Recruiting & Managing Volunteers

by Jayne Cravens from the Virtual Volunteering Project

Promoting your volunteer opportunities online is effective, fast, and easy and doesn't require any additional costs. It's an excellent way to reach nontraditional volunteers—populations that might be underrepresented in an organization's volunteer ranks (e.g., seniors, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities)—and targeted groups, such as particular kinds of professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants, musicians, Web designers) or people in a specific geographic area.

Online marketing should not replace your offline volunteer recruitment methods. It will, however, greatly augment those efforts by reaching new audiences and reminding people how they can support your organization.

Before posting your volunteer information into cyberspace, however, some important words of caution are in order:

    • DO NOT recruit volunteers online (or offline, for that matter) until you have well-defined, written opportunity descriptions and you have an immediate next step for people who call or email about those opportunities (a date for a face-to-face meeting or orientation, for instance, even if it is several weeks away). Asking for volunteers but not responding to them immediately or not having a method to immediately place them into your volunteer program is like advertising a product you don't really have, and it can cause hard feelings about your agency on the part of potential supporters.

    • If your organization cannot or does not answer email within 48 hours of receipt (two business days), don't include your email address as a way for potential volunteers to contact you. Instead, in your online announcements, direct volunteers to call. Otherwise, volunteers who don't hear from you will go on to other organizations and volunteer assignments and may develop bad feelings toward your organization.

    • Make sure those who answer your agency's phone know that you are posting information to the Internet, in case there is an increase in phone calls regarding volunteer opportunities or calls about "that email you posted."

When providing volunteer information online, whether in the form of an email announcement, discussion group posting or a Web page, remember to include the following information:

    • The organization's name, address, phone number, email address (if this is an acceptable way for potential volunteers to contact you), and Web address (if you have one).
    • An overview of the kinds of service opportunities available
    • The organization's mission, program focus and value to the community as well as the value of volunteers to this organization.

Online Discussion Groups

Announce volunteer opportunities on appropriate Internet newsgroups and lists. Look for groups whose participants are located in or focused on your geographic area as well as groups focused on a particular subject or issue. For instance, if you are looking for someone to help with Web site development, contact a discussion group for Web site developers. For someone to help with an environmental project, look for an environmental activists group. For help at a special event for an agency that works in a particular city, find a group for citizens of that city.

Newsgroups are Internet discussions, each dedicated to a particular topic. Newsgroups can be accessed through a news reader or through many Web browsers. Messages are "posted" to the newsgroup for everyone who subscribes to the newsgroup to see. You can subscribe to most newsgroups for no charge.

Internet mailing lists are discussions via email. Messages go to a central point and are then "reflected" automatically back to all who subscribe to the list. It is free to subscribe to an email list. However, note that when you subscribe to such lists that the address for subscriptions is different from the address for posting comments and questions.

Lurk before you leap to make sure that the audience will be receptive to your information and so you get a sense of the subscribers to a particular newsgroup or list before posting. For instance, don't post volunteer opportunities to a newsgroup made up of other nonprofit professionals who are looking for volunteers themselves. Posting inappropriately can result in bad publicity for your organization.

Look for appropriate newsgroups and lists on the following Web sites:

Search using the name of the city where you are located and another keyword, such as "volunteer," "general," "human resources," or the name of nearby colleges and universities to get the names of Internet discussion groups in your area that would be appropriate for the posting of volunteer opportunities.

World Wide Web

Provide information to Web sites that post volunteer opportunities or link to volunteer opportunities. Impact Online's VolunteerMatch service is a good place to start. When you've registered your organization on VolunteerMatch, look into registering on other Web sites that offer ways to promote your volunteer opportunities. The Virtual Volunteering Project has a helpful index of major sites that provide updated lists of volunteer opportunities at various organizations.

Prepare a page on your organization's Web site that describes volunteer opportunities or, at least, provides information on how and why to volunteer with the organization. Make sure the site's home page and other key pages link to this volunteer information page.

Managing Volunteers Via the Internet

No matter whether volunteers perform online service for your organization onsite at your facility, in another facility offsite, or via the Internet from a home or work computer the Internet can play an important role in communicating with your volunteers regularly and helping you manage volunteers effectively.

In addition to increased efficiency, using the Internet to manage volunteers affords managers several benefits, such as having an automatic, extensive written record of volunteer activities through email and chat archives.

Volunteer managers, meaning anyone who works with volunteers, regardless of his or her job title, can use the Internet to handle the following tasks:

    • Regularly sending emails to current, past and potential volunteers, covering

      • new volunteer opportunities,
      • recent volunteer accomplishments,
      • event announcements,
      • organization and program updates,
      • reminders about policies and procedures, and
      • resources that can help volunteers perform service more effectively. 

    • Soliciting feedback from volunteers, who may be more likely to fill out a brief email survey than to complete something sent through postal mail. Also, volunteers will often share information through email more freely than they would face-to-face.

    • Setting up a private online discussion group for volunteers. In this way, volunteers can share success stories, explore ways to overcome problems, and develop a sense of community. Here's more information on how to set up an electronic mailing list.

    • Allowing volunteers to report their hours and progress, either through email or through a special Web page to record this information. Many online systems can be configured to input the information into the database system you already use to track this information.

    • Creating a Web page specifically for current, past and potential volunteers, which can include:
      -notices of volunteer opportunities
      -recent volunteer accomplishments and events (include pictures, if possible)
      -essays by volunteers or by those whom your agency's volunteers have served
      -volunteer policies and procedures, resource handbooks, and other materials outlining your volunteer program
      -an online application for potential volunteers, which could be filled out prior to the volunteers' first onsite orientation and training sessions 

    • Involving online volunteers who perform services for your organization using their home or work computer. Volunteers can perform many activities for your organization over the Internet, from helping with your organization's Web site to mentoring a young person in one of your programs. Such volunteers could be someone across the country you never see in person or someone down the street who also performs onsite service. The Virtual Volunteering Project offers many more ideas as well as ways to develop such a program at your organization.

    • Connecting with volunteer management resources. You can find online information about and examples of volunteer applications, handbooks, policies, surveys, reporting systems and forms, volunteer task descriptions, delegation suggestions, recruitment and retention tools and tips, management resources, record keeping for volunteer programs, systems for screening and evaluating volunteers, volunteer recognition, risk management and legislative issues—and much more! ServiceLeader.org offers an index of volunteer management resources.

    • Discussing issues with other volunteer managers. You can find a list of Internet discussion groups for volunteer managers at the Virtual Volunteering Project.

Don't look to the Internet to replace your traditional methods for staying in touch with volunteers or for involving volunteers in your organization; instead, the Internet should enhance your organization's offline, face-to-face efforts. The Internet may also shine a light on your organization's shortcomings—for instance, if your agency already has a hard time providing up-to-date information, having a Web site is going to highlight that shortcoming. Use it with caution!