Last updated by Kasey Murphy on 03/13/2021

The first part of creating a great job posting for any job is to analyze and create the best job description. For volunteer coordinators, job descriptions can differ greatly depending on the organization that the coordinator will be working with. 

If you are looking for a replacement volunteer coordinator, or it is your first time hiring a volunteer coordinator, you should be putting a great amount of effort into your volunteer coordinator job description. The job description will be what potential applicants see for the first time and their first impression of the organization. If there is little effort put into the job description, then the applicant may think their role is not that important or impactful. 

But, like most things, volunteer coordinator job descriptions swing both ways. If you are too picky and wordy in your job description and job posting, trying to narrow all prospects down to a specified person, then you may defer a lot of great candidates who do not meet specific criteria. 

We have created a job description guide going through all of the things you need to do before and during your drafting of a job description for a posting when looking for a volunteer coordinator. You can download it for free below! 

Things to do before writing a Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

If you are going to write a great job description for a potential new volunteer coordinator, there are some things to do prior to create the best job description. 

As INC. says, “Write your postings for the best candidates, and the best will come to you.”

So, follow these steps before writing your volunteer coordinator job description and posting it out for candidates to gather the best volunteer coordinator! 

1. Come up with Roles & Responsibilities

Writing Roles & Responsibilities for any position in your organization is a great idea. It helps organize tasks and makes sure that no two people are working on the same project. Writing roles & responsibilities for your potential volunteer coordinator is also a great way to organize their tasks and explain them in the job description. 

You can follow this guide that is quite similar to make roles and responsibilities for your organization. 

After you list all the roles & responsibilities of the volunteer coordinator. Pick 5 that are the most important. These are what will be outlined in the volunteer coordinator job post. These are five roles and responsibilities that you feel the volunteer must be confident in doing!

2. Figure out Ideal Candidate as well as Requirements 

Along with these top 5 roles and responsibilities, you must figure out what is required of each candidate. This is something you should be picky about. If you have too many requirements, not that many potentially wonderful candidates will apply. 

Keep your requirements to a minimum, and make sure to consult with your organization first to see if there is anything from a broad standpoint that is needed to be a volunteer coordinator in this organization.

3. Reflect on Organization Brand

Speaking of consulting- consult with your organization or your organization’s marketing team to see what kind of branding or voice the volunteer coordinator job posting should be. This may include images and videos that you can include, as well as words you should focus on when speaking about the organization.

Your volunteer coordinator job posting should be a great look into the organization, a lot of this starts with the voice and inclusions in a volunteer coordinator job description.

4. Analyze how this position will fit into the workflow (if a new position)

This is so important. There is no point in hiring someone new if they will not fit in nicely with your organization and the other working parts. 

If this volunteer coordinator is going to be a new role in your organization, be sure to say that in the volunteer coordinator job description. Applicants will want to know if they are trying to fill someone else’s shoes or be building their own! (Meaning their own methods and procedures) 

Be sure to map out how this volunteer coordinator works and will fit into the already existing rules and procedures.

5. Figure out where you will market and post your job description

Lastly, you want to make sure you are marketing to all the right places when it comes to actually showcasing a vacancy in your organization. Do some research on the best places to post your volunteer coordinator job posting, it will help you find the most interested and qualified candidates! 

If you are completely new to hiring, check out our downloadable hiring package. It includes downloadable content like how to prepare for interviews, and how to write the best volunteer coordinator job description!

What to Include in A Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

The Volunteer Coordinator Job Posting will have the complete job description in it. While this may seem like a lot, it can all be categorized into different groups that will help generalize and make the job posting short but genuine. 

The volunteer coordinator job description should be very inclusive, but not give away every single detail. Some details are just better to be taught later on after the basics are learned from the coordinator. As long as you give the volunteer coordinator a general idea of what they will be doing, you will be able to gradually incorporate the fine details after you have found the best coordinator. 

• Interesting Title - not the job role title but a title at the top of the page that will give an idea into the job beyond being a volunteer coordinator 

• Introduction to the organization - brag a little about the organization, but not too much! 

• Crucial roles & responsibilities - those top 5 that were mentioned above! 

• Sideline roles & responsibilities - any additional roles that are going to be important but do not need to be explained more at this point and time. 

• Skills and personality traits - to help find the right fit and maybe some extra skills! Great skills to include are interpersonal skills, leadership, technology-versed, design, and public speaking.

• List of requirements - to weed out anyone that would not be the right fit or legally fit any requirements. 

• Salary - this one is a tough one that not many people want to include. But, there are some studies that find it beneficial to include it! Check them out! 

It is important that you include all of these in the job description, but there are some more things to include too! We have a downloadable editable template that you can  download here. 

You can simply input your information and come up with creative ideas from our examples! 

Extra Tips For Writing A Volunteer Coordinator Job Posting 

• Say “You” instead of “the potential candidate” or “the right fit” - write to the audience as you are speaking to them! 

• Hint on growth and development - eager and motivated volunteer coordinators want to be always evolving. Whenever you can, hint to the fact that they can grow in this role. 

• Don’t list every single thing they may be asked to do - like stated above, it is good to gradually let them know what they are going to be responsible for starting with the most important, things that may not come until a month or two months into their start can wait, they are probably minor tasks anyway! 

• Have a marketing / pr person in your organization look it over to match the branding - you are going to be marketing this volunteer coordinator job post, so the volunteer coordinator job description needs to be marketable. If you have anyone in the organization you can consult with, do so! 

• Avoid cliches- For example, “are you x,y,z - if you answered yes to any of these questions - you should apply” Be creative and be unique! It will make your volunteer coordinator job description stand out, which means people will put more effort into applying! 

• Don’t be mysterious - if you don’t give enough information or state that there is much to learn and do you will not get great responses. People don’t like vague, especially when it comes to their careers! 

Above is a sneak preview of just one of the downloads you will get when you download the hiring series package. If you want the full package beyond writing the job description, we highly recommend this!