Find Out Why Your Volunteer Recruitment Numbers Are Down
by Thomas W. McKee
When the number of our volunteers declines, all kinds of fingers get pointed. Most people blame it on the fact that people are too busy, when, in fact, busyness has little or nothing to do with it.
Here are some possible strategic factors to look at:
1. The mission and brand of your organization is losing impact.
If your volunteers have begun to quit, it may mean your mission is losing its appeal. How long has it been since you revisited your mission statement? Do you have a brand that is appealing?
A brand is what identifies and attracts volunteers to your organization or event. Girl Scouts have a brand. Habitat for Humanity has a brand. However, your brand does not need to be national or international. In fact, often a local brand is the most powerful. Three pizza stores that stand side by side put out signs. One sign reads, "Best Pizza in the state." The second one reads, "Best Pizza in the Nation." But the third one reads, "Best Pizza on the block." Where would you eat?
2. Other organizations with a similar mission are undercutting you and trying to steal your volunteers.
If your volunteers perceive little or no differentiation between your organization and other organizations with a similar mission, you have a problem. We don’t like to use the word competition, but in essence we are competing for the same volunteers who have a passion for your cause. Ask yourself, “How are we unique?” “Why should the volunteer work for us instead of them?”
3. Your volunteer managers are being outdone by other volunteer managers from other organizations.
If volunteer managers are losing because they’re not strong enough to recruit the 21st century volunteer, that can be remedied by enhancing the volunteer manager’s skills. Yet too often we expect the volunteer manager to keep up with changing demographics without any updated training or skill development.
If your budget is limited, you can update your skill development by copying our articles or archived e-zines and passing them out to your volunteer recruiters for discussion and training. However, money spent on great training for volunteer managers is money well spent. How long has it been since you have provided training for your volunteer recruiters?
4. Your hours of volunteer service are not in sync with your volunteers’ availability for service.
The two hottest groups for recruiting today are the Baby Boomers (who are empty nesters and entering the retirement years) and the Millennials (late teens and yearly 20s). But they expect to volunteer when it is convenient for them. Flexibility is the name of the game for the new volunteers.
5. It’s not as easy to volunteer in your organization as it used to be.
If you’re losing volunteers because you are difficult to contact, not internet savvy, and still in the 20th century, it’s possible that someone else has made it easier to communicate and work with them than you are.
6. You are not responsive enough to your volunteers.
Are you being out-hustled? This usually happens to people who have been in the volunteer management organization for years. I think of the words of Tom Hanks in that movie, “A League of Their Own,” when he was yelling at his all-women baseball team, “This is not supposed to be easy. This is supposed to be hard. If it were easy, anyone could do it. But it is in the hard that will make us great.” It is too easy to become lazy just because we have been successful.
It is “the hard” that forces us to be better. It is “the hard” makes us great. Accept the challenge.
7. Your organization may be in decline and, even though there are volunteers for you to recruit, there are just not as many as there were five years ago.
What has happened to your organization in the last few years? Has your membership grown, stayed the same or declined? If there’s been a decline, that means you have to work harder to find volunteers.
How you can do a self-audit of your organization.
Call your members and your volunteers and listen to them. They have the answers. Once you have assembled as many answers as you can, take action. Continue to get feedback until you begin to see the trend reversing. When it does, throw a huge party for your volunteers to reward them for rewarding you.
Learn more about how to restore the power and passion of the 21st century volunteer by contacting Tom McKee, president of Volunteer Power, (916) 987-0359.
Click here to find out how.
© 2008 Volunteer Power