In this blog post by our partners, Cornershop Creative, you’ll learn how featuring diverse and thoughtfully chosen volunteer stories on your nonprofit blog humanizes your impact and fosters community, Learn how, when you craft engaging narratives—with quotes, visuals, CTAs, and strategic promotion across channels—you can boost engagement and awareness of your organization.
How to Highlight Volunteer Stories on Your Nonprofit Blog
Volunteers are the heart of many nonprofits, and telling their stories can humanize your mission, build trust with your audience, and inspire others to get involved. It’s also a powerful tool to support your broader volunteer management strategy and deepen community engagement. In fact, the majority of donors say their decision to give is influenced by emotional connection—and what better way to create that than by showcasing real people behind your cause?
Whether you’re looking to boost website engagement, increase volunteer recruitment, or simply celebrate your community, sharing volunteer stories is a powerful way to connect with your audience and drive action.
1. Choose the Right Volunteers to Feature
Not every volunteer story needs to be a dramatic tale of heroism. The ones you feature should be authentic, compelling, and aligned with your organization’s mission. Start by identifying volunteers whose contributions or experiences can help you tell a broader story about your cause.
Types of Volunteers to Feature
Sharing a variety of volunteer perspectives helps paint a fuller picture of your organization’s impact. Featuring different types of volunteers, like long-term supporters or corporate teams, can support your broader goals, like transitioning donors into volunteers or strengthening partnerships. Consider highlighting volunteers from the following groups:
- Longtime volunteers with a deep connection to your mission, demonstrating the lasting impact of their dedication
- New volunteers with a fresh perspective, showing that your organization is welcoming to all and inspiring other potential volunteers to take their first step
- Volunteers who overcame obstacles to get involved, illustrating perseverance and inspiring others facing similar challenges
- Corporate volunteers who participate through a workplace giving program, emphasizing the value of corporate engagement in achieving your mission
- Volunteers who bring unique skills or experiences to your organization, showing how diverse talents enrich your work
Sharing stories from a diverse range of volunteers helps showcase the many ways people contribute to your mission, making your blog more engaging and inclusive. It also creates space to highlight unique forms of support. For example, corporate volunteerism can be a great opportunity to spotlight partnerships while highlighting community impact.
How To Select Volunteers
When deciding who to feature on your blog, it’s important to think beyond popularity or availability. Look for stories that reflect the depth and diversity of your volunteer base while also supporting your organization’s mission and values. Here are a few criteria to guide your selection process:
- Impact: Has this volunteer made a unique or meaningful contribution?
- Diversity: Can this story help you represent a broader range of experiences?
- Longevity: Has the volunteer shown long-term dedication to your mission?
- Narrative Potential: Is there a compelling personal story that others can relate to?
Ask staff or team leads for recommendations and aim to feature a rotating mix of people throughout the year. Remember that not everyone wants to be publicly celebrated or have their photos online. When featuring volunteer stories, obtain informed consent before posting anywhere. You might add a consent form to your volunteer onboarding paperwork. Respecting their preferences is vital for maintaining your volunteers’ trust.
2. Write Engaging Volunteer Stories
A well-written story can transform a casual reader into a lifelong supporter. Start by collecting authentic information and shaping it into a narrative that’s both emotional and informative. Your story strategy should be part of a larger plan to recognize and elevate your supporters. For more ideas, explore volunteer recognition strategies that go beyond blog features.
Steps To Craft Your Volunteer Stories
Creating an effective volunteer story starts with a solid process. These steps can help you stay organized, respectful of each volunteer’s voice, and focused on producing content that resonates with your audience:
- Get information directly from the volunteer through interviews or surveys.
- Write a first draft that captures their voice and experience by using quotes and diving into their journey with your nonprofit.
- Share the draft with the volunteer to ensure accuracy and comfort.
- Edit and proofread the story to make it error-free, clear, and emotionally engaging.
Elements To Include in Volunteer Stories
Every strong story includes key elements that draw readers in and keep them engaged. As you shape your narrative, be sure to incorporate these components to make the story both compelling and mission-driven:
- An interesting hook to draw readers in
- The volunteer’s background and journey
- Impact statements that tie their work back to your mission
- Quotes to add personality and authenticity
- Descriptive language to help readers visualize the experience
3. Include High-Quality Visuals
Photos and videos make stories more compelling, increase engagement, and are more likely to be shared on social platforms. Strong visuals have the power to capture attention and leave a lasting impression on your readers.
Types of Photos to Include With Volunteer Stories
Images play a big role in how stories are perceived and shared. The right visuals can add emotion, context, and credibility to your volunteer features. Here are some types of photos that work especially well:
- Candid shots of the volunteer in action
- Group photos with other team members or beneficiaries
- Before-and-after images that highlight tangible outcomes
- Portraits with quotes overlaid for social media sharing
Visual Placement Optimization
Where you place your visuals can influence how readers interact with your content. Thoughtful placement not only enhances storytelling but also improves accessibility and overall user experience. Keep these tips in mind when laying out your blog post:
- Include a visual near the top of the story to capture attention.
- Use additional images to break up long blocks of text.
- Add alt text for accessibility and SEO purposes.
- Embed videos or reels for a more dynamic experience.
Your CMS likely makes it easy to upload and arrange images, so play around with placement to see what works best. For example, let’s say your nonprofit uses WordPress. You can take advantage of built-in features to add alt text, embed videos, and keep your visuals looking great across devices.
4. Add Inspiring Calls-to-Action
Every story should have a purpose, so don’t leave your readers hanging. Invite them to take the next step, whether that’s volunteering, donating, or simply sharing the story with friends.
Meyer Partners’ guide to nonprofit storytelling suggests ending your stories with a clear directive about what the reader should do next. This might be:
- Donating to your cause
- Signing up to volunteer
- Advocating on behalf of your mission
- Submitting their own story
Writing Effective CTAs
An effective call-to-action (CTA) turns inspiration into action. Whether you want readers to donate, volunteer, or share your blog post, your CTA should be direct, relevant to the story, and easy to follow. Here are the key characteristics of CTAs that get results:
- Clear and actionable (“Sign up to volunteer today”)
- Aligned with the story (“Join Sarah in supporting local families”)
- Easy to find with buttons or bold formatting
Optimizing Your Volunteer Program Landing Pages
Your story might inspire a reader to act, but a clunky landing page could stop them in their tracks. Make sure your volunteer program page is just as thoughtful and engaging as your stories. To ensure a smooth next step, create a page that is:
- Clean and mobile-friendly
- Focused on one action
- Optimized for accessibility
Partnering with a nonprofit web design agency can be a smart investment to improve the layout, functionality, or overall user experience of your volunteer pages. These experts understand how to balance compelling design with usability. They understand best practices in accessibility, user flows, and nonprofit audience behavior, helping you build pages that inspire supporters and reduce barriers to getting involved.
5. Share Your Volunteer Stories Across Other Channels
Don’t let your great volunteer stories live only on your blog. Repurpose them to reach wider audiences and drive traffic back to your site. To get the most out of each story, consider how your blog content fits into your volunteer program marketing. A strategic cross-channel approach can drive sign-ups and engagement. Here are some of the best channels to promote your volunteer features:
- Email: Include a volunteer spotlight in your newsletter or as a dedicated email with a link back to the full blog post.
- Social media: Post a teaser with a quote or photo from the story and link back to the full article.
- Volunteer newsletters: Include stories to celebrate your team and remind them they’re part of something bigger.
Encourage your featured volunteers to share the post with their networks. Provide ready-to-go links or pre-written captions to make it easy.
For more tips, check out Cornershop’s guide to nonprofit marketing plans, which includes strategies for promoting your content across multiple channels.
Wrapping up: Start Crafting Your Volunteer Stories.
Volunteer stories aren’t just blog content—they’re a powerful tool for engagement and inspiration. If you’re not already highlighting the amazing people behind your mission, now’s the time to start.
Pick one volunteer. Schedule a quick interview. Add a photo and a clear CTA. You don’t have to be a professional writer to share a great story—just start.
