You might have an incredible organization, but if you are looking into recruiting more help, that only goes so far if no one knows:

  • Who you are
  • What your mission or mission statement is, and
  • The work that you are doing to accomplish or fulfill that mission, inside and outside of your community

Sharing the positive impact that you are having on your community is one of the best ways that you can showcase the great work that you are doing.

Likewise, you will attract the high caliber volunteers that will help you push your organization onward and upward.

Pulling the right demographic and type of volunteer to your organization is going to be largely dependent on the message you are sending, the imagery that you are creating and the places that you are sharing.

Here are a few pointers that you can use for attracting your ideal volunteer to your organization.

1) Your Message

What kind of message are you sending with the work that you are doing?

How can you present that message so that it will resonate with your ideal volunteers?

For your message, we recommend taking an inventory of the work that you are doing and the experiences that you are creating with your organization.

Research other organizations that are like yours, in other areas, and take notes on what they are doing and how they are conveying their message.

The best way to create messages that resonate with your audience is to study what other organizations, with a similar volunteer demographic, are doing to reach their target volunteer audience.

2) Pictures

Do you have photos of the work that you are doing and the events that you are having?

Another way to spread the word about your organization is to capture the eyes of your ideal volunteer through imagery. If you have a repertoire of photographed content already, that’s awesome! We will get to leveraging that content shortly.

If you do not already have pictures that you can use for sharing and media, poll your volunteers to see if you have anyone with photography experience.

Get them to start taking photos of your organization and your people in action. A good mix of candid and posed shots are going to be great for future use.

3) Video

If millennials are the primary audience that you are trying to attract to your organization, then video is going to be one of the most critical tools that you have in your toolbox.

Millennials spend a lot of their time online, and the most widely shared type of online media is video. It’s estimated that in the next few years, as much as 80% or more of all media consumed online is going to be video.

This is another situation where you may want to pool the efforts of your team to see if anyone would mind lending their videography skills to help your organization.

Video Tools

You don’t need an expensive camera and a highly-technical video editor to create great video. Most of our smartphones have cameras that can shoot high-definition and 4k video, and that’s good enough for creating video content.

You don’t even need high-end editing software. There are tons of free programs that you can use on your computer or your smartphone to create gorgeous and captivating videos.

Once you have your video expert in place, start taking videos of your efforts out in the field. Get some video around your office as well so that you can show more of the personality of your organization.

4) Online Platforms

Once you start building the photo and video content of the impact that you are making in your community, it is time to start sharing that content. Much like we just mentioned, millennials spend a lot of their time online.

What online platforms and locations are your ideal volunteers spending the most time?

Great places to start are sharing your video and photo content to your

  • Facebook account
  • Twitter profile
  • Instagram account
  • YouTube Channel, and
  • Other social outlets where your ideal volunteer is spending their time

Always make sure that you are linking your content back to your website. Include a call to action so that you can get the contact information of your potential volunteers. Doing this will give them a way to get in touch with you immediately.

5) Where Else Does Your Ideal Volunteer Hang out?

You can create a lot of positive targeted exposure for your organization online. Consider other valuable places in your area where you can share your content and your message.

You now have all of this awesome photo and video content that you can use to show the impact that you are having in the community. Create some flyers, pamphlets handouts and physical, shareable materials that you can take to handout or post in your community.

Physical locations for posting flyers or setting up a table where you can recruit volunteers are also critical when it comes to recruiting.