Recruiting Volunteers: Where it Starts

We want to make Recruiting Volunteers easy for you. Easy and creative - that's our approach. To keep things simple we have created the Cycle of Volunteer Management and this is the first of four actions in the Cycle. So let's start with some good groundwork.

Before you can hang your help wanted signs, you have to determine just what you need and how you are going to manage it. Gather a Team and make some decisions. We've provide a free tool to get you started.

Free Volunteer Recruitment Tool

Your Team will consider some important questions including:

1. How will the work of the volunteers help you reach your vision?
2. How often will they work, what time and where?
3. Who will train them and supervise or monitor their work?
4. Would current volunteers be interested in this new role?
5. Where will you announce your need for volunteers?
6. How and when will you review the volunteer and the position?

There are several Key Reasons that People Volunteer, appeal to those and you will increase your response.

The best way to get the right person in the right job is to be crystal clear about what the job is and what is expected of the volunteer. This is so important! Sometimes you may be tempted to make the role sound easy or otherwise desirable. Resist the urge and give a good description and your expectation.

We have seen really challenging volunteer positions filled when the job is well defined with parameters. Recently, a local organization was able to recruit and train 50 facilitators in its first year; each one paid for his/her four day training and made a commitment to facilitate a group for one year. The cost and commitment – as well as the vision of the organization – were clear from the start.

Volunteers tend to “look like” the person who recruits them. By that I mean you tend to attract people who relate to you in some way. They may be a similar age, the same gender or race, have similar views or live a similar lifestyle. So – if you want more seniors, have seniors do the recruiting, if you want teens, get some motivated teens to help with recruiting.

Start with your own circle; let people already committed to your organization know what the need is. If you have to cast a wider net for Recruiting Volunteers, there are many good websites to use including: www.idealist.org, www.encore.org (for that huge population of baby boomers looking for their next “career”) and



www.volunteermatch.org.

Check out these 23 reasons to recruit volunteers

Recruiting Volunteers is the first action in the Cycle of Volunteer Management