Recruiting Volunteers:

Add Value to Your Coalition with Volunteers

By Mark Yanick, M.A., and Rachel Emery

Volunteers are critical to the success of a coalition. In order to attract and retain new members, organizations must help volunteers understand their value within the group and make them feel part of a winning team.

Before actual recruiting begins, a coalition needs to do a bit of planning. This promotes efficiency in the recruitment process, and helps the organization to use the new volunteers more effectively.

First, an organization needs to pinpoint the reasons why it needs new members, as well as the types of volunteers it needs to fill these roles. Which voices are missing from the coalition? Business leaders? Youth? Religious organizations? Media partners? Who can rally support within the community, or represent underrepresented groups? What tasks does the organization need volunteers for? How many volunteers are needed? Does the coalition need members with specific skills, such as grant writing, bookkeeping, or public speaking?

Once a coalition has identified its own needs and goals, it can develop a game plan for recruitment. Delegate who will find new members, list strategies for recruitment, and set up a timetable for the process as a whole. It’s also important to develop an engaging message for attracting new members. Again, it helps to know who the target audience is, and why their support is valuable for the coalition.

There is a whole host of ways to recruit volunteers, but bear in mind that these methods can be especially effective when used together:

• Conduct town meetings to educate the public about the coalition’s goals and objectives, and to enlist their support for these efforts.
• Attend other community meetings and disseminate information about the organization, or launch a public relations campaign through the local media.
• Ask friends, family, colleagues, and current coalition members to point out other potential members for the organization.
•  Contact community leaders and known critical partners to the cause.

Don’t underestimate informal recruitment, either—people are most likely to contribute time, resources, and skills when asked personally, especially by people they know.

Once a person volunteers for an organization, there are a number of things that group can do to enhance the volunteer experience and keep the person in their organization. This is important, because the longer a coalition is able to keep its members, the more experienced and skilled its average volunteer is likely to be.

When it comes to the care and keeping of volunteers, Gillian Kaye, in Meredith Winkler’s Community Organizing and Community Building for Health (1997) describes the six R’s: Recognition, Respect, Role, Relationship, Reward, and Results. Give coalition members enough freedom and headroom to fully contribute their unique skills, creativity, perspectives, and experience. Match them with jobs that best fit their talents and interests. Really let them own their particular projects and tasks, and give out recognition and praise for a job well done. This helps make the work enjoyable and the experience meaningful.

At the same time, be sure to provide enough guidance and support to prevent volunteers from feeling overwhelmed. Provide adequate orientation resources, and be sensitive to volunteer needs for child care and technical assistance. Give clear job descriptions to each coalition member, and be up front with expectations. Many people are reluctant to volunteer because they fear the time commitment. Organizations can help by breaking down big projects into smaller, more manageable pieces, and dividing the work between several people.

Ultimately, people stay more motivated when they feel that their work is actually making a difference. Be sure to recognize and celebrate the victories and contributions, whatever the size, of both individual volunteers and the group as a whole. Remember, the major reason people do not volunteer is simply that they were never asked.