By Barb Quaintance, AARP Senior Vice President for Volunteer & Civic Engagement
Since AARP was founded in 1957, the organization has placed a priority on community service and civic involvement. 
We developed Create The Good to engage their boomer and older members – and their families – in more volunteering. A few of the things we’ve learned along the way might help your volunteer organization:
1.) Ask Them to Help. Boomers believe they are leaving this world worse than they found it – and they want to change that. The best way to get them involved is still a personal ask. This is one place social media can really help non-profits. Encourage your volunteers to share the ways they help your organization on social networks and ask their friends to join them.
2.) Be OK with Lone Rangers. Baby boomers have never been “joiners” and that doesn’t show any signs of ch-ch-changing. While they are less likely to want to be part of an organization, informal volunteering has jumped with this generation. In 2009, 57 percent surveyed by AARP reported volunteering on their own. In 2003, it was just 34 percent.
3.) Adapt and Be Flexible. More than half of boomers surveyed by AARP said they want flexible options when it comes to volunteering. Many of them are taking care of their parents and raising kids… and sometimes grandkids. We know, we know, flexible isn’t the way it’s been done in the past… Adapt. Create The Good’s volunteering website offers zip code searchable opportunities in a wide variety of flexible categories: in person and online. It also offers how-to toolkits for the more serious volunteer to five minute ideas for people who aren’t sure what to do but want to make a difference. Create The Good helps finds the right match for each person.
4.) Family Ties Bind. Generation X still has the highest rate of volunteering. Encourage your younger volunteers to participate with their parents and grandparents. It’s a great way for families to forge connections – and make a difference!
5.) Find the Right Role. Smart non-profits figure out how to make each volunteer feel like they are a part of the mission. If you can match your organization’s needs with an individual’s skill set, you will have a long-term contributor. For example. if you’ve got an accountant that’s working in your soup kitchen, consider engaging him or her to help with your non-profit’s financial issues. If you’ve got a public relations associate shoveling mulch in your community garden, consider asking them to help get the word out about your work to the media. If you have a teacher mentoring kids, consider how they could help you train your volunteers better by developing curriculum.
For more information, download AARP’s report “More to Give: Tapping the Talents of the Baby Boomer, Silent and Greatest Generations.”
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