How to Attract and Engage Nonprofit Volunteers: A Step-by-Step Recruitment Guide

If you’re a new nonprofit organization, you may be at a loss for how to assemble your own team of volunteer superheroes. First, check out our guide to the best volunteer recruitment platforms to see where you can find people interested in volunteering. Then, spend time on crafting your message to potential volunteers, making them excited and eager to join you in your charitable mission. 

Write Posts that Attract and Inspire Volunteers

How do you actually generate that volunteer engagement? How do you get volunteers who read your message to commit? Here’s a guide to the essentials that will be included in a good volunteer-seeking post.

A Clear Mission Statement

It should be obvious from your post what the purpose of your nonprofit is. Do you fight hunger? Homelessness? Illiteracy? You want volunteers who believe in your cause to be able to recognize your kindred spirits in your post.

An Engaging Headline

When browsing, most volunteers will only be reading headlines. Make the headline count. It should be clear and concise. Don’t use phrasing like “There Could Be an Exciting Volunteer Opportunity For You.” Get right to the point with something like “Fight Hunger in America.”

Describe the Role Clearly

Volunteers are giving their valuable time to your cause. Respect that time. The post should exactly and specifically detail what the volunteer experience with you will look like. If they’re uncertain if they can make the commitment, they’ll hesitate or look elsewhere. This also means that you should be specific about the skills that are required for the job. Don’t waste their time or yours. 

Make It Clear They Can Make an Impact

The volunteer post shouldn’t just describe what they’ll be doing, but also what the result will be. Make it tangible. How many people is your event hoping to help? Can you give examples of the success of your nonprofit? 

Include a Clear Call to Action

Make sure the post gives a preferred way for the volunteer to contact you. Even if the platform handles this, it's still best to include a call to action encouraging them to do so. Make sure that this call to action expresses gratitude for their interest too. And above all, be enthusiastic! Don’t be afraid to show your enthusiasm.

After Recruiting Nonprofit Volunteers

Now we’re at the end of our nonprofit volunteer recruitment journey. You set up your platform, made the post and it’s been answered. You’ve gone through the volunteer sign-ups, done your background checks and decided on which volunteers you’ll bring on board. Congratulations! But what happens next? Here’s some of the essential next steps to take after recruitment.

Welcome and Onboarding

Having a smooth onboarding process makes your volunteers feel not only valued, but confident that they’re in good hands. The onboarding process is different for each nonprofit. Generally it should include a check-in email, text message or call, an introduction to the team, and a rundown of any essential information. Ideally you’ll have things like handbooks or videos premade to pass on to the newcomers. If you require any waivers, make sure to include them with the rest of the volunteer information. 

Arrange Volunteer Scheduling

Volunteers can’t get any work done if you don’t tell them when to show up! Thankfully, many volunteer recruitment platforms (Like Civic Champs and VolunteerMatch) also include scheduling software to track volunteer hours. Otherwise, you’ll want to set up your own system for volunteer coordination - understanding where each volunteer is working, each relevant day, and where. Before scheduling a new volunteer, make sure to get their scheduling information, and place them in the schedule based on this, and their skillset. This is also the time to figure out how you will handle reminders and notifications. 

Set Expectations

A clear set of guidelines and expectations for your nonprofit is another essential writeup. You should prepare such a set of guidelines for every type of volunteer so you have it on hand. These will include codes of conduct, responsibilities, and who they should contact with questions. 

Establish Communications

You can’t just set off your volunteers and then sit back, of course. Lines of constant communication are essential. Many volunteer recruitment platforms for nonprofits feature built-in communication tools. You are also free to set up your own channels as you please. It’s better to be proactive rather than reactive - make sure you set up regular messages and updates for all your volunteers. 

Track the Work

Make sure that every volunteer working for you, or their supervisors, is hour tracking. Once again, a good volunteer recruitment platform (like Civic Champs) will often have some sort of function to track volunteer shifts. Tracking volunteer time is useful to understand your future needs, and for when you want to recognize certain volunteers for their work. Your nonprofit should also have some sort of metric to track the efficiency of your efforts 

Recognize the Good Work

Tracking hours of work by your volunteers has the added benefit of giving you a good idea of just how much they’ve given to your nonprofit. Make sure to always maintain an attitude of gratitude. Thank-you letters or public recognition go a long way to making a volunteer feel appreciated. You can also host volunteer events and parties to make your volunteers feel appreciated as a whole, and to boost retention.

Be Open to Feedback

Your volunteers are out there doing your nonprofit’s work every day. This gives them a particularly useful insight into the operations of that nonprofit. A good nonprofit will leave lines of communication open for feedback. Better yet, more structured methods like surveys can be deployed at regular intervals to gain feedback. 

Provide Future Opportunities

The best volunteers are often the ones that are already working for you. Once you’ve built a good relationship, make sure you let all your volunteers know about future opportunities for volunteer work for you. This could include special events, or new roles or jobs. If you’re tracking the volunteer profiles, you can also start to recognize which of them might have the skills and experience to take on leadership roles. 

Once you build up a good team of volunteers, you’ll be building your own network of talent and connections - as invaluable as any recruitment platform. You just need to get to work building that team!