How to attract volunteers

It can be hard to pin down the best practice for attracting volunteers. All charities are unique, and volunteer recruitment  is no different. On top of this, charities operate in a constantly changing cultural, economic, and environmental world, and our needs as organisations are changing with it. 

However, there are some considerations for volunteer recruitment that apply across the sector and can be resilient to change.  

To find out more, we explore Assemble’s report "Future-proof your volunteer recruitment and enhance the volunteer experience", which explores how charities can attract volunteers.

Click here to download the report

Champion both volunteer and organisational needs 

The first step of creating a successful volunteer recruitment journey, the report says, is knowing who you want to attract and why, including what impact you want them to have. Then you need to create communications that resonate well with them using written language, images, and showcasing the breadth of opportunities available. 

Ben Hughes, the Volunteering Systems Lead at Guide Dogs, recommends trying to understand what potential volunteers “really want to get out of volunteering and how they want to commit their time towards your cause”. This should be co-ordinated, he says, with efforts within the organisation to identify areas of the biggest impact. 

The report also reminds readers to align volunteer recruitment goals with that of the wider charity, identifying where there are gaps in skills and resources that volunteers could fill in the long- or short-term. This requires collaboration across teams. 

To achieve buy-in from all internal stakeholders, the report recommends demonstrating the opportunity for improvement, backing it up with insights, and not over-promising.  

Standardise all processes 

Keeping outdated processes could mean you’re missing out on the most impactful volunteers, the report states. 

Seeking clarity and standardisation in your volunteer recruitment processes is a good idea for streamlining your operations but will also help you mitigate risks of people finding gaps in your processes and exploiting them, Hughes reflects. 

This can include having a clear policy on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), vetting, and having a communication window after a person initially applies. 

Another helpful standardised process could  be tracking things like who is finding your opportunity and how many people are applying by using a Volunteer Management System. This can help you connect the right volunteer advert with the right people.  

Be clear from the outset 

Clearly communicating expectations to volunteers ensures that they will stay engaged throughout the recruitment and onboarding process, the report states. 

Elements that are worth bringing to light during recruitment include time commitment, how regularly the volunteer will be needed, tasks involved, and expected impact of their role. You should also be transparent around whether the role is remote or in-person, provide a clear definition of what their goal will be, and indicate how long the onboarding process will take. 

The report outlines how organisations can create clear communications by using a custom branded application form, tracking volunteer journeys to personalise messaging, sending notifications to confirm that the application has been received, and providing regular updates for how their application is progressing. It emphasises that online approaches can harness speed and momentum in the volunteer journey.