To grow, you want to work with your community. Especially if you have a volunteer-based community, you want to work together, not separate.
You may want to lead your community in a new direction, offer a new service, or share a new idea. But to shift their trajectory, you’re going to have to work with them.
Merge in and subtly influence where they’re going, working with their momentum – and support.
Grow with your community
Spend time getting to know what the interests of your audience are. What they’re motivated by. Get to know them and where they want to go. What they are looking for. Then join them.
Maybe that will lead you to focus on developing a more efficient way of communicating with them. Maybe it’ll mean you offer a new service to accommodate their needs.
If you plan to grow with your community, you’ll grow a lot larger and a lot more sustainably if you work together, not separate.
You can’t do everything yourself, so you’re going to need your community on-board with you. You’ll need a shared vision and trajectory.
If you’re not on the same page, you may end up moving in all sorts of directions, but not really going very far in any one. And that can be exhausting.
Work together to avoid burn out
In volunteer-based communities, in particular, the same people tend to donate their time routinely. They become your regulars.
They want to help, and they enjoy it. But burn out is a thing. For you and them.
Not feeling your motivations match the work you’re doing as well as a lack of support are two of the main causes of burn out.
So, make sure your organisation has systems in place to work with your volunteers. To value their interests and support their effort.
Make sure you feel supported to.
If you feel like you’re moving faster than your community can keep up, it’s often for one of two reasons.
Either you’re simply moving too fast. Or you’re moving in a direction they’re not interested in.
In both cases, to avoid burn out, you’ll need to reassess. Re-evaluate where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and if that matches your community’s needs. Is it something they want? How will it benefit them? Is it something they can handle right now?
Growing community works best when it’s together, not separate. So, get to know your community and where their energy is. Then work with them.