November 20, 2025
Episode #189: How to Use a Communications Audit to Recruit More Volunteers
In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson breaks down why it’s one of the smartest, most powerful tools nonprofits can use to attract more aligned, motivated volunteers. Often, the issue isn’t a lack of interest from the community; it’s that your communication isn’t connecting, isn’t clear, or isn’t consistent across platforms.
Tobi walks through the three core areas to examine when evaluating your volunteer recruitment efforts and explains how even small refinements can dramatically increase inquiries, improve onboarding, and strengthen your brand presence. By the end, you’ll see your volunteer recruitment ecosystem through fresh eyes and know exactly where the gaps (and opportunities) are hiding.
Communications Audit – Episode Highlights
- [01:00] – What a communications audit really is (and why it’s not scary)
- [03:30]- Three core areas of a communications audit
- [06:00] – Are you inspiring action or listing information?
- [08:10] – Onboarding and follow-up as critical parts of recruitment
- [12:15] – Reducing friction for new volunteers
- [15:00] – Involving your team and volunteers in the audit process
- [16:00] – Turning audit insights into better recruitment and engagement
- [19:00] – Why communications must be more refined than ever
Communications Audit – Quotes from the Episode
“A communications audit isn’t something you do once and forget. You can schedule a mini audit every six to 12 months to make sure your outreach evolves with your audience.”
“Remember this, the clearer your communication, the stronger your connection with potential volunteers. That is the foundation of great volunteer recruitment, and that is why we conduct communications audits.”
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About the Show
Nonprofit leadership author, trainer, consultant, and volunteer management expert Tobi Johnson shares weekly tips to help charities build, grow, and scale exceptional volunteer teams. Discover how your nonprofit can effectively coordinate volunteers who are reliable, equipped, and ready to help you bring about BIG change for the better.
If you’re ready to ditch the stress and harness the power of people to fuel your good work, you’re in exactly the right place!
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Episode #189 Transcript: How to Use a Communications Audit to Recruit More Volunteers
Tobi: Hey, everybody. Welcome. To the Volunteer Nation Podcast, the show where we help nonprofits grow volunteer engagement, strengthen their programs, and make a better impact. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson, and today we’re diving into one of the most overlooked tools for recruiting more volunteers. The communications audit of which I’ve been conducting. A few lately, and so I thought I’d share a little bit about that. But before we get started, let me just ask you a question. What if I told you that the reason you’re struggling to recruit volunteers has nothing to do with your mission and everything to do with how you’re communicating it?
The communications audit. A way to figure out where those gaps are now before you glaze over at the word audit. I know some people are saying, audits aren’t for me. It’s too scary. But before you, your eyes glaze over and you hit forward. Stick with me. This isn’t about spreadsheets and checklists for the sake of it.
A communications audit is one of the smartest ways you can uncover what’s helping and what’s hurting your volunteer recruitment. So, by the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how to run a simple communications audit, what to look for, and how to use your findings to attract more of the right volunteers, the ones who are ready, excited, and aligned with your mission.
So, let’s get to it. Let’s talk about why a communications audit. Matters. It’s important to understand why we’re doing something. Don’t want to just do it just because if you’ve ever thought, we just can’t find enough volunteers, you’re not alone. This is a typical problem for at least one out of four nonprofits.
But often the issue isn’t the community’s willingness to help. It’s that our communication isn’t connecting or it’s not connecting in the right place. A communications audit helps you see your organization through a volunteer’s eyes. It’s a review of how you reach out, how you follow up, how you consistently share your messages, and whether or not they’re consistent across every platform, your website, social media, flyers, email, newsletters, even the way staff talk about your volunteer program.
Think about it. If someone sees a Facebook post about volunteering, click on your link and ends up on an outdated page with broken links or vague instructions, or the opposite to many instructions. They might just click away. It’s also when we develop or when we conduct communications audits; we can not only figure out if there’s consistency across clicks, but also, we can see whether or not there are gaps in what you’re doing. So, it’s a really great way to step back, take a look at your organization through a volunteer’s eyes, but also through your own expert eyes. That’s the power of seeing and taking a bigger look, and that’s what the communications audit helps you do.
So, there are three main areas that I look at when I’m doing communications audits, and I perform these for my consulting and coaching clients, and inevitably they walk away with fresh ideas, new strategies, and I pinpoint areas where they may not be paying any attention. There’re three big areas though that I look at.
One is outreach channels. So, this is everything you use to reach potential volunteers. Your website, social media, community listings, flyers, word of mouth, partnerships you might have. When you think about those types of groups or those types of outreach channels, ask yourself, are we showing up where our ideal volunteers already spend their time?
Does your organization show up at the top of Google for the search keywords that volunteers use? Are your posts or are our posts volunteer centered are all about the organization’s needs. So, you’re really looking at both channels and a little bit of messaging. I have a quick test for you. Read your latest volunteer recruitment post out loud, whether it’s on your website or on a volunteer posting site.
Just read it out loud. Does it sound like an invitation or an announcement? That small shift in the tone can make a huge difference. If you want to think about recruitment channels in a different way, I encourage you to check out Volunteer Nation episode 143. Three big problems with your volunteer recruitment flyer.
You’ll see what I mean when you listen to that episode about how a channel can have way more power and what you need to think about for every channel. There’s some depth to it. The second area that I like to look at when I’m performing a communications audit is marketing and messaging.
Looking at the heart of your message, the words, the visuals, the stories you share. Ask yourself, do our materials inspire action? Do they clearly show how volunteers make an impact? Are we using real people and voices from our community? Here’s a tip. Volunteer quotes and photos. Build trust faster than any slogan, tagline, mission statement, et cetera, can.
And so, think about how you are positioning volunteers at the front of the action. For more on what to look for on your website, check out Volunteer Nation, episode 1 73 Is your volunteer website turning people away? I give you a play by play on some of the common things I see on nonprofit websites that are gaps in terms of how we attract volunteers. A good communications audit connects all three areas, outreach, marketing, and onboarding. So, the volunteer experience feels seamless. So, the next area that I like to look at, the third area is onboarding and following up. So, we’ve talked about messaging. In marketing, we’ve talked about outreach.
Now let’s talk about onboarding and follow up. Don’t forget what happens after someone says, yes. Your onboarding emails, orientation materials, and welcome messages are all part of your communications ecosystem. Even your new volunteer training. So, ask yourself, are these clear and welcoming? Do they help new volunteers feel confident and appreciated?
From day one, I have helped organizations through my communications audits just shift the way they’re communicating and have had a huge impact. And so, if you think about the tone of your messaging, but also how that messaging is deployed, when you’re welcoming people on board, you can ensure that you’re not wasting time or wasting.
Money attracts people that don’t become active volunteers. And so, onboarding is part of my recruitment communications Audits. Like to look at what the training modules are? How are people invited to training? How are people welcome? So that is really part of the recruitment process. So again, a good communications audit connects all three areas, outreach, marketing, and onboarding.
We want to make sure that the entire volunteer experience from first touch to active volunteer is seamless. Now, how do you go about conducting a simple communications audit? Now, my communications audit, I take many hours to review a lot of material. I’m going to give you a short and simple version. So, let’s talk about how to do a communications audit without getting overwhelmed.
So, I’m going to give you a simple five-step process. First, in step one, just gather the materials for your communications audit. So, every piece of communication is related to your volunteer program. And I usually collect this on a document with links to social media handles. To the website, to any online resources, a volunteer portal, et cetera.
But also, you want to collect other things that might be related to volunteer orientation, to volunteer recruitments, orientation packets, email templates, newsletters, anything that you are using to communicate. I would also like to look at some data if you have any data. Around volunteer recruitment around visitors to your website and the number of visitors, number of people who come to training your survey results from volunteers around satisfaction.
There’s a wide range of things that are good to look at. The other thing that is a good idea to look at is a list of your competitor’s analysis. I’m using competitors in air quotes because we are all working in network together in our communities to help people do better, but we can learn from others who are recruiting volunteers’ side by side with us in our community.
So, a competitor analysis is good both to learn how you can be different, and to learn, maybe learn and grow from others and what they’re doing. Step two is to review through the volunteer lens. So, pretend you’re a brand-new volunteer. Can you find information easily? Do the messages, feel inviting and human or institutional and confusing?
So, once you have all your materials, start looking through them. But walk in the volunteer shoes. You also want to look from your shoes as an expert, but also look through the volunteers’ shoes, especially the new volunteers. What do these materials, specifically those that are marketed to volunteers, what do they feel like?
Then step three, evaluate clarity, consistency, and call to action. Is your tone consistent across all platforms? Are your calls to action clear now? Join us in some ways may seem clear, but real clarity comes from giving someone a call to action to take a specific step. And so that step might be complete, our interest form and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
So that’s a very, join us is a bit vague, I think. And so, we want to make sure our calls to action describe. Action to be taken, right? Also, ask yourself, can someone move from awareness to action without getting lost? So once someone understands that you need volunteers or becomes aware of your organization and learns a little bit more, if there is a need to take action, or if they want to act, is that easy to do?
And you might want to think about it as they go through the journey of clicking through your website, for example, maybe they go from a social media post to your website to the volunteer area. Where is it that they, is that journey feel seamless? And is there a place for them to take the next step without getting lost?
And I will say it’s not my favorite. One of the other questions you might ask is, how convenient is it for someone to volunteer? And when people are asked to send emails to book a call, and then they’re spending time back and forth with you to try to decide when a call can happen, that’s inconvenient.
What’s convenient is to have a link to a calendar app so that folks can book time that’s already available on your calendar. That’s convenient, right? Step four. Is to identify quick wins and bigger projects. So, you will likely, when you conduct a comms audit, find small fixes that you might make right away, like updating a broken link or rewriting a sentence for clarity.
Then there are other wins that you might want to take on that require more planning, like redesigning a webpage or creating branded templates for volunteer emails. So throughout the comms audit process, when I’m auditing an organization’s communications, when it comes to volunteer recruitment, I will usually.
Include some top line key takeaways or key action items that I think are the most important, that can have the biggest impact. Some of those are small steps, some of those are big steps, but usually I try to pull out about 10 high level actions that the organization can take that will have a big impact.
Some things have a bigger impact than others. And so, for example, if your website or your volunteer recruitment pages are not appealing, not functional, not user friendly, that’s a huge win because it’s something that, it’s a place where a lot of people go to learn more about you. And so that’s a big win. And if an organization needs that, I generally put that in my top line recommendations.
But I also detail out in a long report all the other recommendations. You will find that you will come up with lots. I always recommend when I’m meeting with my clients and reporting my comms audit results, I always preface everything. By now your hair is going to get blown back a little. Don’t worry, you’re not going to get this all done in a year.
So, your comms audit can give you a fodder and things to do for months to come. So the work and the time spent doing it is really worth the effort. So, step five if you want to go this route and it does help, is to involve your team. Ask your volunteers, staff, and even clients about what’s working and what’s confusing.
You can even have your volunteers show you how they navigate your website. This turns your communications audit into a team wide learning experience, not a solo project buried on your to-do list. It also generates buy-in changes in the future. So, I like to include myself when I’m doing recruitment coaching with the team.
I like to include the comms person, the volunteer manager, a few volunteers, volunteer leaders, and people that, uh, have a vested interest because ultimately what we work on together, they take part in. And so when people have a say or have, or their opinion is valued and solicited. They tend to want to participate as well, and so if you involve your team, you’ll have team wide involvement going forward, not just for the communications audit.
So, the communications audit is simple. You simply pull together all your materials, your data, your online assets, everything you can think of, you think through, and you review from the volunteer perspective. You also take a global view to see, is your branding consistent? Is the messaging consistent?
Take a look at what channels you might be missing. Those are all things that can help and then turn those findings into. Results. Once you’ve finished your communications audit, don’t just file the results away. Turn those insights into action, and here’s some ways that your findings can improve volunteer recruitment.
Your findings and your review may. Help you sharpen your message. Clear language is going to bring in more inquiries from interested volunteers. Your findings might identify areas to simplify your process. Streamlined onboarding is going to keep your volunteers engaged. Your findings might help you strengthen your brand identity.
Consistent visuals and tone, bring credibility and trust. Ann. Your findings. If you do a deep dive into search engine optimization and the keywords that people use to find you on Google, you can do keyword research online and figure out how people are getting to your website. Your findings can help you strengthen your search engine optimization so that more people are visiting your website, who are looking for opportunities like yours or in your geographic area.
Small tweaks, big payoff. That’s the fantastic thing about communications audits. So, you’re not just stuck spinning your wheels, trying to figure out and guess what’s working and what’s not working. The communications audit helps you pinpoint those things. And remember, a communications audit isn’t something you do once and forget.
You can schedule a mini audit every six to 12 months to make sure your outreach evolves with your audience. So you can audit just particular things. You can ask someone else to look at a particular aspect of your volunteer recruitment and audit on their own and give you their insights. So, there are lots of ways to use communications audits, but it really does help you step back.
Take a pause and analyze what is happening. It is a strategic approach; I don’t think I mentioned, but Volunteer Nation, episode 19. I talk about improving the volunteer experience with a journey map. Check that out. If you also want to include as part of your audit, some journey mapping where you analyze the informational and emotional.
Needs of volunteers at each step of the way. So that’s another thing to add if you want to really turbocharge your communications audit. So, let’s recap what we covered today. A communications audit helps you see how your organization really shows up in your community and whether or not your marketing is reaching that audience.
It reveals the gap between you and what you intend to say and what people actually hear. And it gives you a clear roadmap to recruit more volunteers by improving the clarity, consistency, and connection of your recruitment and marketing efforts. So this week I challenge you to conduct a mini communications audit.
You don’t need to do the whole thing necessarily. Pick just one part of your volunteer recruitment process, maybe your social media posts or your volunteer application form, and look at it with fresh eyes. What would you change? What’s confusing? What’s missing? Volunteers. Often when volunteer recruitment isn’t working, we blame the volunteers.
We blame the community because they simply, we think they don’t care. But what if that’s not the reason that people aren’t joining your cause? Maybe the reason is your communications is not as refined as it needs to be, and it needs to be pretty refined. In today’s world, there is so much information coming at us from all different channels.
If you think about it, back in the day, way back in the day. People only had broadcast television and X number of channels, a limited number of channels. Now we not only have broadcast television, we have YouTube, we have TikTok, we have hundreds and hundreds of channels on cable television. We have social media.
Think of all the different ways we can get information via video nowadays versus 30 years ago. The human brain has to evolve, and it doesn’t evolve that quickly, so our minds get overwhelmed, and we start to tune things out. So, to break through, your communication really does need to be refined.
Remember this, the clearer your communication, the stronger your connection with potential volunteers and that. Is the foundation of great volunteer recruitment, and that is why we conduct communications audits. So I hope this is helpful. I hope that you will give it a go and just take a look at at least one thing in your strategies or tactics for volunteer recruitment and just a final call to action.
If you want to learn more and you want to get involved and really dig into your volunteer recruitment strategy, I really encourage you to join us inside the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab. We will be doing more training on volunteer recruitment. We have tons of resources. On journey mapping, on messaging, developing your ideal volunteer persona.
Anything related to volunteer recruitment; we have in-depth training and resources on. It is a great place to get a higher level and more. Comprehensive volunteer recruitment strategies. All right everybody, so thanks for joining me this week. I hope you’ll join me next week. Same time, same place on the Volunteer Nation.
