What is volunteer recruitment?
The process of identifying and vetting people for volunteer work is known as volunteer recruitment. During this process, qualified individuals are sought out to fill specific positions.
Volunteer recruitment guidelines:
1. Identify your nonprofit’s volunteering needs
In order to find the right volunteer for your organization, you need to take a look at your nonprofit’s needs. Do you need volunteers for an upcoming event? Are you looking for volunteers with specific skills? By identifying your nonprofit’s needs, you can get an idea of the type of volunteers that you need to be targeting with your organisation’s volunteer recruitment campaign.
There are generally two methods of volunteer recruitment:
1 .Broad recruitment:
A recruitment strategy is effective at attracting a large number of volunteers in a short time. This strategy will most likely produce one-time volunteers, instead of recurring volunteers. Broad volunteer recruitment can include distributing flyers or posting a general call for volunteers on your social media accounts.
2. Targeted recruitment:
Targeted recruitment requires more planning and is typically the best way to recruit volunteers with specific skills or interests that you need.
2. Determine each of your volunteer’s role details
In order to attract the right people to the right volunteering opportunities, you need to communicate exactly what each volunteer role entails. Make sure to outline everything a person should know about a specific volunteer role. When writing volunteer role descriptions, make sure to cover the following:
Who do you need to fill the role? Are there any specific requirements or skills needed?
What will they have to do? Be clear about expectations to avoid any misunderstandings.
When and where will they be training and volunteering?
Why is the role important to our cause or event?
Explain the process of getting involved.
3. Choose the channels to promote volunteer opportunities
There are many channels that your organization can use to get the attention of potential volunteers.
If you’re looking for volunteers with a specific set of skills, you could recruit through professional organizations. There are professionals that are interested in using their unique set of skills to make a difference. A teacher might be interested in tutoring students. A writer might be interested in doing some copyrighting for your organization. To find professionals who are interested in sharing their time and skills with your organization, reach out to local chapters of professional organizations.
You can also use social media to promote volunteer opportunities. You can use your social fortress to post about volunteering opportunities. Sharing photos of a recent volunteering opportunity and giving star volunteers a social media shout-out will communicate to your followers that you value volunteers.
You can use LinkedIn to see if you have any connections with potential volunteers.
Using local media outlets to your advantage will help you reach out to potential volunteers around you. You can use TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines and local bloggers to get the word out.
4. Let the volunteer recruitment begin!
Once you have a target audience in mind, and your channels are chosen, you can start pushing forward with your recruitment efforts.
You can start by utilizing current volunteers to invite new people who might be interested in your organization and your cause. Encourage volunteers to enlist friends and family.
You can then start widening your net by using the various channels discussed. Make sure to keep the needs of your organization in mind.
6. Ask your volunteers for feedback
You can use the feedback given by volunteers to tweak and tune your recruitment strategy. You will be able to pinpoint gaps and strengthen your efforts over time.
After you finish an event or campaign that required volunteers, sit down with your team and ask questions like:
- How effective was our recruitment strategy?
- Were our recruitment goals met?
- How long did it take to recruit volunteers?
- Which aspects of outreach tactics were the most effective?
By reviewing and evaluating what worked and what didn’t, you can better focus on the right areas in the future.
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