February 2, 2012

Five ways to get more volunteers online

Nonprofits understand that their websites need to make it simple for visitors to donate money. It’s not a great sign if a website visitor has to dig for a way to donate. However, many nonprofit websites miss the opportunity to attract volunteers. To many organizations, volunteers are just as important as donors; they eventually become donors, and they attract like-minded volunteers to your organization. Here are five ways to get more of them to sign up:
  1. Show volunteers what’s in it for them.
    Use past volunteer stories to help future volunteers see themselves working with your organization. Highlight two or three different types of volunteers: one fundraiser, one event coordinator, and one translator, for example. Each volunteer describes what they gain from volunteering. It’s not about what your organization gains, rather how the volunteer meets new friends or professional contacts, learns a new skill or improves speaking a foreign language.

  2. Provide the option to sign up for an actual event online.
    Momentum is everything. If a potential volunteer has to submit a form or contact you first, they may lose the drive to volunteer. If they can sign up on the spot for a specific event, they have made a commitment and are more likely to follow through.

  3. Be specific about what opportunities are available.
    Avoid using a general form to capture volunteer requests (for example, one that includes a name, email address and a generic “contact me for volunteer opportunities” check box). Instead, list specific tasks and events requiring volunteers. Separate 1-day events from ongoing volunteer opportunities. Often, a potential volunteer just wants to do something for an hour, maybe with a friend. The volunteer may be more interested in a longer-term opportunity after some exposure to your organization.

  4. Be friendly!
    If a volunteer connects with you via email, Facebook, Twitter or by phone, treat her as if she is calling to inform you of a million-dollar donation. You never know who is on the other end of the line. The volunteer may just be your next board member, executive director or the best friend of a niece of a very generous philanthropist.

  5. Offer Family Volunteer Opportunities.
    Brainstorm about ways you can offer volunteer opportunities for people with kids and create a “family volunteer” page on your site. Many parents of young children are looking to get out of the house and expose their kids to the benefits of volunteering (or they are simply looking for a change of scenery and some adult interaction). If you need 5,000 direct mail envelopes stuffed, find a teen-age volunteer to keep an eye on little kids in the corner of a room with toys while their parents work on the envelopes. If you organize outdoor volunteer opportunities, invite families and provide little shovels and gloves for little hands. Or leverage parents with older kids by providing a leader to guide the kids in some aspect of the volunteer event while the parents are involved in another.
The underlying message is to value volunteers enough to focus on their goals and desired outcomes rather than yours, no matter how much do-gooding your organization does.