How to recruit Volunteer Support for Community based Organizations

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Permalink Reply by Alma Muriel Vasquez on November 11, 2009 at 1:05pm

I currently am in charge of recruiting volunteers for 15 of our learning centers and it's true that the younger generation is more focused on short term volunteering opportunites, mainly because they are focused on other things that take precedent in their lives like furthering their education. Most of our volunteers are younger college or high school ages students, but they tend to volunteer to meet graduating requirments or are participating in service learning programs and or courses. For me its more about making the connections with universities and or high schools that have these requirments or services. For marketing or outreach its really ideal to utilize social networking sites like facebook,myspace, twitter, but that can only do so much. Starting January 1st, Disney Parks is starting their "Give a Day, Get a Day Campaign". Disney Parks is celebrating the heroes who dedicate their time to serving others. I came up with a plan to recruit volunteers by becoming a participant of the campaign. All you need to do is register and apply through disneyparks to be apart of the HandsonNetwork and you can begin posting your organizations volunteer opportunities. Disney is then giving a free day to any disney park for the 1st 1 million people to volunteer through the HandsonNetwork. I don't know exactly what you are recruiting for, but it is also smart to target groups of young people who are already invested in doing service, like various service clubs. For example, HS or middle schools might have a Cesar Chavez club, Youth Rotary and or Kiwanis club. Many universities have volunteer hubs as well. Another idea I haven't yet pursued, would be Churches. Many churches do have youth groups and do take time to do service projects. Some might already have partnerships with other organizations like Habitat for Humanity, but it wouldn't hurt to put a posting in their newsletters.

As a younger person myself who has dedicated the last few years to service through AmeriCorps. I think the best recruiting technique is always through presentations and word of mouth. Its best to get the organizations name out there through physical representation, so prospective volunteers will feel a closer connection/ familiarity with the organization, especially if the organization is not widely known as.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to post your current strategies, so I to could learn from your work:)

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Martin on December 4, 2009 at 9:59am

I am in a smaller city in Indiana. We have many churches that routinely volunteer for our organization, on our big volunteer day in May and also throughout the year. We do a lot of speaking at churches, showing them how our mission connects to their outreach vision. In addition to churches we use volunteers from the local work release program. These people are happy to do something with their days and also learn a skill. One recent success story is that a former work release volunteer took the lead training and when released obtained a job with a local contractor who is familiar with our work.
Another option is the local alternative high school. We are in the second year of working with this school. They come to a LaCasa job site one day per week, morning and afternoon groups, to work on our projects. This has involved a lot of time from our Volunteer Coordinator, but now that the school is on board with Service Learning they participate every week. The students look forward to doing real jobs.
The last group that I will mention is our University Partners. We have 4 national universities that visit us each year for a week of volunteering. We find housing for them in a local church and they work on our projects. We usually take them out for an Amish meal as part of their visit.
The main thing that I have found essential is that the volunteer feels they are doing real work. Then, you have another supporter who buys into your work and understands a bit more about the organization.

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Permalink Reply by Victoria Gray S on December 6, 2009 at 3:43pm

Most major cities have a volunteer organization or Hands on Network. Young volunteers usually find out about volunteer opportunities from those organization or their schools. I wish that more high schools would make it mandatory for students to have a certain amount of volunteers hours before they can graduate. I also wish that college would include volunteer hours as a part of their admissions process.

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Permalink Reply by Boykin Clarke on March 26, 2010 at 3:23pm

Our organization in Atlanta has actually had enormous success using free websites such as VolunteerMatch and Idealist in recruiting young volunteers, but we have found the same problem as younger volunteers are primarily interested in short-term volunteering opportunities. The involvement of young volunteers with our organization, even if volunteer time is short, has provided a unique opportunity for us to spread information about our organization to a broader network of communities living throughout Atlanta. This is primarily because our immediate neighborhood is populated by an increasingly aging community of seniors and therefore the majority of our younger volunteers must be recruited from surrounding neighborhoods. We've learned to benefit from this population pattern by expanding the opportunities for the youths of Atlanta to interact and collaborate with the seniors of Atlanta.
We've therefore increased the marketability of our volunteer opportunities by expanding the interest areas associated with our various volunteering programs and events. For example, when we require volunteers to help us during one of our neighborhood clean-up days, the volunteer opportunity becomes more attractive to potential volunteers when we can offer to them the opportunity to choose among various groups of fellow volunteers with which to work, those groups being seniors, young adults, young children, similarly aged persons, or mixed cooperative groups.

And on one last note, oddly enough, we've found that one strategy to overcoming the difficulty in maintaining the retention rate of young volunteers is to make an upfront commitment to young volunteers that your organization is willing to cultivate a long-term relationship with them. If young volunteers believe you are committed to sustaining a relationship with them, they will be willing and sometimes eager to commit themselves to your cause.

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