Volunteer Recruitment Sites, Long-term Volunteers, and Diversity Training | Track It Forward

Volunteer Recruitment Sites, Long-term Volunteers, and Diversity Training

Written by Kasey Murphy

Volunteer Coordinator Resource Community Recap 2/1-2/8

This week the Volunteer Coordinator Resource Community on Facebook had some new content discussed, as well as some older content that was revisited. If you are interested in Volunteer Appreciation topics, visit last week’s recap! 

This might be the first week in a while, where all of the most engaging content topics were not directly related to coronavirus or adjusting and adapting to coronavirus volunteering procedures! Maybe this is showing that we are all doing well and progressing - hopefully! 

In fact, one of the first topics was about volunteer recruitment, which is a great topic to hit at any time. Volunteer recruitment can be done both online and in-person. But, of course, in today’s climate, online volunteer recruitment is more prevalent. Specifically, volunteer recruitment sites to find virtual volunteers, or non-local volunteers who can help from home! 

My nonprofit, The Better Because Project, just got our 501c3 status approved on Monday. I know this allows me to use several platforms to recruit volunteers, but I forget which websites those are. I don't need local volunteers 'cause we're remotely run on a permanent basis. Please drop the links to those websites or names of those websites in the comments. Thanks in advance.

Top Comments About Volunteer Recruitment Sites

  • Taproot Foundation

  • Volunteer Match 

  • It is important to use all methods that you can, for free! Like posting into Facebook groups, outsourcing on social media, and more!  

If you have more sites to recommend, go to the post here! 

Resources For Volunteer Recruitment Sites 

 

 

When it comes to recruiting volunteers, a lot of organizations would love to cut straight to recruiting volunteers that they know will be long-term volunteers. But, unfortunately, that is not the case at all times. 

And since long-term volunteers do a lot of work for an organization, it sometimes seems hard to come up with gifts and incentivized methods to keep them feeling appreciated and motivated to volunteer more! 

What incentives do you offer your volunteers to stay, as well as methods to recruit new long term volunteers?

Long-Term Volunteer Incentives & Recruitment Ideas From The Comments 

  • “We give them a permanent name tag after 50 hours of service

  • “We give them a permanent name tag after 50 hours of service following because I want some fresh ideas too.”
  • “Mostly our retention efforts focus on individual attention, thanking them for their service (citing how many hours they have contributed), and following up with them with check-ins, individualized invitations to volunteer gatherings, and- of course- responding to their questions, suggestions, and/or concerns.”
  • “For a number of the exceptional volunteers, we offer special projects or upgraded assignments and/or public recognition in our monthly eNews (eg, Volunteer of the Month, Exceptional Youth, and Outstanding New Volunteer). Since there are so many fabulous volunteers who are too old for Exceptional Youth recognition and too experienced for ONV, I really wanted to add a monthly Volunteer Virtuoso recogntion (similar to VoM), but couldn't get that approved…”
  • “I am very upfront and transparent in orientation about the role and what they can expect. I would share the very worst scenarios and the best. What i found after doing this is that when people know what to expect, they don’t leave when things get hard, because they were prepared for it. Being honest and transparent from the beginning is good relationship building. And I have had waitlists very where I’ve managed volunteers.”
  • “Communicate. Appreciate. I don’t know that you need to incentivize if they’re doing something that they enjoy and find meaningful.”
  • “Consistently say a meaningful thank-you and show appreciation. I have found that volunteers like a title: Bereavement Volunteer, Tuck-In Call Volunteer, Office Administration Volunteer, Veteran Volunteer, or something as simple as Direct Care Volunteer. We add the titles to their permanent name tags. I find that the titles give them a sense of pride and have heard volunteers introduce themselves with the title.”

If you have more comments to add, click here! 

 

Resources For Long-Term Volunteer Management 

 

 

The last topic touches on another very important aspect of volunteer management, but one that is not often talked about or considered as one of the core roles of being a volunteer manager. With the events of 2020, it is important to consider diversity training and keeping your volunteers informed about your organization’s values of inclusion and diversity within volunteering. 

 

Hello everyone! I searched the group but didn't see a topic specific to this. Does anyone do an

This is a wonderful topic, and we would like to get more people involved - see the post here! 

Comments About Volunteer Diversity and Inclusion Training 

  • “I just attended our annual training and we invited upper level volunteers. I will likely pull out some content to give to incoming volunteers and those that haven't attended. It was a good training.”

  • “From what I hear more and starting to create one of these for volunteers, as am I. I am hoping to be able to share a staff training at least.”

  • “I also love the humorous, pithy, insightful "MTV Decoded" videos by Franchesa Ramsey that are often used in our DEI staff trainings.”

  • We also think this would be a great thing to include in your Volunteer Orientation, Training, and Info Session for each volunteer to see.

Resources about Volunteer Diversity and Inclusion Training