Section 2. Recruiting Volunteers

 

What does it mean to recruit volunteers for your organization?

Recruiting volunteers means inviting people to contribute their time, knowledge, skills, and experience freely to appropriate volunteer roles in your organization. Volunteer opportunities may be formal, with an application, role description, screening, training, and regular schedule, or informal, such as helping with a one-time community event.

Volunteer roles can last for a few hours, a particular project, a defined period, or an ongoing commitment. They may take place in person, remotely, or through a combination of the two.

Before recruiting, make sure the work is appropriate for volunteer service. Volunteers should not simply be used as unpaid replacements for employees or as a way to avoid paying for work that should be compensated. The organization's paid employees should also not be expected or pressured to perform their normal work as unpaid volunteers.

People volunteer for many different reasons, often more than one at the same time. For example:

• Someone invited them personally and explained why their contribution could matter.
• They care deeply about the organization's mission, the issues it addresses, or the community it works with.
• They have personal or lived experience related to the issue and want to contribute what they have learned.
• Their religious, ethical, civic, philosophical, or other commitments encourage them to contribute to their community.
• They find meaning or satisfaction in contributing to something they value.
• They want to contribute to a community, organization, or cause that has been important in their own lives.
• They have skills, knowledge, or experience they would like to use in a new setting.
• They want experience, training, or exposure to a field they are considering professionally.
• They enjoy the activity itself.
• They value the relationships and social connections that can develop through volunteering.
• They want to make a useful contribution and see the results of their work.

Volunteer recruitment is therefore not simply a sales process. It is a process of finding a good match between work that needs to be done and people whose interests, skills, availability, and motivations make that work meaningful and realistic for them.

Recruitment should accurately describe both the opportunities and the responsibilities involved. People who understand what they are agreeing to are more likely to enter the role with realistic expectations and decide whether it fits their lives.

Why might you recruit volunteers?

• To expand the organization's ability to carry out mission-related activities that are appropriate for volunteer participation
• To complement the work of paid staff without improperly replacing positions that should be compensated
• To involve more community members and broaden the perspectives, knowledge, relationships, and experience connected with the organization
• To increase awareness and understanding of the organization through meaningful community participation
• To contribute specialized skills or additional capacity to appropriate projects and activities
• To give people opportunities to act together toward a shared purpose
• To develop community leadership and create additional pathways for participation in the organization's work

Cost may be one consideration, but it should not be the main reason for turning a position into a volunteer role. If the organization has work that requires consistent employee-level responsibility, substantial control, or duties normally performed by paid staff, examine whether the appropriate solution is additional paid staffing rather than unpaid service.

When should you recruit volunteers?

Some organizations recruit throughout the year, while others recruit when particular opportunities become available. Recruitment may be especially useful when:

• You have an upcoming project, campaign, event, or activity with appropriate volunteer roles.
• You are expanding services or community engagement and have identified specific ways volunteers can contribute.
• Existing volunteer roles have become vacant or additional volunteers are needed to maintain a reasonable workload.
• You are conducting a broader volunteer recruitment campaign.
• A relevant community event, awareness period, or seasonal activity creates an appropriate opportunity to invite participation.
• You need people for clearly defined short-term activities, such as staffing an information table, supporting a community event, distributing materials, or assisting with a field trip.

If recruitment is being considered primarily because paid staff are overwhelmed or positions have been eliminated, first examine the workload. Some responsibilities may require additional paid staff rather than volunteers.

How to recruit volunteers: Some basic steps

Understand potential volunteers and the communities you hope to reach

Learn where potential volunteers already participate in community life and how people prefer to hear about opportunities. Relevant networks may include schools and universities, neighborhoods, businesses, faith communities, cultural organizations, professional associations, service organizations, youth groups, older-adult organizations, advocacy groups, community centers, online networks, and partner organizations.

Talk with current, former, and potential volunteers. Useful questions include:

• Why did they decide to volunteer?
• What makes the experience meaningful?
• How did they first learn about the opportunity?
• What scheduling, transportation, technology, language, accessibility, caregiving, or financial barriers affect participation?
• Which types of roles, levels of commitment, or ways of volunteering appeal to them?
• What might make them recommend the experience to someone else?

Demographic information may sometimes help an organization understand whether its volunteer opportunities are reaching a broad range of people, but collect it only when there is a clear reason for doing so. Explain why information is being collected, limit access to it, and protect it appropriately.

Plan and implement your recruitment strategy

Potential volunteers have many ways to use their time. Explain what is distinctive about your mission and the contribution the particular role can make without exaggerating the opportunity or pressuring people to join.

A recruitment strategy might include:

• Identifying the volunteer roles and skills currently needed
• Identifying communities, professional networks, geographic areas, or other groups that have not been reached effectively through existing recruitment
• Choosing communication channels and messages appropriate to each opportunity
• Identifying barriers that may prevent people from participating and deciding which can reasonably be reduced
• Implementing the strategy
• Evaluating the results and improving future recruitment

Finding volunteers

Use the channels most likely to reach people who may be interested in the particular opportunity. Depending on the community and role, possibilities include:

• The organization's website and volunteer page
• Volunteer-matching and civic-engagement platforms
• Social media and professional networking platforms
• Email newsletters and community mailing lists
• Current volunteers, staff, Board members, participants, and partner organizations
• Schools, colleges, universities, technical programs, and student organizations
• Neighborhood, cultural, faith, service, civic, and community organizations
• Professional associations or employer volunteer programs for roles requiring particular expertise
• Libraries, community centers, recreation centers, health organizations, workforce programs, and other community institutions
• Volunteer fairs, community events, presentations, and informational sessions
• Local newspapers, radio, television, bulletin boards, or other traditional media where they continue to reach the intended audience

Personal invitations can also be effective. A current volunteer, participant, staff member, community partner, or other trusted person may know someone whose interests fit a particular role.

Personal contact does not have to be face-to-face. Email, text, phone, video, social media, and other communication can all be appropriate. Use a method that respects the person's preferences and circumstances.

Make the request specific enough that the person understands what you are asking. If one role does not fit, you may mention another opportunity, but don't pressure people into volunteering when the time commitment, responsibilities, or activity do not work for them.

Helping potential volunteers decide whether to become active volunteers

Once someone expresses interest, help them understand the organization and role well enough to make an informed decision.

You might:

• Invite potential volunteers to meet relevant staff and volunteers and learn how the organization works.
• Where appropriate, allow them to observe a role, attend an informational session, or participate in a supervised introductory activity without exposing confidential information or creating safety concerns.
• Send clear written information explaining the mission, role, responsibilities, time commitment, training, supervision, and support available.
• Offer reasonable scheduling flexibility, remote or hybrid participation where the role allows it, or several levels of time commitment.
• Show that volunteer participation is taken seriously by providing clear role expectations, orientation, training, supervision, safety procedures, and reliable communication.

For recurring roles, the organization may use a volunteer agreement or acknowledgment that explains expectations, confidentiality, conduct, schedules, boundaries, supervision, and procedures for ending service. Avoid language that incorrectly promises employment, compensation, professional credentials, or other benefits the organization does not actually provide.

Volunteers should notify the appropriate coordinator or supervisor if they cannot meet a scheduled commitment. The organization should establish a process for finding coverage rather than automatically requiring individual volunteers to recruit replacements for themselves.

Other features that may make an opportunity worthwhile include:

• Meaningful training, certificates of completed training, references, or experience when those opportunities are genuinely available
• Matching volunteers with roles that use their interests and skills
• Giving volunteers choices among appropriate roles and inviting them to suggest ways they could contribute
• Initial and continuing training and supervision
• Opportunities for leadership or additional responsibility when a volunteer is interested and prepared
• Honest descriptions from current volunteers about their experiences
• Inclusive opportunities to build relationships with staff and other volunteers
• Appropriate appreciation and recognition
• Reimbursement of approved transportation, meals, supplies, or other volunteer-related expenses when the organization is able to provide it

If the organization provides stipends, substantial benefits, or other payments, determine whether those arrangements affect the person's legal status as a volunteer.

Building an inclusive volunteer program

A volunteer group that includes people with different experiences, skills, perspectives, identities, ages, geographic backgrounds, and relationships to the issue can broaden what an organization understands and strengthen its connections with the community.

Diversity alone does not guarantee community understanding. No volunteer should be expected to represent an entire race, ethnicity, language group, age group, neighborhood, disability community, faith, or other population simply because they share one characteristic with that group.

Inclusion depends not only on who is recruited but also on whether people can participate meaningfully once they arrive. Examine whether volunteer roles, meetings, screening, training, technology, schedules, transportation requirements, language, physical spaces, organizational culture, or participation costs create unnecessary barriers.

Reaching communities that are missing from your volunteer program

If some communities are not represented among volunteers, begin by asking why. The answer may involve limited outreach, lack of relationships, inaccessible opportunities, inconvenient schedules, language barriers, transportation, cost, technology, a history of exclusion, screening practices, or simply a lack of relevant volunteer roles.

Strategies may include:

• Build relationships with organizations and networks that already serve or are led by people you have not been reaching.
• Share volunteer stories through organizational communications, community media, social media, newsletters, or other channels, with the volunteer's permission.
• Provide translated information, interpretation, multilingual communication, or other language access when the people you hope to reach need it. Recruit volunteers with verified language skills when those skills are relevant to a role.
• Examine whether the organization's staff, leadership, policies, and culture demonstrate that people from different backgrounds will be respected and able to participate meaningfully.
• Make volunteer information, applications, meetings, training, facilities, digital platforms, and activities accessible.
• Offer family or intergenerational volunteer opportunities when they are appropriate to the work and can be provided safely.
• Consider transportation assistance, remote opportunities, flexible scheduling, meals, caregiving support, or reimbursement when these barriers would otherwise prevent participation.

Barriers to participation

Avoid assuming that barriers or attitudes can be predicted simply from a person's race, ethnicity, income, religion, age, disability, or other identity. Ask people directly, review participation data carefully, and build relationships with communities whose perspectives are missing.

Potential barriers may include:

• Volunteer information, applications, orientation, or training that is not available in languages participants can use effectively
• Transportation, caregiving, meals, supplies, unpaid time, or other costs associated with volunteering
• Screening processes that are unnecessarily intrusive, inconsistently applied, poorly explained, or disproportionate to the responsibilities of the role
• Volunteer opportunities that do not connect with the ways people already participate in mutual aid, civic life, faith communities, cultural organizations, schools, neighborhoods, or other community networks
• Physical spaces, digital platforms, communication methods, materials, or activities that are not accessible to people with disabilities
• Meeting or volunteer schedules that conflict with work, school, caregiving, transportation, religious observance, or other responsibilities
• Technology or internet requirements that some people cannot reasonably meet
• Organizational practices or past experiences that make people uncertain whether they will be welcomed, respected, or taken seriously

Screening requirements should be connected to the role and explained clearly. If background checks, driving-record checks, references, credentials, or other screening are necessary, use consistent procedures and explain why the information is needed and how it will be handled.

Accessibility should also be considered from the beginning rather than only when someone encounters a barrier. Depending on the organization and activity, legal accessibility requirements may apply in addition to the organization's broader responsibility to create meaningful opportunities for participation.

Evaluating your recruitment strategy

Don't judge recruitment only by the number of people who initially express interest. Consider what happens throughout the process.

Useful questions include:

• Which recruitment channels produced volunteers who matched the roles available?
• How many interested people completed applications, screening, orientation, and training?
• Where did people leave the process, and why?
• What barriers did potential volunteers report?
• Are some roles consistently difficult to fill because expectations, schedules, locations, or requirements are unrealistic?
• Are volunteers coming from a broad enough range of networks and communities for the organization's goals?
• Do new volunteers feel that recruitment accurately described the work?
• Are volunteers remaining involved for the period that the role reasonably requires?
• Are the people and communities affected by volunteer-supported activities satisfied with how volunteer involvement is working?

Use what you learn to improve role descriptions, outreach, screening, scheduling, accessibility, communication, orientation, and support.

In Summary

Recruiting volunteers is not simply a matter of finding people willing to work without pay. It is the process of connecting people who want to contribute with meaningful roles that support the organization's mission and are appropriate for volunteer service.

Strong recruitment begins with clear roles and realistic expectations. It uses communication channels that actually reach potential volunteers, invites participation without pressure, explains the work honestly, and considers the interests and circumstances of the people being recruited.

Inclusive recruitment also requires more than targeting particular demographic groups. Organizations should build relationships, broaden outreach, provide language and disability access, reduce unnecessary screening and participation barriers, offer flexibility where the work allows it, and make sure people who enter the organization are respected and able to contribute meaningfully.

Finally, evaluate recruitment as part of the full volunteer experience. The goal is not simply to collect names or fill a roster. It is to bring people into roles that fit their skills and interests, support them well, and make it possible for their contribution to benefit both the organization and the community.