Recruiting Volunteers:
A Step-by-Step Guide to QUICKLY Getting the Volunteers You Want


If you do not have your volunteer roles in writing, with full descriptions about what the volunteer in each role will do, how many hours a week or month the volunteer will commit in each role, how long of a commitment you expect a volunteer to make for each role (a day, a week, a month, six months), and what success in the role looks like, your efforts to recruit volunteers will fail.

If you do not have a system and commitment in place to answer within 24 hours any email or application from someone that wants to volunteer, your efforts to recruit volunteers will fail.

If you do not have a system or commitment in place to get new volunteers into roles and tasks QUICKLY, your efforts to recruit volunteers will fail.

I cannot emphasize these three points enough. If you start recruiting before you have those two things in place, you won't get the volunteers you need, you will anger people that want to volunteer with your program and you will generate negative public relations. In the future, your calls for volunteers will not be taken seriously. People who don’t get a quick reply, or any reply, to their inquiry to volunteer, don’t get complete answers to their questions, don’t understand why their application was rejected, etc., will share their bad experiences with their networks - their associates on Facebook, their family, their co-workers, etc. 

If you are recruiting volunteers for high-responsibility roles, like for a mentoring or tutoring program or board position, see this resource on recruiting for such high-responsibility roles.


Recruiting Local Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks

Having plenty of volunteers to undertake all the roles at your organization usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter).

This resource will help you think about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific demographic. Please use it in all of your volunteering recruitment efforts.


Everything you say & do is a recruitment message

Every message your organization sends out is, at least indirectly, a volunteer recruitment message. Every Facebook status update, every tweet, every newsletter story - it affects how people think about your program and about volunteering with you. If most of your letters to supporters and speeches to civic groups are about how your organization needs money, people are going to get the impression that your organization needs money much more than people. If most of your messages are about the difference your volunteers make in the lives of young people, people are going to feel an emotional connection to what you do. If you post photos online of people having fun, of people being happy, etc., you are creating an image of an organization that would be pleasant to be a part of. If you post messages that thank your volunteers, you are saying to potential candidates, "We value our volunteers!" If you don't answer questions or criticisms posted online about your program, that may make someone wonder how responsive you would be for volunteer.

One of my favorite users of Facebook is Peace Corps, because every message they send out is, at least indirectly, a recruitment message. For instance, when they ask on a Facebook status update, "What did you love most about being a Peace Corps volunteer?", and people respond, the responses from alumni, and even the organization's response to criticism or questions from non-Peace Corps alumni, become recruitment messages for new volunteers.


Messages that work - and those that don't

Messages that attract potential mentors:
Messages that do NOT attract mentors:
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't post about your annual report - you most certainly should. But remember that all of your outreach, collectively, is creating an image of your organization. You want that image to be inspiring, one that draws the right people to support your program as volunteers.

Everyone at your organization is a recruiter

Everyone at your organization - every volunteer, every employee, every long-term consultant - should be able to say what your does, just very basically, that your organization involves volunteers, and where people can find complete information online about volunteering. The accountant, the human resources manager, the six-month marketing consultant: all should be able to say what the organization does, in their own words (no “canned” speech) and what the web address is. Also, all employees, consultants and volunteers, regardless of their responsibilities, should be invited to presentations on success stories about your program - it will inspire them about the organization they work for AND make them better volunteer recruiters with family and friends.

Outreach

Once you have EVERY ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS IN WRITING (preferably on your web site) and a system and commitment to reply WITHIN 24 HOURS to people that say they want to volunteer, you can post messages meant to recruit volunteers to.

Also, as said earlier on this page, having plenty of volunteers to undertake all the roles at your organization usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter). Please think about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific demographic that is under-represented among your current volunteer and staff ranks.

The reality is that all of the above will probably be enough to get you all of the volunteers you need. I encourage you to try JUST these aforementioned recommendations first, before doing anything else, so that you are not overwhelmed with applicants.

And be sure to take down recruitment posts if you DO get overwhelmed with volunteers.

If all of this still doesn't get you enough volunteers, then you can also send an email noting your volunteer recruitment directly to:

Your web site needs to be super-detailed!

Please see this web page, also on my site, the Information About & For Volunteers You Should Have on Your Web Site, for details on what your organization should have on its web site in order to be able to recruit and support volunteers. If your organization or department involves volunteers, or wants to, there are certain things your organization or department must have on its web site - not by law, of course, but from a point of view of ethics and credibility. To not have this basic information about volunteer engagement on your web site says that your organization or department takes volunteers for granted, does not value volunteers beyond money saved in salaries, or is not really ready to involve volunteers. In addition to what I have on that page, your web site also needs to have this information:

Volunteers can help

There are a lot of people who would love to volunteer to build a list of people and their email addresses that would be good to contact regarding volunteering with your organization, who would post these messages on social media for you, etc. 


When someone applies or inquires about volunteering

Reply within 24 hours about next steps.

If you don't already have this question on your application - "How did you hear about our organization or volunteering with us?" - then add it, or ask it in your followup email to all new candidates for volunteering. Track each month what outreach method is the most effective in attracting volunteers.

Notify applicants promptly and respectfully if they do not meet program requirements to volunteer with you. If appropriate, encourage them to look at something like VolunteerMatch for opportunities with other organizations.


Also see

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