Effective Volunteer Recruitment for Community Groups and Not-for-Profits

Recruiting volunteers can sometimes feel overwhelming and like an impossible feat. Volunteering rates are on the decline and we have not returned to pre covid levels of volunteering, so the challenges felt across the globe when it comes to volunteer recruitment are real! However, with a few strategic adjustments, a bit of planning, and some fresh ideas, you can make the process smoother and take leaps and bounds forward into consistently attracting enthusiastic, well-matched volunteers for your community group.

Getting Started: Align with Your Group's Goals

First things first, think about your group's direction and needs. Recruitment should target specific needs rather than a general call for help. What are you going to get your new recruits to do? Align your efforts with your strategic plans, identifying the skills and number of volunteers required to deliver current and future projects. Once you understand your gaps and have a clear purpose for new recruits, then you're ready to start recruiting.

Clarify Tasks and Roles

Define the projects, tasks, and roles your group needs to be filled. Think about ideal scenarios, but be open to compromise. For instance, if a great candidate for secretary dislikes taking minutes, consider alternative solutions like rotating the task or finding a separate minute taker. (This is a true scenario; the biggest barrier to filling secretary roles is minute-taking!)

Break larger projects into smaller tasks to make volunteering more appealing and to ensure the right people are doing the right jobs. Instead of asking for someone to build a website, identify roles within the project: content creation, photo collation, design, development, and maintenance. This clarity helps target recruitment efforts more effectively.

Establish a Consistent Presence

Maintaining a consistent, visible presence in your community is crucial. The more positive contact you have, the easier it is to sustain relationships, raise funds, recruit volunteers, find partners, and deliver impactful projects.

Traditional methods like newspapers, signage, radio, and TV remain effective, but leveraging digital opportunities through social media, email, and text messages can significantly enhance your community presence. Aim for consistency to build authority, credibility, and keep your cause top of mind.

Top Tips for Consistent Presence:

Social Media Engagement: Use it as a hub for new contacts and community engagement. The aim of your social media should be awareness and engagement. Then direct them to your owned media channels like your website, blog, podcasts, and email list.
Email Newsletters: Update your membership regularly to stay top of mind and establish credibility. Platforms like MailChimp can help you manage your database and newsletters.

Leveraging Existing Volunteers

Data shows that over half of volunteers are recruited through current volunteers. Encourage your volunteers to refer others by keeping them informed of your needs and offering incentives.

Top Tips for Volunteer Referrals:

Offer incentives for successful referrals. Its often not the actual incentive offered that matters here but more the act of offering an incentive keeps it top of mind for folks.
Provide volunteers with key message one-pagers for easy sharing.
Foster a positive, solutions-focused culture that attracts new volunteers.

Effective Volunteer Outreach

To maximise outreach, employ various methods and track results to determine what works best for your group.

Posters and Flyers: Distribute these through community noticeboards, letter drops, school newsletters, and local businesses. Make sure your flyers are eye-catching, easy to read, and clearly branded.

Active Recruitment and Networking

Engage in one-on-one conversations to recruit volunteers. Despite the digital age, personal interactions remain powerful. The Australian Census revealed that 45% of non-volunteers reported never being asked, highlighting the importance of direct engagement.

Top Tips for Active Recruitment

Highlight the benefits and personal gains of volunteering.
Be clear and concise in your ask, presenting it as an invitation to purpose and contribution.
Listen to potential volunteers to understand their barriers and motivations and tailor solutions to match. Volunteering is a mutually beneficial activity.
Set up stalls at local markets or shopping centers to have conversations with community members. Use visual aids like before-and-after photos to demonstrate your impact.

Tap into Corporate Volunteering

Recent data shows that 70% of business' now have some kind of employee volunteering program. Engage business and leverage programs that offer skilled volunteers for specific projects.

Top Tips for Corporate Volunteering:

Host Corporate Environmental Volunteering days with established programs.
Introduce your group to businesses and outline involvement opportunities.
Carve of tasks that can be done by skilled volunteers and look to large corporates that offer their staff the opportunity to engage in community projects through their roles

Remember small business has been hit really hard in recent years. From covid lockdowns to cost of living the pressures on local business can be enormous. Keep this in mind when asking for contribution and ensure you think about (and ask!) what might be in it for them.

Next Steps: Engaging and Retaining Volunteers

Ensure new volunteers take meaningful action immediately to feel valued and inspired to return. Create a memorable first experience and integrate new volunteers into your group to foster long-term involvement.

Shift your focus from volunteer retention to creating long-term allies who can contribute in various ways over time, whether through volunteering, financial support, advocacy, or other means.

When considering retaining allies long term, it can be helpful to think about your organisational culture and what supports people's feeling of belonging. Remember all those times your bank or insurance company has offered massive discounts and good deals to bring people in but then slowly jacked up the prices to those who show loyalty? It is always easier to keep great people with great experience rather than recruiting new folks through a rotating door.