During harsh economic conditions when funding is stretched to its limit – although it has since the beginning of time – and nonprofits lack key personnel like Volunteer Directors and Recruiters, staff who do not possess the expertise and experience to coordinate and lead recruitment efforts are often charged with the responsibility.

They wear many hats like most professionals in the nonprofit sector, holding multiple positions simultaneously and more often than not, are unable to devote the necessary amount of energy and thoughtfulness to make recruitment a success.

However, with adequate resources, a stellar support team and by following this four-step process, volunteer recruitment will no longer give you heartache. In fact, you’ll find enjoyment in the activity and bask in the rewards it brings to your organization, not to mention increased awareness and support from donors, constituents and the general public.

photoCorporate Leaders and Volunteers Get Playful by Barnaby Jeans

Step 1 – Conduct an Organizational Assessment

Before you begin recruitment, an organizational assessment is needed to determine whether you should move forward with plans or defer to a later date. Invite key stakeholders – volunteers, staff and constituents – to participate as their input is crucial. Then as a group, answer the following questions (there will be others along the way but start with the basics):

  • Is this the right time to engage in volunteer recruitment? Are there other priorities which force recruitment to be postponed? Why and/or why not?
  • Should you recruit volunteers or invest in paid staff or consultants?
  • Do you have sufficient staff, expertise, and funding to execute?
  • Do you have adequate resources to recruit, orient and train?
  • Which areas lack support which will be filled by your new recruits?

Step 2 – Recruitment Planning

After conducting the assessment, you’ll have a greater understanding of your resources and staff capabilities, the community you serve and most importantly, the types of people you want to organize for your cause. Now you can focus on planning. Crafting a comprehensive plan is important, though being concise and relevant to the goals you have set forth are key. Often times, two to three pages will suffice. In the plan, address the following:

Define your Purpose and Goals
Be clear about why you are recruiting and what you hope to achieve, including timelines wherever possible. Avoid long drawn-out lists and stick to 3 to 5 major goals in which you can articulate the relevance when asked by management or colleagues. Clarity is key!

Identify your Target Audience
Clearly state skills and abilities, education, experience, desired location (if applicable), and other important traits and characteristics needed of your volunteers BEFORE you begin recruitment. I’m stating the obvious here but you’d be surprised how many times I’ve witnessed organizations come up with additional requirements after conducting interviews, or worse, after they’ve recruited someone. Think ahead!

The Message
A good recruitment message should entice the reader to consider joining your organization or, at least persuade them to contact you for more information. Use terminology to which your audience can relate while addressing key points such as Who You Are (the cause), Need (what volunteers will do, skills and/or expertise needed), Solution (what their assistance will do for your organization), and Benefits (what’s in it for them). Of course, always include contact information.

Job Descriptions
Imagine you’re hiring an employee; they’ll want to see the job description way before accepting the position. Same goes for volunteers. Be upfront about what you are asking of them. A complete job description includes all necessary duties and responsibilities, knowledge, skills and abilities required.

Methodology
It’ll be helpful to borrow methods used by for-profit companies when recruiting volunteers as it’s essentially the same as hiring an employee. Depending on your resources, capabilities and goals, you can use a number of recruitment methods, some I have listed below.

  • Spread the word through Word of Mouth advertising. Still, the best method out there!
  • Ask for Referrals from your network including friends, family, current volunteers, donors, constituents, partners and other affiliates.
  • Post recruitment ads on websites like Idealist, Craigslist, VolunteerMatch, boardnetUSA, SERVEnet, local volunteer centers and your own website. (People who have already visited your website may be interested in helping your cause before knowing of any volunteer opportunities, so posting there will boost conversion rates.)
  • Offer virtual positions whenever possible and promote through various channels.
  • Advertise in your organization’s newsletter, email and other communications.
  • Inform friends on Myspace, Facebook and other social networking sites. Your existing circle of friends will be more willing to help if presented with the right opportunity.

Remember This! You don’t need to try EVERY method, in fact, that’ll probably work against you. Select 5 methods to use first, and if those don’t work – which I highly doubt all 5 won’t – go back to the drawing board.

Establish Metrics
Collaborate with your team to establish success metrics which you can use to measure results, therefore, increasing your return on investment (ROI). They’ll help you monitor progress and assess plan efficiency, alerting you when and if goals are met or falling short of expectations. Some metrics will be unique to your organization, culture and field of work. Examples include weekly reports on volunteer applications processed, volunteer feedback forms, and reporting of additional financial support received.

photoVolunteer Meeting by TrueFalseFilmFestival

Step 3 – TAKE ACTION!

Time to recruit! Implement your plan, follow and revise only when necessary. You’ll have spent enough time assessing and planning that revision shouldn’t occur, at best, more than once.

Step 4 – Evaluate

You took action and now have X number of new volunteers. After recruitment comes evaluation.

  • What did you accomplish?
  • Did you achieve your goals?
  • If not, what could you have done better?
  • Where did problems arise and could they have been avoided?

Use qualitative and quantitative data to measure your success, identify best practices and present findings to the team. With luck you won’t have run into many problems; however, after a post-recruitment analysis, the next round will be just that much better.

There you have it, four steps to recruitment success. Whether you’re recruiting 5, 50 or 500 volunteers, use this process as a foundation. It sounds pretty easy but is not, yet, far from difficult. Just takes diligence, determination and some strategic thinking of you and your team. Volunteer Recruitment can’t be a solo act, so invite friends, colleagues and other volunteers to participate. You’ll get better results working as a team.

Chanelle Carver is a social entrepreneur, youth mentor and consultant for socially conscious organizations. She’s the founder of Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project, an activist for various social causes and has worked and volunteered with nonprofits from around the country. Contact Chanelle at carver [at] literacyandpovertyproject.com with your questions.