Asking event volunteers for feedback is a win-win situation. Your organization benefits from crucial insights that help improve the volunteer experience the next time around, while participants get to make their voices heard and feel like valued members of your team. 

However, gaining valuable input depends on your ability to ask the right event volunteer survey questions that get to the heart of what makes for a positive volunteer experience. Let’s review the most useful survey questions to ask volunteers, broken down into three categories: volunteer satisfaction, volunteer communication, and general event feedback. 

Volunteer satisfaction questions

These questions will help you understand whether volunteers enjoyed the event experience. Depending on their answers, you can adjust your volunteer strategy before your next event to exceed supporters’ expectations. 

• How would you rate the overall volunteer experience?
• How would you rate the volunteer training process? 
• What was the most enjoyable part of volunteering at the event?
• What was the least enjoyable part of volunteering at the event?
• How valued did you feel by our organization as a member of the event team? 
• How helpful was our staff throughout the event? 
• How likely are you to volunteer at one of our events again? 
• How likely are you to recommend our volunteer opportunities to a friend? 

Feel free to add questions relevant to your unique event. For example, if you hosted a fundraising 5K event, you could ask additional questions such as “How convenient was parking at our event?” or “Did you feel there were adequate supplies for volunteers, such as water and snacks?” Ultimately, your volunteer satisfaction questions should be phrased in a way that encourages volunteers to share their unique experiences with your event. 

Volunteer communication questions

Staying in touch with volunteers throughout the entire event process is critical to preparing them for the event and making them feel as comfortable as possible in their roles. Use these questions to tailor your event communications strategy to fit volunteers’ preferences.

• How did you hear about this volunteer opportunity? 
• Did you have a smooth volunteer registration process? 
• What could we do to improve the registration process?
• Were the expectations of the volunteer role clearly communicated? 
• Did you receive adequate communication before, during, and after the event? 
• What could we do differently next time to improve communication? Examples: more frequent communication, less frequent communication, different communication platforms, etc. 
• What platform did you use to check event updates? Examples: email, social media, website, etc. 

If you use a volunteer app to stay in touch with supporters, ask for feedback on the app experience. Did volunteers feel like it was easy to check in using your app? Could they communicate with your organization’s staff or volunteer shift leaders to ask questions or raise concerns? Answers to these questions will be invaluable in ensuring that your organization is making the most of its software solutions. 

General event feedback questions

As support staff, your volunteers have unique insight into your organization’s event experience. Consider asking these questions about their opinions on your event to help enhance your future opportunities.

• Do you feel like the event was well-organized? Why or why not?
• Did you feel safe at the event? How could we improve our security measures next time around? 
• How would you rate the event’s entertainment? 
• How would you rate the event’s venue?
• How convenient was getting to the event? 

Supporting your events shouldn’t feel like work—your volunteers are dedicating their free time to your cause, so the experience should be fun and engaging. By asking for their feedback on your event in general, you can strategize ways to improve the quality of your organization’s experiences. 

Bonus: Tips to perfect your event volunteer survey

Use these best practices to narrow down your questions and get the most value out of your survey: 

• Limit the number of questions in your survey. Choose only a handful of questions from the lists above based on the information you are most interested in learning. This will encourage volunteers to complete your survey. 
• Mix up your question types. Use a combination of open-ended, multiple-choice, ratings, and other question types. This helps streamline the survey experience and allows volunteers to expand on their answers if they want to. 
• Make your survey inclusive and accessible. Make sure your survey is accessible to all volunteers. Use large, readable fonts, strongly contrasted colors, and a mobile-friendly design. 
• Send the survey promptly after the event concludes. Send the survey within 24 hours of your event’s conclusion so the experience is fresh in volunteers’ minds. 
• Track survey responses with your volunteer software. Track volunteers who filled out the survey so you can send timely thank-you emails. You can also save volunteers’ specific preferences to their profiles. For example, perhaps a volunteer noted a preference for frequent email communications. Keep this in mind when reaching out to them in the future to create a better experience for them. 

After volunteers complete the survey, send a confirmation email to thank them for their responses. Share the impact of their feedback—for example, “Your response will help us plan an even greater event next year to better serve our community.” Consider offering a perk to show your gratitude, such as a free sticker or fridge magnet branded to your organization. 

Volunteers are willing to provide insight into their experience—you just have to figure out the best way to ask! Show them that their thoughts and opinions matter with these survey questions and strategies that foster greater volunteer engagement and retention.