Recruiting, Screening, & Matching:

Recruitment Strategies

A key to volunteer retention is connecting people with the right service opportunity or task. This process can include targeted recruitment, volunteer screening, and finally matching volunteers to specific roles. As a volunteer manager, you should carefully map out your strategy for recruiting the volunteers you need for your program or project.

Once you have determined your volunteer needs and created a task list and/or position descriptions for the assignments, the next step is to create a recruitment strategy to determine whom you will ask to volunteer and how you will ask them.

First, examine the volunteer positions to be filled. Ask yourself these questions:

• Who will be qualified for and interested in this position?
• Who will be able to meet the time commitments?
• Where will you find these people?
• What motivates them to serve?
• What is the best way to approach them?

Now that you have decided on who, you need to start thinking about howto target them.

Remember that different messages will appeal to different audiences, so you will want to use a variety of recruitment methods. You can use targeted recruitment that is focused and addressed to a specific audience where people will have the skills, interests, and availability needed to fill your positions. Broad-based recruitment can be effective for positions requiring minimal training or for when you need a lot of people for a short-term event.

Here are just a few ways of recruiting volunteers:

• The personal ask is always the most compelling!
• Post your volunteer opportunity on the Web, using your program’s Web site or another site such as VolunteerMatch.
• Strategically post flyers or brochures in the community.
• Partner with volunteers from a school, corporation, community center, faith-based group, or other non-profit.
• Utilize local media (e.g., newspapers and radio) to spread the word about your volunteer opportunities.
• Network with community groups and leaders.
• Use on-line forums and/or blogs to spread the word. Don’t forget social networking sites such as MySpace or CraigsList.

No matter the volunteer opportunity, you should have some idea of where to look for volunteers in your community. Consider a wide range of individuals and groups that are potential volunteers for your program or project, as well as locations to post flyers and brochures:

• Faith-based groups and/or houses of worship
• Military bases or retired military groups
• Unions and trade workers associations
• Sororities and fraternities
• Teacher’s associations
• Retired firefighter, police, and executive associations
• Moms’ groups
• Realtors (welcome wagon packages)
• Independent living homes
• Disability services groups
• Scouts, 4-H, Boys & Girls Clubs, or other youth organizations
• Other national service programs
• Grocery store billboards
• Bingo halls
• Doctors’ offices
• Public transit stations
• Shopping malls
• Corporate buildings
• Job counseling offices
• Schools
• Salons
• Restaurants
• Newsletters

Don’t forget to get permission to display information in specific locations. You may want to ask the owners/managers to attend an orientation so they can better inform interested volunteers who pick up a flyer.

Here are some other tips to build volunteer initiatives:

• Make sure all staff know about the opportunities available for volunteering with your program and where to refer interested volunteers.
• Integrate volunteer management skills into staff training.
• Visit off-site volunteer projects so that the volunteers associate your program with the project.
• Use surveys to find out the interests of volunteers.
• Use colorful descriptions for volunteer positions that are clear and straightforward.
• Try not use the word “volunteer” on marketing pieces. You run the risk of attracting only those who already volunteer or other volunteer managers.

Remember that anyone can be a volunteer. People vary by age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and income. Not all volunteers are the same and not all types of volunteering will appeal to all groups, so have diverse volunteering opportunities available and target recruitment in ways that will appeal to different groups.

Portions of the above information are taken from materials by Make A Difference, a member organization of Hands On Network; Volunteer Management by Steve McCurley and Rick Lynch (1997); http://www.serviceleader.org; and http://www.independentsector.org.

> Back to Recruiting, Screening, & Matching <