Nonprofit Volunteer Recruitment Best Practices
For a nonprofit, recruiting volunteers can be a time-consuming and difficult task. It is important that you know how to attract the volunteers that you need to run your program. Volunteers become a vital component of an organization, as volunteers help to carry the organization forward.
What are the specific steps that every nonprofit should adopt to attract volunteers? The following are the tips that all nonprofits should implement to attract volunteers:
- Post open positions online to gain exposure and allow people to find out more. People generally find out a lot of what is going on in the world today via the web. Posting information about volunteering opportunities on different social media platforms to enable a broad audience to know about them is a great tactic for getting more volunteers. This also creates the possibility for other volunteers to share your opportunities with their friends. Remember, the more awareness you can create around an opportunity, the more likely they ar to take advantage.
- Be specific about the details around the volunteer opportunity. The more specific you can be about the scope of the volunteer position, the more likely you are to recruit just the right person to join the team. Be clear about the qualifications and type of person you want to volunteer for your organization. Additionally, it can be easier for people to search for the right opportunities when they know the expectations around the role.
- Provide flexibility for what the scope of the role calls for. Providing flexibility around a role for volunteers will be helpful in widening the base of people who can potentially fill the role. People who are interested in serving your organization are more likely to take part when they know the scope of the role has flexibility to work around their schedules. If people are assured that working for a non-profit organization is not stressful, it would make them much happier to volunteer with you. If a role seems to complex or rigid, it might make sense to see if you can break it down into multiple smaller roles to offer a high level of flexibility.
- Be sure you have adequate training set up for onboarding volunteers. You will want to make sure you have a robust training process for volunteers. Offering training videos, group discussions, or by offering people an opportunity to download helpful PDF files are all great ways to make sure potential volunteers are fully equipped for their role. A volunteer management software like MyVolunteers is a great tool for keeping these resources organized when onboarding new volunteers.
- Communicate the impact of the opportunity when recruiting. During a recruitment event or meeting, talk about the impact of the organization and specifically the role itself. When potential volunteers know how they are helping make a change, they are willing to work with you. Be sure to know the scope of the program you are recruiting for and share it’s impact passionately with those who you think will be good candidates to serve.
- Spotlight your current volunteers to communicate value to potential volunteers. It makes your volunteers happy and encourages them to become more involved when you share the impact they are making with others. Additionally, it gives prospective volunteers a glimpse of what the organization does in order to attract volunteers. If people see how the organization works and how much it values it’s current volunteers, it might inspire them to join the program as volunteers.
- Chat with your current volunteers to recruit new people to serve with your organization. You should encourage current volunteers and anyone you meet with to let you meet potential volunteers. Your current volunteers are some of the best recruiters for your organization. Widen the net of your volunteer base by leveraging those who are already sold on the mission of the organization. Encourage people who serve with your organization to share about volunteer opportunities with their friends and family.
- Partner with small businesses that are trying to grow and give back to the community. By working with local businesses, volunteer organizations can reach a wider public. This way, volunteer opportunities can reach a wider community and your organization gains more exposure with the public. However, it is important to protect the integrity of your organization and the volunteers it recruits by partnering with local businesses that resonate with the mission of your organization.
Recruiting new volunteers is hard work. Implement these tips to ensure you and your organization leverage best practices when looking for new people to serve. Be sure to utilize a tool like MyVolunteers to document, organize, and communicate with prospective and current volunteers. To find out more information about MyVolunteers, visit mycommunity.info.
MyCommunity exists to build relationships and tools that equip organizations so that they can maximize their impact. Our suite of tools is designed to help organizations of all sizes focus on their mission without worrying about the logistics. We understand the importance of building strong relationships, so we provide the necessary tools to maximize impact and make a difference like our easy-to-use platforms MyDonors and MyVolunteers. Likewise, MyNonprofitCoach equips nonprofits with the training they need to be successful. Schedule a demo for any of our solutions here.
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