Engaging My Community. Getting and Keeping the Best Volunteers

Transcription

1 Engaging My Community Getting and Keeping the Best Volunteers

2 A Few Questions

3 The Difference Between These Pictures is Volunteers

4 When Recruiting Volunteers, The Brain is Important Decision-making can be divided into two processes: Rational, careful, slower thought process Emotional, empathetic, spontaneous thought process The emotional process is more powerful in motivating potential volunteers.

5 How to Motivate the Emotional Brain Convey the positive emotions of volunteering, not sad stories about what will happen if kids don t eat. Show potential volunteers how they will be a part of a team working together towards a common, fun goal. Use simple words and phrases that are easy for the brain to digest and avoid jargon or inside jokes. Use pictures and videos from your programs (not ClipArt or stock photos) to tell a compelling and exciting story. Keep telling volunteers about the benefits of volunteering throughout their service, not just at the beginning.

6 Direct Asks are Best There are lots of passive ways to recruit volunteers social media, blasts, posters but a personal, direct ask is the most effective way to recruit a volunteer. The best recruiters are last year s volunteers. The second-best recruiters are someone a potential volunteer knows and trusts. The least effective recruiter is a stranger.

7 Sources of Volunteers High School Service Clubs Church Groups Sports Teams Scout Troops Businesses Community Clubs Chambers of Commerce Neighborhood Associations

8 Utilizing Past Participants For programs which have a history, consider using past participants or volunteers directly from the community you hope to serve. Kids who see volunteers who can relate to them may be more likely to better engage in the program. If current participants see the opportunity to serve in the future, they may be better behaved now to protect that opportunity.

9 Onboarding Volunteers From the moment you first communicate with volunteers until the moment they stop volunteering, we re always training them. You don t need to give a volunteer a hundred hours of training for them to do a craft activity or to open ketchup packets.

10 Orienting Regular Volunteers For volunteers who are going to be with the program for the duration of the summer, a preseason meeting might be the best way to introduce them to the program.

11 Orienting Short-Term Volunteers One-time or short-term volunteers are great opportunities to recruit long-term volunteers, but they need to have a great experience while they re with you. Give them a short overview of the program and it s importance, a few must-know rules and requirements, and let them shadow a more experienced volunteer in a fun role.

12 What Orientations Do Provide a brief overview of the organization and the program Illustrate the role of volunteers Introduce the must-know rules & expectations Instruct on basic safety & risk management Offers an opportunity for new volunteers to meet the staff and experienced volunteers Show people where the bathrooms and water fountain are located What Orientations Don t Do Give a deep-dive history and philosophy of the program Go word for word through each volunteer job description Make volunteers feel like they re listening to the iphone Terms of Use agreement Overwhelm with too many new faces Show where the stapler is located

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14 Orientation Is Only One Part Before each program day, have a team huddle where volunteers and staff can introduce themselves, share updates, and inform everyone about changes or special activities. Include interesting facts or training tidbits in your scheduling reminders or newsletter. Don t let volunteers get pigeonholed, let them try new things so they can be more versatile!

15 A Note on Handouts When a problem arises or a volunteer has a question, he probably won t have the handouts within reach. How many of those info packets end up at the bottom of a pile never to be opened? Keep handouts quick, easy to read, and easy to mentally digest for future use.

16 Make New Friends But Keep the Old Find out a volunteer s motivation for joining your program, and celebrate it. Give back to the volunteers (and not just a t-shirt) offer skills development that helps them grow. Don t be afraid to give volunteers responsibility. Recognize and reward quality service.

17 When Next Year Comes Around Identify the volunteers who are doing great work for you this year, and use them as mentors for next year s new recruits. Remember an blast or form letter isn t enough to re-engage a lapsed volunteer. The best way to get them back is a personal contact.

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19 Four Things to Remember Use the emotional side of the brain to motivate new volunteers. A personal, direct ask from someone they know is the best way to get a new volunteer to commit. Give recruits a thorough but not dense volunteer orientation and continued education. Retain volunteers year over year so you don t have to re-recruit great help.

20 Contact Me Nick Linkenhoker (614)