Overcoming Unseen Barriers: How to Authentically Engage Diverse Volunteer Audiences

As Volunteer Engagement Managers, we are in the business of recruiting outsiders and engaging them to their full potential. Though it’s difficult for us to admit, fundamental tenets of our approaches often introduce bias to framing opportunities, defining the audiences we intend to reach, presenting opportunities and coordinating participation in them; this often distorts the definition of our true, reachable audiences while complicating and obscuring our volunteer opportunities from the individuals who might be best suited to participate. To understand how to systematically reduce bias in our engagement lifecycles, this Ahead of the Curve by Sam Fankuchen shows how we can revisit our concept of identity through a close analysis of demographic metrics known as  “DEI” or “DEIB” – diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.