Illustration of hands raised to represent volunteering

A Low-Cost Way to Improve Volunteer Retention

Friday, May 29, 2026

By Charly Haley

Most nonprofit organizations rely on volunteers as a necessary part of their operations. But without the typical incentives of a paid job, what motivates volunteers to keep coming back?

New research from Minnesota Carlson offers an evidence-based answer to this question. Supply Chain & Operations Assistant Professor Vinit Tipnis’ recent paper “Enhancing Volunteer Retention: The Role of Experienced Volunteers” shows how pairing experienced, longtime volunteers with newcomers can improve retention.

“Volunteer retention is a common problem for nonprofits,” says Tipnis, whose paper was published in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. “Usually, a volunteer comes once, but they don’t really come back often. To have some certainty about the number of volunteers coming back helps nonprofits in the long-term, because it reduces the continuous need to devote resources to training and recruitment.”

Tipnis analyzed five years of volunteer data from Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, a large nonprofit that relies on volunteer work for its essential operations. He discovered that when an experienced volunteer was working on a shift with new volunteers, the new volunteers were more likely to return.

Key Takeaways

Smart pairings matter: Carlson research shows pairing experienced volunteers with newcomers boosts retention rates.
Avoid exclusive groups: Grouping experienced volunteers together makes newcomers feel like outsiders.
Low-cost solutions work: Nonprofits can use soft scheduling shifts to improve volunteer retention at no cost.

Assistant Professor Vinit Tipnis

“Every time you have even a single experienced volunteer in that shift, it improves new volunteer retention,” he says. The experienced volunteers offer guidance, answer questions and help the new volunteers integrate into the nonprofit’s work.

There is a catch, however. Tipnis’ research also found that having several experienced volunteers who all know each other on the same shift negates the benefits — and actually reduces retention among new volunteers. This is because the familiarity among experienced volunteers makes the new volunteers feel like outsiders. This negative effect can be remedied by ensuring that experienced volunteers are spread across different shifts when working with new volunteers.

Tipnis’ findings offer a low-cost way for nonprofits to increase their volunteer retention immediately, by being strategic about how they work with volunteers.

“From what I’ve seen in my research, a lot of nonprofits have experienced volunteers who tend to be very flexible. They really are committed to the mission of the nonprofit. So, when asked to change shifts or work with new volunteers, they won’t mind,” Tipnis says.

He adds that any time managers want volunteers to change schedules, it should be posed as a “soft ask” instead of a directive, to keep the volunteers happy. “Asking them is important because when you’re thinking about new volunteer retention, you don’t want to hurt experienced volunteer retention,” Tipnis says.

Because nonprofits often have limited resources, Tipnis believes his low-cost, easy-to-implement recommendations will be able to make a difference.

“One of the most important factors from a results perspective is that nonprofits don’t have a lot of funds when it comes to operations,” he says. “With this particular solution, they don’t have to invest anything. As long as a nonprofit has an existing pool of experienced volunteers, this can be implemented right away.”

This article appeared in the Spring 2026 Discovery magazine

Discover how faculty research is going virtual in the classroom, using AI to make the medical device industry safer, revealing a cost-effective way to retain volunteers, and more.

Spring 2026 table of contents

Tags Research