Since you focus the majority of your nonprofit’s outreach on acquiring funding for your cause, volunteer recruitment can naturally fall by the wayside.
However, a focused volunteer recruitment strategy can help your nonprofit tap into the over 60 million people who volunteer each year and harness their passion for your progress. Plus, many volunteers eventually decide to donate to your cause, making volunteer recruitment a great investment in your long-term fundraising efforts.
In this guide, we’ll explore some impactful, easy, and cost-effective volunteer recruitment tactics that allow you to reach the right people while also spreading your mission widely throughout your community. Before we get started, consider your short- and long-term goals for your volunteer program and how these new strategies can complement them.
Follow professional recruitment best practices
While your volunteer recruitment efforts have a slightly different goal and focus than corporate recruitment, you can still adopt numerous best practices from the professional recruitment world. For instance, you might take the following steps out of a recruiter’s playbook:
- Post volunteer opportunities on your website or other volunteer matching platforms, listing the specific skills and qualifications an ideal candidate would have
- Use management software to track where candidates are in the recruitment process and how you can make it more efficient
- Host interviews for skilled volunteer positions so you can gauge their commitment to your mission and if they’d be a good fit for your program
Chances are, your nonprofit has hired staff to fill positions before, so consider your organization’s recruitment strengths and weaknesses and how they can shape your volunteer outreach. For instance, if you have candidate relationship management software that can be configured for volunteer recruitment needs, you could start managing your volunteer postings and sourcing efforts through that instead of adopting a new solution.
Use a multi-channel strategy
As with any other nonprofit outreach, you need to keep marketing concepts in mind when crafting your volunteer recruitment strategy. A multi-channel marketing strategy is when your nonprofit uses the same branding and messaging on every outreach channel to provide your potential volunteers with a holistic experience. The channels you use can be offline or online, but they should all be consistent and tied to your nonprofit’s mission.
Some especially effective channels for nonprofits that organizations tend to overlook include:
- Search engine optimization, which is when you update your website to align with Google’s algorithmic preferences. This is a great digital strategy for nonprofits because it can be completely free—all it requires is some time from your web development and content teams to make your content accessible and useful for potential volunteers.
- Search ads, which is when you promote certain pages on your website at the top of Google’s search engine results page. At face value, these can be pricey, but nonprofits can apply for free search ads via the Google Ad Grants program.
- Direct mail marketing, which is when your nonprofit sends physical marketing collateral via mail to potential volunteers. Much of marketing has shifted to digital spaces, but that means you can stand out from the crowd with exceptional direct mail advertisements.
Whichever channels you choose, ensure your budget and audience preferences guide your buying decisions. You might not invest a significant amount of your budget in direct mail if your target volunteer base is younger and more likely to be online, for example.
Launch collaborations with other organizations
One of the best ways to amplify your reach is to get in front of other organizations’ audiences via collaborations. Not only will your nonprofit’s volunteer program get exposure, but your partner can benefit from associating with an organization dedicated to social good. Here are some ideas of different collaborations you could try:
- Working with a corporation. Corporate social responsibility is becoming a staple of the for-profit world, and your nonprofit can leverage that for volunteer recruitment. Connect with a corporation (preferably one you have an existing relationship with) and suggest a corporate volunteering initiative that encourages the company’s employees to volunteer with your nonprofit.
- Reciprocal volunteer opportunities. Nonprofits can help each other out by adopting a reciprocal volunteering program. For example, if your nonprofit needs an experienced emcee for your upcoming event, you could reach out to your partner organization and appeal for their emcee’s time that evening. Then, the emcee could shout out their original organization at the event, making it a win-win-win.
Ultimately, you should only work with organizations that share your values and relate to your cause. That way, you don’t compromise your purpose in the process of recruiting volunteers. Before agreeing to a partnership, meet with the point of contact and ask them detailed questions about their values and practices. Research the organization on your own before you make a final decision to partner with them.
Implement a referral program
Remember that one of the biggest assets your nonprofit has is your own network. Leverage the connections you have with your current volunteers’ friends and family members by adding a referral program to your overall volunteer program.
A referral program is a rewards system that incentivizes current volunteers to recruit new volunteers. Most referral programs operate on a points system, in which the supporters who secure the most referrals move higher on the leaderboard. Add prizes to certain benchmarks to encourage participation, such as free branded merchandise or a gift card to a local restaurant.
While referral programs are good at getting people in the door, your nonprofit needs to pay special attention to retention rates, too. The higher your retention rate is, the less you have to spend on recruiting new volunteers, making your overall operations more efficient.
Periodically reach out to volunteers acquired through the referral program via email or text to gauge their experience with your organization, and track retention rates with your volunteer management software. If you notice a significant decrease in referred volunteers’ retention, you should focus on volunteer engagement as an operational improvement.
No matter which recruitment tactics you end up implementing, ensure your mission remains the priority. As long as you genuinely communicate your purpose to potential volunteers, you’ll attract the right additions who might even turn into donors someday.