How to Recruit & Retain Volunteers
03/04/2025
Recruiting volunteers is a critical task for any charity or not-for-profit organisation. Volunteers bring a range of skills, passion and ideas, all of which are needed in creating successful activities.
However, finding and keeping dedicated volunteers can be a challenge. This article gives tips on how to not only recruit but also keep your volunteers.
1. Define Your Volunteer Needs
Before starting the recruitment process, it is essential to clearly define your organisations’ volunteer needs. Things to think about when deciding on your needs are:
Roles and Responsibilities: Find the roles that need to be filled and outline the responsibilities expected within each role.
Skills and Qualifications: Decide the skills and qualifications needed for each role as this will help you target the right audience.
Time Commitment: Be clear about the time commitment expected from your volunteers, including the length and how frequent you expect them to be involved.
2. Create Volunteer Opportunities
To attract volunteers, you’ll need to create opportunities that are appealing and meaningful. Creating roles that allow volunteers to make a difference are more likely to make people feel their work is having a positive impact. Especially if there is the opportunity for volunteers to develop or learn new skills.
Make sure to offer flexibility for volunteers so they can work around their schedules and commitment. Although being flexible helps attract volunteers, set expectations early on how many hours you are expecting volunteers to commit each month.
3. Setting up a Recruitment Plan
A well-thought-out recruitment plan is needed for attracting the right volunteers. Your plan should cover the following areas:
Target Audience: Find the demographics and groups you want to reach. This could include students, retirees, professionals, or community groups.
Recruitment Channels: Figure out the best channels to reach your target audience. This could include social media, community centres, schools, universities, and corporate partnerships.
Messaging: Write clear but detailed messages that state the value of volunteering with your group. Highlight the impact of the work you do, and the benefits that volunteering brings to individuals and the community.
4. Using Online Platforms
The internet has many opportunities for recruiting volunteers. Tap into social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to announce your volunteer openings, sharing engaging stories, testimonials, and updates to attract potential volunteers.
Consider posting your opportunities on specialist volunteer recruitment websites such as Get volunteering, Idealist, and job site Indeed. Don’t forget to spend time developing your own organisation's website by creating a dedicated section that gives all the details on how people can get involved.
5. Engage with the Community
Building relationships within the community is a powerful way to recruit volunteers. Consider building partnerships with local businesses, schools, and other community organisations to spread the word of your volunteering opportunities.
Look to host events to show off the activities you do or attend other organisation’s events to raise awareness of your cause and attract volunteers. If you’re attending someone else’s event, try to get a speaking slot, where you can discuss the impact that your organisation has, as well as the opportunities and skills that you can offer volunteers.
If you’d prefer to do something online, look at hosting educational webinars or workshops that discuss how your organisation is achieving its goals and explain to your audience how they can get involved.
6. Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is one of the most effective recruitment tools. Encourage your current volunteers and supporters to spread the word about your group. Give them materials and information they can share with their networks and ask them to bring a friend along to your next meeting, so they can see first-hand what your organisation gets up to.
7. Offer Incentives and Recognition
Recognising and rewarding your volunteers can enhance recruitment efforts. If you don’t already, think about providing incentives to your volunteers such as certificates, letters of recommendation or small tokens of appreciation for the hard work they do.
Making public recognitions are also a great way to not only highlight the work that your organisation does, but the fabulous job your volunteers do to help spread your cause. Celebrating achievements and milestones on social media and/or through newsletters can really highlight the appreciation you have for your volunteers.
8. Positive Volunteer Experiences
Creating a positive volunteer experience is vital for keeping volunteers and attracting new ones. Make sure to hold a detailed training and learning experience to help prepare and develop volunteers for their roles. Offer support and supervision (if needed) to help make the volunteer feel valued and support in their role. Make sure to take time for the new recruits on a 1:1 basis to check in on their welfare as they may be less open to discussing their concerns or how they’re doing within a group.
Create a safe space for all forms of feedback and follow up on any suggestions for improvement so volunteers can see their being listened to, and for you to show that you listen.
9. Follow Up and Stay Connected
After recruiting volunteers, it’s important to keep communication going and build relationships. Hold regular updates to keep volunteers informed about your activities how you’re progressing with your cause. Make sure you also keep them updated on upcoming opportunities. This could also be a good opportunity to again, be open to feedback from your volunteers.
Stay engaged with your volunteers through newsletters, social media posts and events. Encourage them to share their involvement in your organisation and discuss their experiences.
10. Evaluate and Improve
Regularly check your recruitment efforts and make improvements when needed. Collect feedback from volunteers and analyse the effectiveness of your recruitment strategies. Use this information to tailor your approach and make sure you’re meeting the needs of both your organisation and volunteers.
Conclusion
Recruiting volunteers for a charity needs a thoughtful and detailed approach. By following these steps, you can successfully attract and keep dedicated volunteers who will help your organisation meet its goal. Volunteers are the lifeline of charities and not-for-profit organisations and with the right strategies, you can build a strong and committed team.
Village Halls Week 2025
Additionally, #VillageHallsWeek 2025 theme is ‘celebrating and supporting volunteers’. This campaign is scheduled for March 17 – 23, 2025, offering an excellent opportunity to recognise your volunteer efforts.
See what else you could do for your volunteers in the rest of the Celebrating Volunteers mini series:
