Episode #042: Why Your Volunteer Recruitment Isn’t Working (and What to Do Instead)
Welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast, bringing you practical tips and big ideas on how to build, grow, and scale volunteer talent. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson. And if you rely on volunteers to fuel your charity, cause, membership, or movement, I made this podcast just for you.
Well, hey there, everybody happy 2023! We’re in a new year. We’re into new strategies, new ideas, and let’s hope new results for you and your organization when it comes to volunteer engagement.
Today I want to talk about why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working, and I want to offer some options for other things to do. You know, we often think that because our marketing doesn’t work, it means that people aren’t interested.
That is a easy step. It’s an assumption. Look, if my volunteer recruitment appeals aren’t working, it just must mean people in my community don’t care about my cause or about volunteering in general, and that could not be further from the truth.
The truth is that if you make a even a few small changes in your approach, you can realize some big results. I’ve seen people just change the copy in an email and completely transform the number of people who respond. So I know it to be true.
I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations. I’ve coached many people directly in volunteer recruiting. And there are some key things that people tend to get wrong that I want to cover today because I know in 2023…
You know, we’ve got recently got our results from our Volunteer Management Progress Report survey. Across the board, the number one biggest challenge for over one third of the organizations that were participating in the survey was finding volunteers, recruiting volunteers, attracting volunteers.
And so I want to make sure you’re starting off your year on the right foot. It’s also that volunteer recruitment is the number one goal for leaders of volunteers going into 2023 as reflected in the data from our survey, and I want to make sure that we really double down on helping you get there this year.
And there is so much to share that, let’s kick it off now with just some things that you might be doing that aren’t serving you. So let’s just get started right now. Today I’m going to share five key reasons why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working.
Plus, I’m going to offer some tips and resources, and if you stay to the end, I actually have a free resource that I want to send to you. So stay here and let’s just get started. So reason one, why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working: you haven’t spread the word past your inner circle.
We will often market to the same people over and over and over again. And the fact of the matter is doing more with the same just won’t get you new results. So you often need to both change your strategy or change your messaging or change your channels, but also start to expand who you’re extending your offer and invitation to.
Why? Well, partly because it’s to diversify your volunteer base. And many of you have mentioned and did mention in our Volunteer Management Progress Report that diversifying your volunteer base was also important to you.
So you’ve got to expand the audience you’re talking to, but you also want to expand and widen your possibilities, the audience that you’re speaking to. You want to make sure that there’s more and more and more people who are aware of your opportunities, you’ll have a much better, it’s just basic numbers, right?
If you’re converting 4% of a hundred people, you’re only going to get four people. But if you’re converting 4% of a thousand people, then you have the opportunity to recruit 40 volunteers. So you can see the difference. Just simple math.
And so we want to make sure we’re casting the net wide, but also to the people that are most likely to respond to our apeals. So when you think about building an audience, one of the best ways is to build a following through email.
Just build a contact list via email that you communicate with on a regular basis. And one of the ways to do that is to offer some type of download or freebie, which we do all the time here, and start to build that.
Email is much more effective than social media, and so if you’re not right now building an email list of people who are possibly interested in volunteering and who want to hear from you, then now’s the time to get started.
And if you’re interested in learning more about how to do this, check out our Volunteer Nation episode number two. I started talking about this early in the pod, how to recruit volunteers by building a following first, and I go into more detail about how you go about doing this.
But you know, if you are continuing to speak to the same people, you have an inner circle, whether it’s you’re going to the same places to ask for volunteers and make your pitch, or you are speaking to the same groups over and over again, or you only have a limited list of people that you’re asking, then you’re going to get the same results.
So one of the first things you want to do in 2023 is start to think about how you’re going to build an email list, a following of folks who want to hear from you on a regular basis, so that when the time is right for them and for you, they’ll say yes to you.
So that’s the first reason why I see that organizations, their volunteer recruitment isn’t working. Now let’s look at reason number two, why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working: your message isn’t compelling enough.
Your message isn’t compelling enough. It is the number one, I think, reason a lot of times, aside from being able to share your appeal with as many people as possible, if that appeal is dry and boring or does not peak the interest of your audience, there is no way they’re going to say yes to it.
Your opportunity could be the absolute most interesting thing. It could be a perfect match for the people you’re speaking to or the person that’s reading your appeal. But if it’s boring, they are not going to click.
They are not going to call, they are not going to email. They are not going to complete your volunteer application. And I have looked at enough volunteer appeals to know we’ve got work to do in this department.
If you just go on VolunteerMatch and start perusing around, just click around and from the perspective of a volunteer, just start clicking around and reading some of the postings, and you’ll quickly see that some stand out as interesting, intriguing, compelling, exciting, and others are just dead in the water.
They’re boring, they’re dry, and nobody would want to say yes to that. So you want to make sure that you’re in the camp of exciting, interesting, et cetera. You know, people don’t volunteer because they enjoy working for free.
I love to share this with people. People don’t volunteer because they work, enjoy working for free. They volunteer because they want to change the world. And so you’ve got to think, you know, how transformational is my messaging?
Is it offering a new way? Are you inviting people to not only transform your cause or your program or the people you’re working with and making change in the world that way, but also are you transforming the lives of the volunteers that get involved.
Now, partly this is messaging, but it’s also what’s the before and after, what happens before volunteers are involved, and what happens after. That’s a transformation, if you can describe that.
The other way to use transformational messaging is to share stories of successful volunteers and people they’ve served, and so this can also be really compelling. Messaging is storytelling and testimonial.
There’s a few ways to go about this. First of all, in your own copy, just sharing, here’s what happens when we don’t have volunteers. Here’s what’s happens when we do have volunteers. Here’s the difference you make in very clear terms. It’s understandable, it’s exciting.
It’s a new, fresh vision on the changes we can make together when we work together. Or you can invite others that the volunteers that are currently working with you to share some of their quotes and testimonials around how volunteering has changed them too.
So we really want to make sure that our messaging is exciting. So let’s take a quick break and after the break I’m going to share three other reasons as well as a free tool.
So let’s take a quick break from my breakdown of why volunteer recruitment isn’t working and what you can do about it in 2023 and beyond. Plus I’ll be sharing a free mini course that can help you get a jumpstart on the year ahead, so don’t go anywhere.
If you enjoyed this week’s episode of Volunteer Nation, we invite you to check out the VolunteerPro Premium Membership. This community is the most comprehensive resource for attracting, engaging, and supporting dedicated high impact volunteer talent for your good cause.
VolunteerPro Premium Membership helps you build or renovate an effective what’s-working-now volunteer program with less stress and more joy, so that you can ditch the overwhelm and confidently carry your vision forward.
It is the only implementation of its kind that helps your organization build maturity across five phases of our proprietary system, the Volunteer Strategy Success Path. If you’re interested in learning more, visit volpro.net/join.
Okay, we’re back with my breakdown of why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working. I’ve got three more reasons and tips for what to do instead, as well as a free mini training to help you get started.
Okay, so let’s move on to reason number three, why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working. Your call to action, or CTA as we like to call it, is too vague.
Now, we talked about your messaging and whether or not it’s compelling enough, your call to action is actually when you ask or encourage people to actually take a step. Something that you could actually film.
People are doing something, they’re not considering something, they’re not thinking about something, they’re actually doing something. So we need to paint a picture, a clear picture for our audience of how to take action.
Don’t assume that people know what they’re supposed to do when we use CTAs or calls to action like “join today” or “get involved.” Those are not concrete enough.
We need to give people specific marching orders, so it’s important to give specific instructions on the next steps that they need to take right away.
If the audience for your call to action is already familiar with your organization and has been involved in other ways, your call to action can actually appear in the first line or two of your message. For other audiences, you’ll want that call to action – it’s better placed at the conclusion of your appeal of your messaging.
So placement matters, depending on how well your audience knows you. So if your volunteer recruitment page is really where new people come on your website, you want to make sure that that call to action is lower on the page because you want people to read through and understand why responding to that call to action is so important.
If you’re sending an email out to reengage existing volunteers that may have lapsed due to covid, et cetera, then you might even want to put that call to action in the subject line. So the placement of the call to action also matters as well as being very, very specific.
When you invite people, you want to invite people to “click here,” and then you can be clear “to be taken to a three minute online application.” So you really even let people know how long it’s going to take.
Or “call a specific phone number between X time and x rime to speak with a person,” a specific person like their first name “for more details.” That’s as detailed as we really want you to be.
So for example, “click here to be taken to a three minute online application where we’ll learn more about your interests and after we’ll get in touch with you to set up an interview or call 5 5 5 5 5 5 between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM to speak with Angie Rob for more details.”
You see how specific that is and people start to realize there’s momentum here. They’re not putting their information into a black hole, they’re actually taking action.
Now, this also counters a good bit of apprehension and clarifies expectations, which will build trust in your audience. So you want to be very, very, very specific about what happens next.
Lot of times we have applications and people fill them out, and then they don’t even know what’s going to happen next. So you, you also want to consider how your call to action is going to be part of the context of other communications.
So what happens before people get to that call to action? What happens after they submit that application? Are they taken to a thank you page? So you really want to think of the call to action also not as something that exists all in and of itself, but that exists within a context.
So if you’re interested in thinking about your calls to action and messaging, around re-engaging volunteers, I encourage you to check out Volunteer Nation episode 21, where I talk about how to engage volunteers with a win-back campaign.
So that is specifically when you want to engage volunteers who have already been supporting your organization in the past. All right, let’s get on to reason number four why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working: your application process isn’t consumer friendly.
I have seen this a million times. Do not propose on the first date. If you were going on a blind date and five minutes into the conversation, you asked somebody like, “Do you want to get married?” What would they do? They would run from the restaurant or wherever you were running in terror, right?
They would not be down with that. So, a lot of our volunteer recruitment applications require our visitors – and sometimes these are first time visitors to our organization or to our web organization’s webpage – they’ll require people to create a login on their volunteer management software system.
You know, I think that’s a turnoff. Your volunteers are still, our prospective volunteers in this case are still trying to figure out what you’re all about. They haven’t made any decisions, but you are already asking them to log in, give their email address, et cetera, et cetera.
And, it’s asking for too much too soon. You’re asking, you’re proposing on your first date. I think in my mind, and you know what, you can try this both ways and see which way works best, but I think you’re losing a lot of people.
Just compare, if you can get your hands on the information of how many people actually visit your volunteer recruitment webpage in any given month, and then compare that with how many people actually create a login in your system in that month.
And if they’re not, you know, at least 50% or at least 30%, then you know. Or even more than that, you know you are losing people. So, an alternate to this would be to create a two-step system, and the first system would say, “contact us if you want to learn more.”
So people are just adding their first name, their email, and maybe, you know, “why does our cause interest you?” Or one other simple question or not even that, and then let people know “add your information here. We will get back to you in one business day with an info kit.”
Now you send that info kit, you could even automate that within a few minutes. “You’ll get an info kit in your email inbox, check it out, and we’ll be making a phone call later this week to you to chat more about next steps.”
So you could even ask for people’s phone number if you’re very clear about what that first step is and the information you’re going to give. Then the next step, when people take the next step, you know that they’re ready for the application and they’re not having to log in alternately.
So that’s a two-step process. Step one, info. Just an interest, quick short interest form. Step two, set up an account in our system. The other option is to just include your volunteer application in front of your volunteer management system.
Now, this is more challenging because then you have to retype in that data in order to enter an intersystem, so it’s more data. So, you know, my best advice is a two-step process where you’re first asking people if they’re interested and, and then you’re able to start communicating with them.
And then by the way, gang, you’re adding them to your list, you’re list building. You can continue to communicate with them, share success stories, put them on your newsletter list, et cetera.
So you’re communicating with them throughout the year. And when they’re ready, maybe they’ll. So that’s the way I think about, so that for you want to make sure that your application process is consumer friendly, doesn’t scare people off by asking too much and making sure also that your application itself is welcoming.
That it includes inclusive language, that it’s welcoming, that it doesn’t feel dry and boring. There’s no reason your application form needs to be dry and boring. It can actually be kind of…so consider that application.
Take another look at it, a good look at it, ask other people to look at it at the process, and go through the processes and give you feedback.
Okay, so that brings us to our fifth and final reason why your volunteer recruitment isn’t working. You don’t tailor your opportunities to accommodate volunteer motivations and practical needs.
Now, I know that at your organization you have specific needs for volunteers. I know that, but volunteers have their own motivations and needs, and we have to find a middle ground.
If we’re too much about our own needs, people just, we’re just not going to be able to track the volume of people we need to get our work done. You know, volunteer motivations can be altruistic, meaning the volunteer has a desire to help each other for the greater good.
Or they can be instrumental, meaning they’re volunteering to meet their own self-interests. Usually it’s a both/and. We talk a lot about volunteer motivations in our work because there’s plenty of evidence and research that validates their importance in every stage of the volunteer life cycle.
So when the motivations of a volunteer match our opportunities available, we tend to not only be able to recruit volunteers, we are able to keep them. So when you continuously evaluate volunteer motivations, you’ll be sure to attract volunteers who are committed to staying involved.
So even in your application process, you might want to ask about why. People, what interests them? What are, what is their motivation? What sort of purpose does volunteering serve in their lives?
You know, yes, you need to find volunteers that meet your needs, so you also need to dig into what are the specific needs of your organization and also understand what are the volunteer skills needed or required to meet those needs.
Part of this is yes, so you can check and see if people’s needs are, if people’s skills, knowledge, skills, and abilities and capabilities and availabilities, et cetera, meet your needs.
But also you want to be able to communicate that to people so they can decide early on, does this make sense for me or not? When you’re able to explain expectations clearly, it helps you better explain what’s needed and connect with the right people to support your program.
Your volunteer opportunities are not for everybody. There’s no such thing as a volunteer opportunity that’s right for everybody. So you want to make sure that you’re communicating to people that it, for whom this opportunity makes.
You also finally want to make sure that you have multiple ways to meet those volunteers needs. So especially needs for availability. Volunteers in today’s world have very specific criteria for their volunteering.
They’re busy people. It’s been a difficult time. Through the pandemic, people are setting boundaries in forward thinking or assertive ways in their lives, and we’ve gotta respect that.
You know, it’s been a rough time for people and they’re trying to heal, and in order to heal, they need to set clear boundaries about what they’re going to get involved in and what they’re not.
So think about ways to add flexibility for people who have limited time, like job sharing between volunteers, setting up volunteer teams rather than individuals being responsible for tasks.
Separating your tasks out, chunking them out, so a volunteer is only responsible for a part of the picture versus the whole picture. Encouraging remote work or partially remote, or other ways that volunteer can get involved in ways that doesn’t overtake their schedule.
You’ve gotta realize that in today’s world, people are highly sensitive to how they spend their time. They’re much, I think, more choosy than they were in the past.
And you know, so we’ve gotta not only have a compelling message about why it’s important to support your organization, but we also need to offer opportunities that work with their lifestyles.
So sometimes that means a re-engineering on the backend at our organization. No one says that your current volunteer opportunities, the way that they’ve been developed, is the only way to do them.
You know, people may think that, but I encourage you to challenge that limited thinking because if you get creative, there are plenty of ways to reach a goal, right? Plenty of ways.
Even you’re saying, well, we do one-on-one mantra mentoring with kids. There’s only one way to do that. Actually, there’s lots of ways to do that, right? So a youth could be involved with a team of mentors, for example, versus just one-on-one.
Plenty of creativity there if you allow yourself and challenge yourself to get creative. So also, if you think about remote volunteering, that offers up flexibility of time and space, which really helps people.
And if you want to know more about how to do remote volunteering, check out Volunteer Nation episode 20, how to Design Irresistible Online Volunteer Opportunities. And you can learn more about how to set up these things to work well for both your organization, but also the volunteers that you partner with.
So those are my five reasons why volunteer recruitment isn’t working. Reason number one, you haven’t spread the word past your inner circle. Reason number two, your message isn’t compelling enough.
Reason number three, your call to action is too vague. Reason number four, your application process isn’t consumer friendly, and reason five, you don’t tailor your opportunities to accommodate volunteer motivations and preferences.
So I know this is maybe difficult news to hear. You may assess yourself with these five things and realize, wow, we’re doing all of these things. We’ve got to change.
Or you might identify just one or two you want to tackle first or are the only ones where you’re challenged. But I encourage you to really take a good hard look at your volunteer recruitment practices.
The reason your volunteer recruitment isn’t working isn’t because there aren’t people out there who want to help. It’s a matter of tweaking and optimizing and improving all of the ways we communicate and build audiences.
That is what it’s about. So you’ve got to take a step back and think to yourself, what can I do differently to get a better or different result? And I guarantee if you really nail one of these, you’re going to start to see results happen.
All right, so last thing I want to mention is we have this fantastic free e-course, Better Volunteer Recruitment in 6 Easy Steps where you’ll learn how to cut through the clutter and connect with enthusiastic supporters.
It’s a fun course. I wrote it a few years ago. Here’s what you can expect from that mini course. You’ll get a clear explanation of volunteer recruitment steps broken down into six steps, delivered through seven emails every few days, so it’s just an email delivered course.
And with each step, you’ll get a helpful, downloadable tool to take action towards better volunteer recruitment. So it’s super easy, super fun, and will give you actionable steps to take right away.
So if you’re interested in getting involved with that course, it’s super easy. Once you sign up, you start getting your emails, you can go to volpro.net/freebie-volunteer-recruitment-strategies-ecourse. So volpro.net/freebie-volunteer-recruitment-strategies-ecourse.
A long title, and if you can’t remember it, no big deal. Just go to the show notes for this episode on TobiJohnson.com. This episode is episode 42, Why Your Volunteer Recruitment Isn’t Working, and you can click on that and go straight to that page and sign up for the course.
So I hope that course helps you. I hope that this episode has helped you just get a sense of some areas you might want to focus your time and energy. I know you’re busy people.
And so what we try to do here is give you some strategies that you can get quick wins with, and these are some of the top ones that I see people, mistakes people make over and over and over again.
And once they’re fixed, you start seeing better results. So I hope this works for, you’d love to hear how it does hit us up on social at volpronet, VOLPROnet.
And if you like this episode and think it would be helpful to a colleague, would you share it with them? Also, rate and review. The more you rate, and we hope a five star rating, in your podcast app, the more likely we’re going to show up for folks who are looking for similar types of information.
And we want to build an audience that we can help serve and help improve and even revolutionize the way we engage volunteers. So take care everybody. We will see you next week, same time, same place here on the Volunteer Nation.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause.
For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. We’ll see you next week for another installment of Volunteer Nation.