the answers, you can look at what causes volunteers to leave. Let's look at 10 of the big reasons why we lose volunteers.

Don't thank them. Did you know that 65% of volunteers say they rarely, if ever hear the words "thank you." Determine that every single week you are going to look your volunteers in the eyes and say "thank you." You can also send them notes, cards and small gifts that say "thank you."

Expect them to serve 52 weeks a year. Be intentional about giving your volunteers a weekend off now and then. You might even give them the summer off and recruit sub teachers so your volunteers can have some time off.

Don't have proper ratios. Having 30 preschoolers in a room with 2 volunteers is a recipe for disaster. At this point, the volunteers are just trying to make it out alive. If this continues, they will burn out and quit.