Crafting a Volunteer Recruitment Message
Today’s post comes from Michael Nealis, Interactive Strategy Coordinator for Points of Light Institute.
Recruiting volunteers is easy. I’ve talked to people at volunteer recruitment events, in line at the grocery store, at the library, waiting for lunch, even at an event where I was volunteering, and gotten them all to volunteer for a project that I had. All it took was two things.
First, I asked them.
No one is going to volunteer for your event if you don’t ask them.
The second reason is because I knew how to ask them. The person in line at the grocery store probably didn’t have a burning desire to volunteer their time, but I knew how to ask them in a way that made them want to volunteer. Something in what I said to them made them think, “He’s right. That cause is important, and I know that I can help.” So what’s the difference between a recruitment message that doesn’t bring in volunteers and one that does?
You should come volunteer at the shelter because puppies and kittens are cute.
Alright, puppies and kittens are cute, it’s a great hook, but that’s not going to be enough to get just anyone volunteer at a shelter.
When you make your ask, you’ve got to have an opening message that’s enough to make your potential volunteer keep listening to what you’ve got to say.
“There is a population of adorable animals that you can help find a home!”
Next comes the pitch. This is “why” and “what” the volunteers are going to be addressing.
Make sure to include the need that is being filled by the volunteer’s work, how the volunteer’s work helps to meet that need, and the benefits of the volunteer work. It’s important to address any kinds of worries your potential volunteer might have about the opportunity, too. Don’t forget to tell the potential volunteer just who they need to contact to volunteer.
There is a population of adorable animals that you can help find a home, and you can help without having to open up your own home! At Your Local Shelter there are a wide range of opportunities to help to reduce the population of stray and shelter-housed animals. You don’t have to work directly with the animals, there is plenty of work to do that doesn’t involve direct interactions with them, but there are plenty of opportunities to help socialize our animals too! To start helping to find homes for the wonderful companion animals at Your Local Shelter, call Joe Smith at 555-1212.
Before you know it, the person next to you in line at the grocery could be your next volunteer!
Love this – thanks for the helpful distinctions and example on making a quality recruiting ‘Ask’.
Glad you liked it, Karen! Thanks for taking the time to read the blog!
What about making the ‘Ask’ via social media? Do you think a direct message is too intrusive? And if so, how else can/do you engage them?
This one’s a little harder, Anthony, but it’s a great question.
I think the individual ask is still important, and I think how it’s done depends on the relationship that you have with the person you’re asking. If it’s someone that you’ve interacted with in the social media space before, then I think a private message would be fine.
Having said that, a general ask is a great thing to do with social media, too. It’s important to keep the barrier between not volunteering and volunteering really low – make it easy to move from the message to action.
An idea I’ve been kicking around lately is how to demonstrate just what a volunteer opportunity looks like in an easy-to-consume way. I think YouTube is a great tool for this. Creating a video with in-place technology, or using a tool like Animoto to create a video from still images showing what a volunteer’s day looks like. YouTube allows you to embed links in your video, which can lead a viewer to a sign up or contact page.
Thanks for your comment! Let me know if you try any of this and how it works out for you.
Thanks Michael! I like the idea of a YouTube video w/ links. I’ll let you know if we put one together what it looks like.
[...] Crafting a Volunteer Recruitment Message Get ready for the inevitable rise of the living dead. Being prepared is the most important part of any emergency, and different emergencies require different kinds of preparedness. there are some basic steps that you want to follow for all emergencies, though. Make sure that you have a plan in place and everyone in your family knows what to do when the zombies finally come. [...]