Recruitment

Do we need another study on volunteer motives? Michael Callow’s work (published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing) argues that we do and that there is value in looking at volunteering among retirees. Too often, says Callow, we categorise types of volunteers into broad groups, with ‘older volunteers’ put into a category that merely allows them to be contrasted with other groups. This, however, leads to assumptions that all older volunteers come with the same motives and aspirations for their involvement.

While I think that Callow may not have considered all the many and varied studies into older peoples’ participation, there is some truth in what he says. As a result, this piece of research is an interesting contribution to thinking, especially as it comes from the perspective of an assistant professor of marketing, not from someone who focuses exclusively on volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers to be the leaders or presidents of their organizations can be a daunting task.  Once there, these leaders take on the role with varying levels of effectiveness.  Given their brief leadership reigns and the unusual circumstances bringing them to the position in the first place, it’s no wonder their success can be haphazard.  Though they may have minimal leadership experience, they are expected to be passionate promoters of their cause, highly visible organizational members, fundraisers extraordinaire, brilliant organizers, and empathetic and encouraging managers.  The volunteers who take on leadership of these organizations must be skilled in working not only with volunteers, but also with paid staff and the general community as well.  This article highlights the need for recognizing the various populations with whom a non-paid leader will interact and offers some advice on making the most of those relationships.

It is often said that volunteering is a great way to test-drive a career.  But that premise is only as good as the opportunities we make available to volunteers.  And with an increasing number of thirty- and forty-somethings expressing disaffection with their present careers, it is no longer only young people who could use volunteering opportunities to help them change track. Fraser Dyer first outlines the factors that cause career disaffection in workers today and then looks at what agencies will need to think about to attract this potential source of volunteer recruits.  What does the not-for-profit sector have to offer career-changers anyway?  And is your volunteer program up to the job of becoming a shop window for the next generation of employees?

This article was compiled with the help of several YouthNet staff members. Special thanks to Tom Green, Fiona Battle, and Lucja Wisniewska.

YouthNet, the first “exclusively online charity,” was started in the UK to be a trusted source of information for all young people, supporting and enabling them to make educated life choices, participate in society and achieve their ambitions. Every month over 350,000 young adults regularly visit and use YouthNet’s TheSite.org, packed with useful, unbiased information and advice that 16-24 year-olds can trust. YouthNet also created and runs do-it.org.uk, the National Volunteering Database, which enables more than 100,000 people a month to find volunteering opportunities UK-wide.

So who could be in a better position to survey young people’s attitudes about volunteering and find out what volunteer recruitment approaches work and don’t with this age group? This article presents the process and findings of YouthNet’s creative, upbeat methodology, as well as the new recruitment campaign that resulted. It also shares more general data from the wider survey of volunteering in the UK.

When the 1997 National Survey for Volunteering in the UK was published, it appeared to show that young peoples’ regard and enthusiasm for volunteering was in decline. Responding to this, the Institute for Volunteering Research produced the report ‘What Young People Want from Volunteering’ (a summary can be obtained at http://www.ivr.org.uk/youngresearch.htm), based on qualitative research with groups of young people. This research resulted in a ‘wish-list’ for volunteering: ‘Flexivol’ summarises the essential requirements of 16-24 year olds, and serves as an acronym for the most important elements young people want in a volunteer assignment.

Read about ‘Flexivol’ and the report’s findings in this review.

This issue of Along the Web highlights various volunteer recruitment campaigns utilizing print, radio, and television public service announcements (PSAs). We thought you’d like to see what your competition is doing and plan accordingly. The examples here are mainly from the US , with some Canadian and UK sites, too. New campaigns are springing up all over the globe, so please share what you consider to be really good (or fun) volunteer recruitment approaches shown at sites you’ve found.

We’ve divided this into:

• sites where you can download or view actual PSAs
• resource materials on producing or marketing PSAs to media outlets