by Anne Schink
Workshop participants often expect any presentation on volunteer management to start with recruitment. When I present workshops on the model of The Charismatic Organization, those participants begin to understand that, as Susan Ellis puts it, “Recruitment is the third step.” Once you have your internal structure in place and have developed compelling communications, you are finally ready to take your story to the community. The second of the three factors that create a strong external network for your volunteer program is active outreach. Armed with clear expectations of what volunteers can do and a commitment from the organization, you are finally ready!
While it is still early in the winter to consider spring plantings, I think the metaphor is apt for volunteer recruitment. You can use a broadcast method, scattering the seeds across the landscape, by putting a notice in the newspaper or posting on websites. If your goal is to reach a broad audience, then this method will probably yield results. These activities create a group of volunteers who are willing to run a road race or clean up a beach. These volunteers don’t need much training, and whoever shows up is fine.
Another method is to plant a group of seeds together all at once. They are ‘starting’ with you in a sheltered environment. They may staff a table at a community event or make phone calls. But not all will survive. Like thinning seedlings, you will thank some of the volunteers and send them on their way. You may identify others as possible long-term volunteers. These you transplant and give more room to grow. You fertilize them by providing training that they can apply to bigger or more long-term projects.
Some come to you as bedding plants, ready to be set in place to become valuable fixtures in your organization. These volunteers have already had some training and experience. They only need to be oriented to your organization, its values and its programs.
Other volunteers come to you as potted plants ready to find a new home in your garden of volunteer projects. These volunteers just need to be repotted in your own soil. They still need guidance about your expectations, but they are ready to bloom when you give them the right soil.
Like any good gardener, a manager of volunteers shops in many places for the types of volunteers that make up the volunteer program. If you want a group for a one-time event, check out schools, faith-based youth groups, scout and youth programs. They make good collaborators and are often looking for projects in the community. If you need experienced volunteers to make regular commitments, select retirees through their retirement communities, senior centers, agencies on aging, senior college programs. If you want skilled volunteers with specific skills, consider businesses with experience to share.
The goal of ‘active outreach’ is to target your recruitment efforts at the population that is most likely to have the skills, interests, and time that correspond to your program needs.
Finally, at the risk of metaphor overkill, remember that plants that arrive in unexpected places, from unexplained sources, and bloom along side those you deliberately planted are called—in the language of gardening—volunteers!
Anne B. Schink is a volunteer management consultant and the author of the Nonprofit Readiness Toolkit.
