How to get volunteers at short notice

 

Volunteers are vital to the smooth running of charities. But sometimes they may not be available to help at the last minute. Failing to turn up may be through illness or other commitments. As they are giving up their time for free, paid work and family commitments may take priority sometimes.

 

Dealing with last minute changes to volunteer rotas can be frustrating for charities, especially when a lot of management time has gone into supporting them.

 

But there are several resources available to help charities in these circumstances to swiftly recruit volunteer workers. Here we look at some of support available to help charities recruit volunteers at the eleventh hour.

 

 

AdvertIse online

 

Online volunteer recruitment and promotion sites are a great resource for charities looking to book a volunteer’s time in a hurry.

 

Increasingly recruiting volunteers online is the main way of enlisting their support. This is especially the case following the pandemic, with more people online.

 

A useful online resource is Reach Volunteering’s recruitment hub for volunteers. At the time of writing this had almost 2,000 opportunities available, ranging from long-term projects to appeals for people to help quickly and give up whatever time they can spare.

 

For volunteers needed further afield, a number of global conservation projects are using The Great Project’s ‘last-minute volunteering projects’ hub to advertise spaces on upcoming trips. At the time of writing this included charity conservation trips to Southern Africa to protect elephants and rhinos.

 

 

Be flexible

 

Increasing focus on online recruitment also coincides with flexible and hybrid working arrangements being increasingly in demand among volunteers, as well as among charities staff.

 

A focus on offering flexible volunteering options makes it easier to swiftly recruit remote volunteers, who do not need to consider travel time as they can carry out the work for the charity from their own home and in their own time.

 

Such flexibility also reduces the risk that a volunteer will not be available for work, as they can carry it out in a way that better suits their lifestyle.

 

Sector bodies NCVO and ACEVO are currently urging charities to ensure that all roles are advertising as being flexible. Although primarily focused on paid roles, this call should also apply to volunteering positions.

 

NCVO and ACEVO want to make flexible working “the default position for employment in the sector” adding that it is “vital to attracting and retaining the most talented people and essential for building inclusion, diversity, equity, and wellbeing”.

 

Flexible volunteering arrangement could include home working, hybrid arrangements where volunteers work remotely, and in-office work, as well as shorter weeks, earlier starts, and later finishes for shifts.

 

 

Engage with supporters

 

Supporters can often escalate their support by donating their time for free and becoming volunteers. According to latest figures, more than half (53%) of charity supporters on social media also volunteer.  This group of stakeholders are therefore a great source of volunteers, particularly at short notice.

 

If volunteers are needed quickly consider a social media campaign targeting supporters asking for their urgent help. Text and email campaigns should also be considered, but a social media post can be more eye catching and seen faster by supporters.

 

Spending time developing a strategy to turn supporters into volunteers will pay off in the long run and help recruit help quickly.

 

Charities should develop an email outreach strategy to offer more information of the benefits of volunteering.

 

Posting a message for help in multiple places, across social media, email and text also helps. But charities need to be aware that messaging will need to be tweaked across social media platforms and their distinct audiences.

 

For example, Instagram may be good to target young volunteers, while LinkedIn will target professionals who may be able to spare time to support good causes.

 

 

Improve management of volunteers

 

Another successful way of being able to deploy volunteers at short notice is to use digital volunteer management systems. These can help assess the availability of volunteers needed at short notice and help better match volunteers with work.

 

Management tools include Time Counts, an app that has a free version that can be scaled up. Among features is advertising volunteer opportunities, online recruitment forms, creating volunteer profiles and scheduling work.

 

Another tool is Volgistics, which has features to help charities manage volunteer teams at multiple locations. Other features include volunteer tracking and communicating with volunteers via text and email. Texting can be useful in sending quick pleas of urgent help.

 

Meanwhile, Volunteer Mark can be useful in helping charities recruit quickly for short term events. Up to three events can be created per month with this online tool, which also offer scheduling and tracking functions and is available as an app.