6 Ways To Improve Your Volunteer Recruitment

Nonprofits are always looking for new ways to improve their volunteer recruitment. The best way to do this, according to Susan J. Ellis, is to put yourself in the shoes of the volunteer.

Ellis, president of Philadelphia, Pa.-based Energize, Inc., suggested visiting online registry sites to look for volunteer opportunities, putting you in the position of a volunteer looking for unpaid work. Doing this can reveal some very important information, such as:

• What's your local competition? (Like it or not, other organizations are doing this too.);
• Conversely, what organizations do you know that want volunteers but are not listed online? Is this to your advantage or not?;
• What are organizations like yours asking volunteers to do? Might such tasks be valuable to your operation, too?;
• How flexible are the other assignments in terms of schedule, place(s) where the work has to be done, etc.?;
• How attractive does each position sound? How much detail does each listing provide?; and,
• Study the descriptions you're posting or preparing to post. How do they compare? Will you be able to compete successfully?

All of this information will help you to better form your own volunteer recruitment program so that it accurately matches what applicants want.