Recruit Your Friends

• Send an e-mail to anyone you think might be interested.  Personalized e-mail will be much more effective than a mass e-mail!
• Pick up the phone and call.
• Post an invitation on your Facebook page and/or send personalized invitations to your Facebook Friends and / or other social and professional networks online.
• Recruit your followers on twitter.
• Post a video of yourself asking for help and direct your friends to it.
• Make phone calls and ask.
• Ask them in person.

Recruit Volunteers through Neighborhood Schools

• Work with a principal, teacher or administrator to recruit students.
• Create a flyer to send home with students inviting their families to volunteer.
• Create a “teacher challenge” to encourage the school staff to volunteer.
• Hang posters in the hallways.
• Write an article for the school newsletter or website.
• Recruit teams or clubs from the school.  (i.e. the football team or marching band)
• Ask to make an announcement at the next all school assembly or teachers meeting.
• Publish an article in the school newspaper.

Recruit Volunteers through Places of Worship

• Address the congregation, a religious text study group or the governing body.
• Publish a notice in the weekly service bulletin, the newsletter or website.
• Hang a poster in the entrance.

Recruit Volunteers through Local Businesses

• Encourage teams of employees to participate (suggest the team wear company t-shirts to promote their corporate community spirit!)
• Ask to publish announcements in employee newsletters.
• Hang flyers in the windows or on community bulletin boards at local businesses.
• Speak at a chamber of commerce meeting.

Recruit Volunteers through Local Clubs & Organizations

(Rotary, DAR, PTA, The Peoples front of Judea…)

• Speak about your project at a local meeting.
• Ask to publicize your project in any club newsletters, blogs, listserv e-mail, websites or online fan base/follower groups.
• Ask that the club or organization “sponsor” the project and agree to send a target number of volunteers.

Recruit Volunteers using Traditional and Social Media

• Create a press release about your project and send it to the local media.
• Write a PSA for local radio stations.
• Ask a local newspaper, radio station, television station, online magazine, website or blog to sponsor the project and promote it in print, on air or online.
• Some print and online publications list community events.  Find out which ones list events in your area and send them information about your project.
• Some newspapers and websites reserve unsold advertising space for nonprofit ads.  Find out what size and format ads your paper and/ or the website accepts and have someone design an ad for your project.  Submit the ad in the appropriate size(s) and format.
• Ask a local media celebrity to volunteer on the project.  As part of their commitment, ask them to recruit readers, listeners or viewers to participate with him or her.  For example, a radio personality could hold an on-air contest where winners would be able to serve on the celebrity’s volunteer team.
• Investigate posting your message on local cable TV public access message boards, online forums, etc.
• If it’s an ongoing project, consider starting a blog where you can share your experiences and reflections.  Try using a free blog platform like Blogger or WordPress.

Other Ideas

• Host an “open,” potluck meal.  Invite friends to come with any guests they’d like to invite.  Talk about your project and invite guests to get involved.
• Go viral. E-mail the details of your project to everyone you know locally and ask all your recipients to keep forwarding the message to more people.
• Hold informational meetings at the local library.
• Organize a booth to promote your efforts at a street fair or festival in your community.

Be sure your recruitment message includes the project description, date & time, any special skills, tools or other resources needed and information about how you want them to sign up.

What ideas do you have?

What would you add?