Community theatre wouldn’t exist without volunteers. Often, they’re doing it because they love theatre and want to be part of their community. That doesn’t mean their time has no value.
Volunteer appreciation shouldn’t be limited to an annual banquet or a quick “thank you to our amazing volunteers!” Facebook post. It should be built into the way your organization treats people throughout the entire production process.
And before we get into ways to recognize volunteers, there’s an important distinction to make.
Volunteer Appreciation Isn’t a Substitute for Compensation
If your theatre has the resources to compensate someone for professional work, pay them. A gift card, free ticket, or social media shoutout shouldn’t become a convenient substitute for paying theatre artists when you’ve budgeted for professional services.
At the same time, many theatres genuinely operate through volunteerism. If that’s how your organization operates, you may not be able to pay every volunteer. You can make sure they know their contribution matters.
1. Start With Saying Thank You
Appreciation needs to be specific. Compare:
“Thanks to all our volunteers!”
with:
“Thank you to Maria for spending three evenings helping us organize and repair costumes before tech week.”
The second recognizes what that person actually contributed.
Directors and production leaders should make a habit of thanking people throughout the process, not just after closing. Anyone who volunteers for your theatre contributes to your productions.
2. Credit People for Their Work
If someone contributed creatively or professionally to your production, give them a credit. That can mean including them in the playbill, on your website, in production announcements, or wherever your organization maintains its show history.
Don’t make someone ask five times to be credited for their work. Recognition costs your theatre nothing, but it can mean a lot to the person receiving it.
3. Feed Your Volunteers
Providing pizza during load-in, snacks backstage, coffee during an early call, or dinner during an especially long tech rehearsal is a relatively inexpensive way to acknowledge that people are giving you their time. You can also ask local restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, or other businesses about donating food in exchange for sponsor recognition.
Food isn’t payment for someone’s labor, but for people who choose to volunteer, making sure they don’t have to spend extra money feeding themselves while volunteering is a thoughtful gesture.
4. Remove the Costs of Volunteering When You Can
Sometimes appreciation isn’t about giving someone something. It’s about making sure volunteering doesn’t cost them more than it needs to.
- Can the theatre provide required supplies?
- Can you reimburse mileage when someone has to make a special trip for the production?
- Can you cover parking?
- Can you provide meals during long days?
- Can actors use costume pieces the theatre already owns?
- Can you provide the tools and materials your crew needs?
Someone donating their time is already contributing. Whenever possible, don’t make them donate their money too.
5. Offer Complimentary Tickets
Tickets can be especially valuable because they let volunteers share the work they helped create. Consider giving volunteers complimentary tickets for friends or family. Not only for the productions they work on, but for future productions so they can see other performances at your theatre.
You might establish a simple policy based on the type or amount of volunteering, or provide everyone involved with a designated comp.
6. Offer Discounts and Perks
If complimentary tickets aren’t feasible, there are other small benefits you can provide. Volunteers could receive discounted tickets, early registration for workshops, access to certain events, theatre merchandise, concession vouchers, or other perks your organization can sustainably offer.
The goal isn’t to create an elaborate rewards program. It’s to communicate: Giving us your time comes with membership in this community.
7. Invest in Their Skills
One of the best ways to thank someone for volunteering is to help them become better at something they care about.
- Bring in someone to teach lighting, stage management, costuming, intimacy practices, marketing, directing, or another theatre skill.
- Allow volunteers to share their work in their design portfolios (see next section).
- Purchase or acquire educational resources your volunteers can access.
- Pair someone interested in learning a department with an experienced mentor.
This can be especially valuable when someone has volunteered in the same position repeatedly and wants to grow professionally.
8. Give Volunteers Something for Their Portfolio
For volunteers pursuing theatre professionally, or simply building their experience, help them document what they accomplished.
- Provide photographers with appropriate photo credits.
- Give designers copies of production photography showing their work.
- Allow marketing volunteers to document campaign results when appropriate.
- Provide recommendation letters.
- Let students document volunteer hours.
- Write LinkedIn recommendations.
- Give people accurate titles and credits they can put on their résumés.
None of these things replace compensation, but they make volunteer experiences more useful to the people giving you their time.
9. Give People Their Time Back
This may be one of the most overlooked forms of volunteer appreciation. Respect people’s time. Start rehearsals, build days, and meetings when you say you will, and don’t treat “they’re a volunteer” as a reason their time matters less.
10. Ask Your Volunteers What They Actually Want
Not everyone feels appreciated in the same way. You don’t have to guess. Ask. A short end-of-season volunteer survey could include questions about the volunteer experience, what would make participating easier, what types of recognition people value, and what barriers might keep them from volunteering again. This will also help with volunteer retention.
When You Have Money, Put Some of It Back Into Your People
As your theatre grows, volunteer appreciation should grow with it. Volunteerism doesn’t have to be an excuse for an organization to never move toward compensation.
If increased ticket sales, donations, sponsorships, or grants give your theatre more resources, consider how some of that growth can benefit the people whose labor helped create it.
Appreciation Is a Culture, Not a Pizza Party
Pizza is great. So are thank-you cards, comp tickets, cast gifts, volunteer spotlights, and end-of-season celebrations. But none of those things can fix a culture where volunteers feel overworked, ignored, taken for granted, or replaceable.
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