143 – 3 Big Problems with Your Volunteer Recruitment Flyer

January 2, 2025

Episode #143: 3 Big Problems with Your Volunteer Recruitment Flyer 

In the first episode of 2025, Tobi shares her insights on developing an impactful volunteer recruitment flyer. She discusses common problems, such as lack of audience targeting, incomplete journey planning, and ineffective distribution strategies.  

Tobi provides practical tips for creating flyers that resonate with specific audiences, plan the entire volunteer journey, and enhance personal connection through trained outreach teams. You’ll also learn about essential flyer content, including goals, impact statements, and the application process, to ensure a cohesive and engaging volunteer recruitment strategy! 

Volunteer Recruitment Flyer – Episode Highlights

• [00:51] – The Problem with Traditional Flyers 
• [02:45] – Three Big Problems with Volunteer Recruitment Flyers 
• [03:05] – Problem 1: Lack of Specific Audience Targeting 
• [06:38] – Problem 2: Not Planning the Entire Journey 
• [09:01] – Problem 3: The Importance of Volunteer Outreach Teams 
• [12:07] – Solutions for Effective Volunteer Recruitment Flyers 
• [12:24] – Key Elements to Include in Your Flyer 

Helpful Links

• VolunteerPro Membership Community  
• Volunteer Nation Episode #110: Using Psychographics to Improve Your Volunteer Recruitment Appeal 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #059: 6 Must Have Strategies to Recruit Volunteers Using Your Website 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #141 – 8 Ways to Build Capacity with Volunteer Teams 

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Have questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at wecare@volpro.net.

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Episode #143 Transcript: 3 Big Problems with Your Volunteer Recruitment Flyer 

Tobi: Have you ever been to Las Vegas or any other well trafficked area where they’re handing out flyers left and right? I want to ask you, when someone handed you a flyer, what’s the chance you looked at it? What’s the chance you spent time reading it? And lastly, what’s the chance that you did something with the information. I want to, in this episode, help you create volunteer flyers that don’t go directly in the trash. 

I also want you to think differently about your marketing tactics when you’re using flyers. There are a lot of people out there creating volunteer flyers. In fact, on the internet, and based on my research using our search engine optimization tools, there’s about 140 people around the world every month searching for this keyword, volunteer recruitment flyer. 

So, I know people are out there wondering, how do I do this? What do I include in the flyer? What is it that is going to make someone take action? So, let’s get into this because back in the day, one of my jobs in the non-profit sector was a communications director and an outreach coordinator. 

There’s a couple of different jobs I had. And I learned shortly into it that my tri fold brochure, which is sort of like a flyer, is sort of in a different format, but still paper with information on it. I soon realized that it really wasn’t my trifold brochure that was actually making people take action. 

It was the people who were handing it to people. I do want to talk about what to include on that flyer because you’re not always there to hand it to somebody. But I also want you to think more broadly about your strategies because the piece of paper itself is rarely the thing that gets someone to take major action, like committing to becoming a volunteer. Usually, a flyer is to help people take that first baby step. So, let’s get into this. Let’s talk about the major problems first and then I’m going to offer after the break, I’ll offer some tips on how to create a flyer and what you should include in your flyer. 

Maybe different than what you think. So, let’s talk about the three big problems with your volunteer recruitment flyer. The things that I see repeatedly when I’m Looking at organizations and their communications materials when I’m doing my communications audits. I often look at materials like this and I see these mistakes a lot. 

I’m going to call these out first. So, problem number one with your volunteer recruitment flyer is that it’s not directed at a specific audience. There actually is no reason right now, given that we all have computers, and we can make changes. This isn’t like back in the days when I was doing marketing and communications where you had to send things to a print shop, and you had to have them printed up. 

You would address a general audience in your flyer, but nowadays we really should be focusing on our flyers and tailoring them. To the people that we’re going to see at whatever event we’re going to take those flyers to, or where we’re going to post those flyers. So, if we focus on trying to reach everybody, we end up reaching nobody. 

Any warm body recruitment just doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t call out to anybody. It doesn’t connect. The key to effective marketing is to narrow, not widen your search. People will look at your flyer if it speaks to them personally. So one of the things you can do is do a bit of an analysis of psychographics of your audience, of the specific audience you’re trying to reach at that event or that place where you’re going to take that flyer and make adjustments to each time you go out and print them out separately. 

Psychographics are a powerful way to understand your audience and what drives their behavior. It’s different than demographics. Demographics are sort of more about people’s race, ethnicity, people’s sexual orientation, people’s gender, what zip code they live in. Those are, those are demographic information, what language they speak. 

Psychographics is more subjective about people’s beliefs, values, goals, interests, and attitudes. So, when you’re developing your volunteer flyer, think to yourself, who are they? What are their characteristics, attitude, life stage, understanding, lived experience, level of commitment, et cetera, and how can you call out to them using one of these things in your flyer, whether it’s with words or pictures?  

Now, let’s think about this for a minute and I’ll give you an example. Let’s just say, and this was an interesting thing. I remember I was doing Facebook ads. I was doing research to set up some Facebook ads. This was years ago for Volunteer Pro. And one of the coordinating keywords was for non-profit sector, a lot of people who would look on Facebook for things within the non-profit sector, keywords related, was that people were tea drinkers. And so, if I was trying to reach an audience of people in the nonprofit sector, and I know that many of them drink tea, then perhaps I would put some image of somebody drinking tea on my flyer, right? It calls out directly to them. Now, of course, you’re not going to do this on your volunteer recruitment. 

I’m just using this as an example but really starting to understand and think about who you’re trying to reach and whether or not your flyer shows pictures of people like them, uses the language that they use, speaks about the beliefs that they believe. And if you want to know more about how to do this psychographic analysis, check out Check out Volunteer Nation Episode 110, Using Psychographics to Improve Your Volunteer Recruitment Appeals, and you can take some of that information and apply it to your flyer. 

The first problem is your flyer is not directed at a specific audience. Let’s change that. Let’s get more specific. There’s no reason we must only use one flyer and one bit of language and one image. The second problem with your volunteer recruitment flyer is not planning the entire journey. Like I said before, your volunteer flyer is a piece of paper. 

All it does is get people to take the next step. And it’s usually not a very big step. We don’t give people a flyer and they immediately Go to the link to an application on the flyer and fill out an application that rarely happens There’s a lot of relationship building between the time someone might see a flyer and the time they might submit an application Now that doesn’t or express interest or sign up for a shift now that doesn’t That is different if you’re with a targeted audience. 

Let’s say you’re giving a talk to a group of students and the expectation in that group is those students are ready to make a commitment. That’s different. That’s a different situation. And the flyer isn’t doing all the work. All the work’s already been done, and the flyer is just giving them information to take the next step. 

But for the most part, we’re not taking into consideration that there’s many steps in the process. So, your volunteer recruitment flyer is just the first touch, and you want to make sure there’s consistency between the look and the messaging of the flyer and the web page where you send prospective people that are reading that flyers, prospective volunteers too. 

So, often you want to make a specific land, we would call a landing page that that flyer links people to. I would always make sure that there’s a place on that page to gather their information right away, their name and email, without the need to create an account. So that’s too big of a leap. You’re asking people to create an account and they’re going to wonder, well, I don’t, I’m not even sure I really want to volunteer yet. 

I want to learn more. Really think about that entire journey and that, that flyer and what step it’s playing in the step-by-step journey as someone becomes a committed volunteer. If you’re interested in what to include on your website, check out Volunteer Nation episode 59, where I talk about six must have strategies to recruit volunteers using your website. 

And I’ll give you other information, other ideas. You’ll get other ideas about what to include on your website. All right, let’s talk about problem number three with your volunteer recruitment flyer. The volunteer recruitment flyer is not the strategy, it’s the people who hand it out and what they say. 

I’ve kind of already mentioned this, spilled the beans on it, but think about your volunteer outreach team. You want to build capacity in your organization to connect to new communities through volunteer outreach teams. Train your volunteers in speaking and tabling and encourage them to speak directly about their authentic experiences with your organization, help them tell stories. Help them figure out how to do an elevator pitch. Help them figure out how to feel confident when they’re at a tabling event, so they’re not hiding from people. Really, the piece of paper itself is just to help people refer to something when they go. They should already have an interest. 

If their interest is not peaked by the person that’s handing them the flyer, the flyer will very quickly go into the garbage or recycling. Because people are not, they’re not going to take any next steps. So, you’ve got to have an emotional connection or pique someone’s interest when you’re handing them the flyer or the flyer will be DOA, just dead in the water after that. 

So, it really is more about the people handing out the flyer and that’s why posting around doesn’t work that well. Because there’s nobody making a connection. So just hanging up flyers around town, it’s going to take a lot of flyers to get any, any traction in that way, but to have well trained ambassadors, that’s going to make your flyer work really well. 

Check out Volunteer Nation episode 141, Eight Ways to Build Capacity with Volunteer Teams. And I talk a little bit more about volunteer outreach teams, as well as some other kinds of teams that you can use to help build your capacity, effectiveness, efficiency, etc. as a volunteer involving organization. So, check that out.  

Let’s call a pause for a quick break. I’ve shared my top three problems with your volunteer recruitment flyer. Let’s talk about solutions, right? So, I’ll be right back after the break and don’t go anywhere.  

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Okay, we’re back from my review of what your key problems are with your volunteer recruitment flyer, but I can’t leave you hanging, can I? I need to give you some tips on what to do instead. So, let’s talk about what to include in your volunteer recruitment flyer. Obviously, we want to have trained folks who are ambassadors who are sharing our flyers with folks, but let’s talk about what specifically we want to include on that flyer. 

And again, I’ve worked in nonprofit communications and marketing for a long time back in the day. That was my job or one of my jobs. And one of the things we want to do is make sure that we keep it short and simple. We’re really sending people to get more information on our website. We’re not asking people to make a decision and to gather all the information from one single piece of paper. 

That just gets too overwhelming for people. So, keep it short, use bullet points, try to keep something to only one sentence at a time, use images, make sure there’s some color to the flyer, make sure you have an image, and you will do better. And now let’s talk about some of the content you might include on a flyer. 

One is the goals of the role. So, what clearly state the objectives of the volunteer position in really short form? Like what is it about? What do they get done? You might include an impact statement. So, what have volunteers in the past year achieved in this position or in this team? You might include some team values or a statement of commitment. 

Maybe you have a philosophy of volunteer involvement. If you have a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, you might include that. But just something really short that shows the sort of personality and commitment you’re making to volunteers. Another thing you want to include, and I think this is essential, but are quotes or testimonials from volunteers or people that they’ve served. 

We really want to have the voice of the volunteer here and that adds a little bit of social proof or credibility beyond just what your organization is saying, so it’s always good to include some other voices on your flyer. You can include some of the benefits or perks volunteers will receive like free parking or passes to events, discounts, training, meals, but I don’t think it’s always necessary. 

You can put that on your website because if you post that up front and that’s the first thing you’re leading with, it creates a sort of transactional type of relationship and that’s not the kind of relationship you really want with volunteers. So, I’m not a huge fan of putting perks. If there is something that people If there’s a perk or a volunteer benefit that people often have a misunderstanding about, then I might include that on the flyer just to help bust some myths. 

Another thing I would absolutely put on your flyer is the application process. and have it boiled down to about three to five steps. I like three steps. Just simple. Of course, it’s not going to include all the details, but just joining us is as easy as one, two, three. And then also a web link, as I mentioned before, you want to link to a web page where you have information. 

Nowadays QR codes are back in action. They fell out of favor for a while, but now people are using them often. So I would include the web link and a QR code for people who know how to use QR codes. Those really make it easier for people to get to your webpage. Again, see and test how that relationship happens, how that journey happens. 

When someone clicks on that QR code, where do they go? And does it look like the flyer? Yeah. Is the branding, the colors, the fonts, the messaging similar? You could even say, hey, you’re here because you, you, someone gave you one of our flyers. Welcome. You can create a page specifically that you’re sending from that flyer. 

And then the last thing I would make sure I include is a real human contact, someone’s name, email, phone number, so that if someone wants to reach out to you, they can reach out to you that way as well. It adds a human element to your volunteer flyer. So, I hope this has helped you. I’ve talked about the three big problems that I see in voluntary recruitment flyers. 

I also talked about things you might want to include in your flyer. Again, remember to keep it super simple. The only thing your recruitment flyer should be doing is Encouraging people to take the next step to learn more. Folks are not going to go directly from your recruitment flyer to completing an application, or very few people will, unless they’ve been primed in some other way. 

They’re at a presentation, or they’re in a classroom, or someone’s already prefaced what you’re doing, or they’re already, they’ve already expressed that they’re ready to commit. But for the most part, you’re handing your flyer to people who haven’t heard from you before. So, they’re going to need some time to learn and educate themselves. 

And so, send them to a webpage or webpages where they can get more information and make sure you collect their name and email so you can continue to nurture the relationship, send more information. So when they are ready to commit, and they might be ready to commit next week, but they might not be ready to commit for another six months, and you don’t want to lose them completely. 

Those are my best tips on how to create an awesome recruitment flyer, what can be helpful, and what are the things to avoid. So, I hope that’s helped. Happy New Year. I hope everybody’s off to a great start. And I will see you next week, same time, same place, on the Volunteer Nation.