Our diversity can be a strength especially when it comes to motivation and appreciation. Understanding how volunteers are motivated can be key to retaining their partnership and making them feel genuinely appreciated. This workshop will look at three examples for understanding motivation amongst volunteers through a series of short activities and a personal motivation survey. Leaders of volunteers will then discuss the power of gratitude and discuss Languages of Appreciation based on the work of Gary Chapman and Paul White to better understand how they like to be appreciated and to learn how they can flex their appreciation muscle and show gratitude to volunteers who like to be appreciated in ways that differ from them. Be prepared to leave this session with a grateful heart and an understanding of how to express appreciation and motivate volunteers in meaningful ways.

Faiza Venzant CVA is the Executive Director of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. With 20 years of leadership experience in volunteer engagement, she continues this work with a goal of centering community amongst the profession, improving equity and access to volunteerism and increasing diversity amongst professional leaders of volunteers. In 2018, Faiza published her first children’s book entitled, My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up! As a mother of two young boys, she has not actually eaten any of her children up.