Having a strong group of volunteers can be extremely beneficial for your nonprofit’s advocacy campaign. Recruiting a group of passionate volunteers can lead to greater awareness of your nonprofit’s mission and they can inspire more individuals to lend their support to your cause.
To help you maximize the impact of your nonprofit’s volunteer recruitment efforts, this article will cover the following strategies:
The benefits a group of motivated volunteers provides your nonprofit include skill diversity, reduced costs, and social proof. Additionally, if your volunteers have a positive experience with your nonprofit, they’ll be more likely to discuss the experience with their networks, helping your nonprofit reach new individuals. This can be extremely helpful for your advocacy efforts, so let’s dive into volunteer recruitment strategies!
Just as your nonprofit creates a strategic plan for your overall operations, you should also create a plan specifically for volunteer recruitment. Consider the following topics as you draft your plan:
As you create your plan, keep in mind how you want these volunteers to fit into your advocacy campaign operations. Do you need canvassers to collect interested individuals’ information or do you need volunteers to help run your advocacy events? Ask yourself what the gaps are in your current staff and what positions you need to be filled.
Segmentation is the practice of grouping supporters, volunteers, and donors into groups with common interests or characteristics. For example, you might group supporters based on their age, location, or past involvement with your nonprofit. Kwala’s guide to donor communications explains that the goal of segmentation is to help your nonprofit create stronger relationships with constituents by sending personalized and targeted messages.
One helpful way you can segment supporters to find advocacy campaign volunteers is by identifying individuals who already participate in some form of community advocacy. Individuals who already take part in community advocacy are more likely to be receptive to your invitation to volunteer for your nonprofit’s advocacy campaign. And, community advocates tend to have strong listening, leadership, and communication skills, which would all be very valuable for your nonprofit’s advocacy efforts.
To remain transparent with your supporters, you’ll want to write descriptions of your volunteer positions. This helps inform them about what exactly the position entails, allowing them to easily decide whether they want to fill that position. Include information such as:
The goal of writing a position description is to help potential volunteers find a position that they would be happy in. For advocacy campaigns, this is especially important, as volunteers who have a positive experience with your nonprofit will be happier to champion your cause.
When it comes time to spread the word about your open volunteer positions, you’ll want to use the communication channels that your supporters are most active on. These include:
You might also use your nonprofit’s next event, such as a swim-a-thon fundraiser, to find potential volunteers. You can ask your existing event volunteers if they’d be interested in helping with your advocacy campaign, or you can make an appeal to other supporters.
With corporate social responsibility on the rise as a way for businesses to set themselves apart from competitors, many corporations are willing to partner with nonprofits to help further their cause. A common form of business-nonprofit partnership is a volunteer program, where the business incentivizes its employees to volunteer at a specific nonprofit. The nonprofit gains volunteers to help further its cause, and the business benefits by increasing employee satisfaction and morale.
Leverage these opportunities by seeking out local businesses that may be interested in partnering with you. To form stronger partnerships, look for businesses that operate in a similar vertical. For example, if your nonprofit is a soup kitchen, you may try to partner with restaurants, whose staff is knowledgeable about cooking and serving food. Or, if you’re hosting a fun run event, you can partner with a sportswear company.
Keep in mind that volunteers are not your staff and that they are taking their valuable time and effort to help your advocacy campaign. Show your gratitude and appreciation to all your volunteers, no matter what they do, and emphasize the impact of the work they’re doing.
Also, when recruiting new volunteers, don’t get discouraged if people turn you down. Continue creating positive relationships with your existing volunteers, and they will be happy to advocate for your cause.