Volunteers are often described as the ‘lifeblood’ of an organisation and without them, many organisations would struggle to do as much as they do. Yet, judging by the number of adverts, articles and social media posts that we see appealing for volunteers, it seems that recruitment is a challenge for many organisations.
One way to tackle this problem is to treat it as you would any other PR and marketing campaign and to put together a strategy and action plan.
Arm yourself with facts. What do you know about your existing volunteers – how many hours do they volunteer, what do they do, are they satisfied, would they like to do more, why do they volunteer with your organisation, do they have any plans to stop volunteering with you and if so when?
What’s the competition – who else is looking for volunteers?
What are the barriers to recruiting more volunteers?
Statements such as ‘we are always looking for volunteers’, ‘do you have an hour or two to spare’ and ‘can you help’ are unlikely to motivate people to get in touch and offer their services, yet they are phrases we regularly see from organisations on a recruitment drive.
Put together role descriptions so people can see what help you need, the skills you require and what the benefits will be to the volunteer.
A lack of time is probably one of the main barriers preventing people from volunteering so think creatively about the help you need and how it can be offered. For example, what opportunities are there for people to volunteer from home, to volunteer outside normal office hours or on an ad hoc arrangement Could better use be made of technology?
Create a profile so you know exactly who you are targeting. This information will help you to plan the tactics you are going to use to reach your ideal volunteer.
Why should somebody volunteer for you? The altruistic reasons go without saying but what’s in it for the volunteer? Be clear about benefits such as an opportunity to train, gain a new skill etc and, as most people like to know that their efforts make a difference, explain how volunteering contributes towards achieving your organisation’s purpose.
Now that you know who you want to target and what you want them to do, you can be a lot more focused with your marketing and implement tactics that will appeal directly to your ideal volunteer. However, before you launch your recruitment campaign be sure to have the basics in place, for example have an area on your website dedicated to volunteering and include:
Remember to evaluate your activity so you have evidence to show what worked and what didn’t work so well in your recruitment campaign. This information can feed into the ‘Research’ stage of your next campaign.
Finally, one of your greatest assets will be your existing volunteers so be sure to keep them informed and appeal for their help with recruitment.
We specialise in creating PR and marketing strategies and action plans that work. If you need a plan to recruit more volunteers please get in touch as we would love to help.