Search

Who do you want to recruit?

A clear, targeted recruitment plan is essential to any volunteering campaign.

The first questions to consider when making your plan are:

  • Who is it that you want to recruit?
  • Why do you want to recruit volunteers?
  • What skills do you want your volunteers to have?
  • What do you think your potential volunteers will want from a volunteering experience?
  • Who will look after new volunteers and deal with any enquiries?

Starting from scratch

Whoever you want to recruit, you'll need to think about creating volunteer opportunities that will work for them.

Consider the amount of time your target volunteers will have to give you and what kinds of activities are likely to appeal to them.

Some good guides to help you:

You need to tailor opportunities for those you want to recruit and in turn, you'll need to tailor your recruitment campaign for them too. Read more on this in Aiming your campaign at your audience (market research).

What makes someone volunteer?

  • A personal invitation from a friend or colleague.
  • A personal connection to the organisation or cause.
  • A local problem they want to help solve.

On the whole people don't volunteer simply for the sake of volunteering. They usually have a clear idea of what they'd like to be involved in or want to be given a strong reason to volunteer. Your recruitment campaign needs to give people that strong reason to get involved.

A 2007 Cabinet Office survey found that 53% volunteer "to improve things or help people". 41% because "the cause was important". 41% "because they had spare time". Read the full report Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving. Have a look at the Samaritans volunteers campaign based around research into what people do with their spare time.

Following the Year of the Volunteer 2005 a Home Office review found that volunteers fell into four types:

  • Those who have "volunteering in their DNA"
  • Those who've been "affected by a life event"
  • Those who were in the "right place at the right time"
  • Those who see volunteering "as part of their personal development"

As the report stated, "The first two volunteered for reasons of altruism and the second two for reasons of self-interest". Read more in Home Office: Year of the Volunteer review.

Volunteering England Information Team can also provide a good round-up of the latest research and national volunteering statistics.

Targeting young people

Read a summary of the Institute for Volunteering Research's 2004 report Generation V: Young People Speak Out on Volunteering. You may be interested in seeing the full Russell Commission Report too.

Also have a look at the Media Trust's guide to how to communicate and market to young people, Communication for the next generation.

Have a look at Junction49, an online project aimed at getting young people involved in their communities.

Recruiting people with disabilities

Only 6% of volunteers in the UK are disabled people. Read the Disability Rights Commission's Guidance for organisations on the recruiting, retaining and development of disabled volunteers.

Also have a look at the toolkits and guides on Goldstar: Promoting good practice for volunteers from socially excluded groups.

Scope has also produced their own survey, Time to get equal in volunteering: tackling disablism.

Recruiting older people

Age Concern Newcastle produced a report in 2006, Volunteering, self help and citizenship in later life. The report found that more than half of older volunteers said "putting their spare time to good use was the main reason for volunteering". Interest in volunteering increases during times of family transition (particularly amongst women) - when children leave home or bereavement. The most typical way older people became volunteers was via word-of-mouth and friendship with people who already volunteer.

VITA (Volunteering in the Third Age) have produced a useful guide, How to recruit and retain older volunteers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation also produced a report about Volunteering in retirement.

Institute for Volunteering Research also have information on Age discrimination and volunteering. IVR have also produced a book Involving older volunteers: a good practice guide (£5.00).

Recruiting from BME Communities

Institute for Volunteering Research produced a large piece of research, Volunteering for all? Exploring the link between volunteering and social exclusion. The report highlights the barriers to volunteering faced by BME groups.

VITA has also produced a toolkit for involving older BME volunteers.

The Cabinet office report, Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving, found that followers of religions were more likely to volunteer.

The Guardian featured an article (Black people 'overlooked as volunteers') about a TimeBank campaign which aimed to promote volunteering amongst black people and those from ethnic minorities.

nfpSynergy are also launching The Ethnic Minorities Charity Engagement Monitor which will report twice a year on the attitudes of people from ethnic minorities to charities, their campaigns and their services.

Have a look at the Home-Start campaign aimed at recruiting parents from BME communities in Birmingham and the Get on Board campaign.

Reaching the unemployed

Volunteering can help bridge the gap between unemployment and paid work. Unemployed people are likely to want voluntary work that will give them the opportunity to gain new skills and experience that will help them to find employment.

The Wildlife Trust ran a variety of recruitment projects, including one focused on getting the long term unemployed involved in voluntary work. Read their report, Unlocking the Potential?, produced by the Institute for Volunteering Research.

Also have a look at the toolkits and guides on Goldstar: Promoting good practice for volunteers from socially excluded groups.

Reaching professionals/ skilled volunteers

Those aged 34 - 44 and 55 - 64 and the employed are more likely to volunteer than other social groups. Read more in the Cabinet office report, Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving.

Professionals tend to respond to flexible volunteering opportunities, which they are able to juggle alongside their work commitments. Time Together provides a mentoring scheme which has proved particularly popular with professionals. Have a look at how the Get on Board campaign successfully recruited skilled professionals.

Reaching women/ men only

Research has shown that women are more likely to volunteer. Have a look at the details in the Citizenship Survey 2005: Active communities topic report, produced by Department for Communities and Local Government. There are also more details in the Cabinet office report, Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving.

See how Victim Support Greater Manchester created a campaign, focused on recruiting male volunteers. Home-Start's campaign was aimed at mums only.

 

Next article in this section... Using the word volunteer.