Being attractive to volunteers

In 2007 I was involved in the publication of an eBook, ‘Turn Your Organisation Into A Volunteer Magnet’. The book was, and still is, free, a grass roots guide to getting and keeping volunteers. What makes it different from most books on volunteering is that content comes not from primarily from consultants or known experts (although they are in there!) but from volunteer managers across the globe who share their reflections on attracting volunteers.

In this article I want to share with you my top ten tips (in no particular order) for being attractive to volunteers:

1. Be passionate about the work of volunteers
One contributor to the Magnet eBook asked: “Are you excited about the opportunities you are offering to volunteers and the difference they will make?” What a great question. If you’re not excited about what you want people to do for you, chances are they aren’t going to be that excited either. Be passionate about the work of volunteers in your organisation and that enthusiasm will attract people to you.

2. Give great customer service
Do you remember the days where if you bought something mail order you usually had to wait 28 days for delivery? In just a few short years that expectation has been replaced. Now we’re surprised, frustrated, even annoyed if next day delivery isn’t an option. Yet I recently read of an organisation that complained that it was unrealistic to expect them to get back to potential volunteers within three weeks of their initial inquiry. Three weeks! Would you wait that long for a response to an enquiry, especially if that was made online? Of course not. We live in an instant society where we expect quick responses. To make ourselves attractive we have to acknowledge that people’s expectations are high and we need to try and meet them – being a charity or voluntary group is no excuse. One suggestion is to have a team of volunteers whose role is to help respond quickly to enquiries from potential volunteers, even if it is just to give them an clear idea of how long a proper response will take. As one of the authors in the Magnet eBook pointed out, magnets can repel as well as attract. So make sure you’re attracting volunteers, not repelling them. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so make it a good one.

3. Say thank you
Certificates, parties, awards, Volunteers’ Week events are all well and good, but nothing beats regularly thanking people for giving you their time. A word of warning – if volunteers tell you they don’t want to be thanked, try not doing it and see how attractive that makes you!

4. Provide meaningful opportunities
Imagine for a moment that you’re heading off this evening for a meal out. You get to the restaurant and order, anticipating the satisfaction of good food. Then it arrives and, well, let’s just say you are underwhelmed. You leave the restaurant, probably poorer than when you went in, probably still hungry and very likely vowing never to go back. Opportunities are to volunteering as food is to eating out. When people volunteer they want to do something that enables them to have the satisfaction of making a difference whilst not having their time wasted. Otherwise they’ll go somewhere else – somewhere that offers them that satisfaction and sense of fulfilment. So, ask yourself, do the opportunities you have on offer make the most of people’s time (however much they have to give) and enable them to make (and see that they’ve made) a difference to your cause? Being able to answer “yes” to those questions is critical to being attractive to volunteers.

5. Be flexible
The other day I read that 31% of the UK’s adult population provide almost 90% of the volunteer hours given, with 8% providing more than half the volunteer hours. What this suggests is that we’re all reliant on a small pool of volunteers who commit large amounts of time – the living embodiment of ‘ask a busy person’. Yet, as anyone who has tried to recruit volunteers recently will tell you, few people thrill to this kind of commitment anymore – the old-fashioned notion of long-term, open-ended volunteer commitments on which so many organisation rely. If you can’t fit that kind of commitment into your life why should anyone else? The key is flexibility, having a range of opportunities with varying commitments on offer. For example, can you provide taster sessions? Remember, too, that people’s interests, motivations and availability will change over time, and adapt accordingly. I believe that attractive organisations will successfully keep volunteers if they’re prepared to let them go. If volunteers see our willingness to accommodate their changing priorities and take a break from volunteering, they will be more likely to come back to us in future when their circumstances change and they have time to give once more.

6. Provide expenses
According to the 2007 Helping Out: National Survey of Volunteering and Charitable Giving, 77% of volunteers had not had any of their expenses reimbursed and 17% had only had some of their expenses reimbursed. We all know times are tight but if you don’t offer to reimburse volunteer expenses then only those who can afford to be out of pocket can volunteer with you. Not very equal opportunities and certainly not very attractive.

7. Get volunteers to attract other volunteers
Surveys of volunteering consistently tell us that word of mouth is the most common form of volunteer recruitment. This shouldn’t surprise us; personal recommendation is marketing nirvana. Most commercial firms would love it if we’d go and tell everyone how much we love their products. Yet often we shy away from word of mouth recruitment, almost as if we’re embarrassed about it. I think its time to re-embrace it, especially given the potential of social media to develop new and exciting ways to reach our friends. So look to maximise the potential of the power of personal recommendation to make your organisation more attractive. Do your volunteers know that you want them to help recruit others? Do you give them resources to do this such leaflets, flyers, etc.? Simple things that can make a world of difference.

8. Go social
We live in an increasingly socially isolated world. Which is perhaps why people increasingly look for volunteering opportunities that provide the opportunity to volunteer with friends and family, to meet new people or even make new business contacts. Look at your organisation and opportunities. What could you do to provide a group or family with a chance to volunteer together? Give it a go and see who else you can attract.

9. Lead, don’t manage
Management guru Peter Drucker once said: “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.” Sadly that is sometimes true of volunteer management, especially as things have become more formalised, risk-averse and process driven. People who volunteer want to make a difference and don’t want to have their time wasted. They want to use their skills and expertise to help you but they don’t want to be mired in processes and paperwork. As John Seeley Brown wisely commented, “Processes don’t work, people do.” To be attractive we need more volunteer leaders not more volunteer managers. Leaders simplify, they empower, they inspire and they keep us focused on where we want to go. In short, leaders attract and we need more of them in volunteering.

10. Provide enjoyable volunteering
Volunteering isn’t paid work. As more and more people volunteer whilst also having jobs, so more and more people volunteer in their discretionary leisure time. And with the pressures of life seemingly unrelenting, we all want to spend our increasingly precious leisure time enjoying ourselves. Making volunteering enjoyable is critical if you want to attract and keep volunteers. You see, we’re not really competing with other organisations for volunteers, we’re competing with all the leisure activities that people could spend their spare time doing – going to the cinema, having a meal with friends, watching a sports event… So make your volunteering rewarding and enjoyable. Really understand what drives your volunteers, their passions and interests.