Volunteer recognition events

Most hospices hold a volunteer recognition event, and it gathers the people who most believe in the work. It is also a room in which a substantial share of those present came to the organization through a death in their own family.

The evening is theirs, and the ask is not to them

Same principle as any recognition event, and sharper here. Recognition first and in full. One short announcement, from an organizer rather than a volunteer being honoured. And the auction's real audience is the guests, board members, professional partners and businesses in the room — not the volunteers.

Make it comfortable to bid on nothing. Somebody who gives the organization two hundred hours a year has already given more than any lot.

Open online well before

Two weeks, promoted to the whole supporter list. That does most of the raising away from the room, which is what keeps the evening what it was meant to be — and it reaches former volunteers and families who no longer attend.

What changes in this room

• Somebody present is newly bereaved. Assume it, and set the tone accordingly
• No live bidding announcements, no leaderboard, no naming of bidders
• Keep the display to one side rather than through the middle of the room
• Have somebody from bereavement present who is not working the auction
• If a memorial item is listed, tell the named family it will be in the room before they arrive

That last point is the one that gets missed. A family walking into an event and finding their person's name on a display they were not expecting is a bad experience the organization created.

A remembrance event is different

Some hospices hold an annual remembrance service or memorial evening for bereaved families. **Do not run an auction at that.** It is the one event in the year that belongs entirely to the families, and a fundraising element in it will be remembered as an intrusion regardless of how tastefully it is handled.

Promote nothing there, display nothing there, and keep the campaign clear of the fortnight around it.

One lot that belongs at the recognition evening

Something that funds volunteers rather than being sold to them — a training cohort, the mileage fund, the making group's materials for a year. Named from the podium as what the room is funding for next year's volunteers, it makes the auction part of the recognition rather than a departure from it.

Afterwards

Report to volunteers in the unit they care about: nights of respite funded, counselling sessions delivered. And thank them for attending rather than for participating — they were guests.

General information, not legal or compliance advice for your organization. Patient privacy obligations continue after death and depend on your own policies and funding conditions — your privacy officer and counsel decide how any of this applies.