By Laura Priebe, Literacy Administrator, Hoosier Hills Literacy League
How do you recognize your volunteers? Some organizations have a volunteer appreciation dinner, others give gifts, but if your budget is limited, here’s an option for your organization that requires just the cost of nice paper and color printing.
The idea came from a session that I attended at the ProLiteracy Conference in Minneapolis. The title caught my eye – “More than a Gift Card – Low and No Cost Ways to Recognize Volunteers.” Minnesota has a huge volunteer literacy organization, as their state funding mandates that a certain percentage of the literacy work is done by volunteers. As a result, their state literacy organization is very plugged into the local community organizations. The idea is simple, a customizable recognition certificate issued by the state literacy organization. Local organizations can use it as they please. One volunteer may be the best event planner you can dream of. Another might put in hours in the office. Another might be a dedicated tutor. All of these people help make your organization run smoothly, and without them, you would be lost.
Because the Indiana Literacy Association recognizes that the work of ADVANCING INDIANA THROUGH LITERACY is done at a grassroots level, we want to help you recognize those who are helping you do the work. ILA has created the attached certificate (below). If you use Microsoft Publisher, you can easily customize it to recognize as many of your volunteers as you wish. We’d love it if you found something to celebrate in ALL of your volunteers. If you don’t have Publisher, use Photoshop, or just a nice pen. Celebrate those volunteers, and let the ILA help you!