Designing Custom Shirts for Your Staff and Volunteers

Whether you’re a business or a non-profit, hosting or sponsoring charity events is an excellent way to reach your local community and get the word out about your cause and your organization. Getting your business involved and giving back to your local community is also beneficial on many other levels.

First and foremost, the community benefits from the organization/cause you choose to support through the immediate impact of your efforts. Next, volunteering your time to work on a cause your business is passionate about is one of the more effective ways to network your business and raise your visibility in your local community – which is crucial to the success of businesses of all sizes. Finally, getting your team involved in volunteer work for a cause they’re passionate about is a well-known method of team-building and raising employee morale.

Having tailor-made shirts that feature your company logo, your partner non-profit or charity’s logo, event name & date, and a title such as “staff” or “volunteer” also has numerous other benefits discussed below. But there’s a lot that goes into planning an event, aside from designing and printing custom shirts in bulk for your staff and volunteers.

The good news is, it’s easier than ever to DIY your custom shirts online by partnering with services that offer t-shirt printing in Toronto. This makes planning your event a little bit easier and provides your business with the following benefits.

Custom Shirts Help Guests Identify Event Staff

Custom shirts for your staff and volunteers provide an immediate benefit that helps you run a seamless charity event. Not only do you make it easier for guests to find event staff when they need them, but it also gives the staff some authority that most guests will respect when your staff and volunteers need to set boundaries during the event.

Another benefit of utilizing wholesale custom shirts for your event staff is that it fosters a sense of camaraderie amongst your staff and volunteers, as uniforms have been shown to increase employee engagement.

Create Positive Brand Awareness With Custom Shirts

On top of spreading the word about both your organization and the cause your team has chosen to support, you’re also creating priceless PR for your company and/or non-profit. We are in an age when many start-ups are founded specifically as social purpose businesses, and approximately 70% of Canadians feel that companies should demonstrate how they are making the world a better place. In other words, getting involved with a cause and making a contribution creates a win-win and is a key component of a successful business.

One of the greatest benefits of designing custom shirts for staff and volunteers as you host or participate in an event is that the shirts last, and will be worn, long after the event is over. This means that you have dozens of walking billboards that are creating positive brand awareness and gaining impressions (views) for your organization and the cause you support every time your staff and volunteers work out, mow their lawns and make a grocery store run. While you’re at it, it’s also a good idea to design custom shirts (or other swag) as giveaways to event guests for even more exposure.

How to Design Custom Shirts for Staff & Volunteers

Here are just a few tips for designing shirts to keep in mind when printing custom shirts in bulk for your event:

• Get sizes from your staff and volunteers and order plenty of extras to be on the safe side as people may lose them, stain them, forget them at home during a multi-day event or simply order the wrong size.
• Choose your shirt colour carefully. Logos and lettering need to stand out and if they also contain colours, make sure they don’t clash with the shirt colour. It’s also not recommended to use several colours or trendy colours that won’t look as good in a couple of years.
• Don’t pull graphics off the internet, as they don’t always translate well. Go to the source for logos, images, etc.

Finally, look at designer apparel for inspiration on fonts, designs, etc. The cooler your shirts, the more likely they’ll be worn after the event.

Tips for Organizing and Running Your Charity Event

Below is a checklist that can help you for a seamless event:

• Make a list of all support staff functions your event needs and post/share it with your team so they can sign up for their desired roles or assign tasks based on each person’s skill set. It’s also a good idea to group people together who don’t work in the same department to build stronger cross-company relationships.
• Create a system by assigning supervisors who have experience and can anticipate potential needs to support each group of volunteers. Keep in mind, however, that these events are rare opportunities for your staff to get to know you and each other as people outside of titles and hierarchies.
• Arm each volunteer and staff member with a map of the venue and answers to common questions.
• Create and adhere to a schedule to ensure your team members get breaks and aren’t working too long.
• Keep in mind that the object of your event is fun for the attendees and staff alike.
• Get feedback from guests, staff and volunteers to make your next event an even bigger success.

Finally, it’s crucial to show appreciation by thanking your staff and volunteers. Whether you give them a small gift that commemorates the event, host a party for them or find some other way to convey your gratitude, take the time to make an announcement and get the attendees to give them a warm round of applause for their efforts!