Recruiting volunteers encompasses more than signing people up. It also involves creating a pipeline of potential volunteers. Cultivating future volunteers is as vital as signing on and managing current ones. As a volunteer engagement professional, you play a crucial role in ensuring a steady stream of enthusiastic and committed individuals who are ready to contribute their time and skills to worthy causes. It’s more than just recruitment; it’s about creating a culture that inspires, educates, and engages the entire community, fostering a long-term commitment to volunteering. Here are five tips to help you.
1. Engage them young.
Engaging potential volunteers early in their lives can lay the foundation for a lifelong commitment to service. Young people are often eager to make a difference but may not know where to start. Schools, community groups, and youth organisations are ideal partners in introducing the concept of volunteering to younger generations. Collaborating with these institutions can help you reach young people who might not otherwise consider volunteering.
One effective strategy is to provide talks or workshops around the impact that volunteers have in the world, and with your organisation especially. When my son was about three years old, someone came to his preschool and gave a presentation about an organisation that dug wells and provided running water to remote African communities. He came home that day all excited about going out to raise money to “buy a toilet for a village”! So be prepared to engage them directly if they show interest! Have youth-focused volunteer roles created that are designed to be fun, educational, and meaningful. These roles should offer young people, even very young people, the chance to see the real-world impact of their efforts. Whether it’s through environmental clean-ups, helping at local shelters, or participating in community events, providing hands-on experiences helps solidify the importance of volunteerism in their minds.
2. Leverage social media.
It is a core principle of marketing that people do business with those that they know, like, and trust. It works the same for volunteering. The more you post about what volunteers in your organisation are doing, the more people will feel they know you, like what you’re doing, and trust in your values. Social media can be a powerful tool in spreading the message of volunteerism to a broader audience. It can be a way to connect with people who might not be reached through traditional methods. Engaging social media content that highlights the stories of volunteers and the impact of their work can inspire others to get involved.
3. Build relationships with diverse groups.
Having a diverse team of volunteers can add significantly to the impact that your organisation makes, but to have that diverse team, you will need to create and maintain strong relationships with different groups. This not only provides you with a pool of potential volunteers, it also provides you with the knowledge and skills to engage them in more effective ways. By building relationships, you will learn the barriers that different communities face and can mitigate them in your program. You can discover what words and phrases are more appropriate for different groups, and what you can do to make people feel like they belong. When you take the time to build these relationships you show that you are interested in their success, not just in finding people to help you. A few ideas are to participate in a Pride Parade, or attend a Diwali celebration.
4. Use stories to encourage volunteerism.
Human beings are hardwired to learn from stories. Since the beginnings of our species, they’re how we’ve learned everything from survival skills to moral imperatives. Storytelling is also a compelling way of inspiring future volunteers. Sharing the stories of current volunteers, their experiences, and the positive changes they’ve helped bring about resonate deeply. You can share these stories through newsletters, social media, blogs, or even in-person events.
Stories that highlight the personal growth, friendships, and sense of purpose that come from volunteering can be particularly effective in encouraging others to get involved. Collect and share these stories regularly.
5. Build relationships with businesses.
Building relationships with businesses is another way of cultivating future volunteers, especially corporate volunteers. By becoming involved with your local chamber of commerce or business associations, you meet people who are looking for ways for their businesses to be seen as community supporters. Corporate social responsibility is huge right now, and you can benefit by building relationships with companies that are looking to strengthen that aspect of their marketing. It can also lead to increased monetary donations!
Cultivating future volunteers is not a “one-and-done” effort.
Like Rome, relationships aren’t built in a day! It’s a long term effort. It requires ongoing engagement and follow-up. By staying connected and offering regular opportunities for involvement, you can turn lukewarm awareness into sustained action. Continuous engagement ensures that people realise that you care about them and their interests, not just about your needs. Remember the “know, like, and trust”.
Cultivating future volunteers, building a pipeline of potential helpers, is a dynamic and ongoing process. It builds a strong and diverse volunteer base that will continue to grow and thrive for years to come. The effort put into nurturing future volunteers today will pay dividends in the form of a more vibrant and resilient volunteer community tomorrow.
