This resource was developed by Sarah Jane Rehnborg, PhD. and Betsy Clubine with a team of volunteer professionals from around the state of Texas as a project for the Charles A. Dana Center at U.T. Austin. For more information please contact Dr. Rehnborg at the RGK Center.
Volunteer recruitment is one of the most commonly cited issues of concern by volunteer managers today. Increased demand for volunteers within nonprofit, for-profit, public sector, faith-based and membership groups coupled with changes in the nature of the volunteer workforce have combined to make volunteer recruitment a challenge. Fortunately, a wealth of resources is available to help with the design of an effective volunteer recruitment plan. Many excellent books, articles and tool kits have been written on the topic and professional organizations of volunteer managers (such as DOVIAs) provide opportunities for the sharing of recruitment strategies. The purpose of this guide is to point you to many of these resources and to share with you the practice wisdom of volunteer managers from a wide variety of service settings.
A team of experienced volunteer professionals from around the state of Texas has been instrumental in the development of the materials that follow. In 1997, TxServe and the Texas Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service convened a task force of State Agency Directors of Volunteer and Community Initiatives. From this task force, an action team was formed to explore the challenges of volunteer recruitment and ways to attract volunteers. Team members shared bibliographic resources, volunteer recruitment materials and strategies, and examples of successful volunteer initiatives.
Most of the materials included in this guide were contributed by team members and their agencies, including excerpts from the volunteer management handbooks of several state agencies such as:
In many ways, this resource on volunteer recruitment is a work in progress - it just begins to mention some of the many topics, strategies and trends in volunteer recruitment today. Critical feedback on the materials presented thus far, stories about successful and not-so-successful recruitment efforts and other recruitment resources are welcome. Modifications and improvements will be made through continued input from the field.
Every two years, the Independent Sector produces a comprehensive profile on patterns of giving and volunteering in the United States. It is one of the most widely recognized sources of information on national trends in service and provides a wealth of information about what motivates people to give of time and money. To date, five reports have been published (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1996). The 1996 survey was designed to answer the following key questions and concerns of the field:
Findings reported in the 1996 publication include:
The next update of Giving and Volunteering will be available in 1999. For more information, contact
Independent SectorIndependent Sector is a coalition of voluntary organizations, foundations and corporate giving programs that encourages philanthropy, volunteering, not-for-profit initiative and citizen action. IS provides information, education, advocacy, research and publications.
1200 Eighteenth Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
202-467-6100
888-860-8118 (toll-free to order publications)
www.IndependentSector.org
Recruitment is a constant, year-round process of keeping your organization's name and its available volunteer opportunities in front of people.
Ellis, Susan J. The Volunteer Recruitment Book Philadelphia: Energize, 1994, p. 102.
Recruitment is the ongoing process of securing individuals to do the assignments that you have identified for volunteers within your agency or organization. These assignments can be
For many people, the distinction between public relations, marketing and recruitment is unclear.
Public relations is the art of helping the public to understand what your organization does and encouraging the public to regard your efforts positively. It is designed to influence as large a segment of the public as possible at any one time with the message you have selected to share.
Marketing involves determining the needs of select or target audiences and then designing goods, services and opportunities that respond to those needs. "It relies heavily on designing the organization's offering in terms of the target markets' needs and desires, and on using effective pricing, communication, and distribution to inform, motivate, and service the markets" (Kotler 1975, p. 5.)
Recruitment is the act of identifying groups and individuals for service, and then actually asking them to volunteer.
While public relations, marketing and recruitment are not synonymous, they do support each other and benefit the overall mission of your organization. When the public knows the name and service provided by your organization, people are more likely to remember your organization when they think about serving. When employed properly, marketing strategies can help target your recruitment campaign to the people who are most likely to say "Yes!"
Look around before you leap! There's a lot you need to know about your organization and a lot of groundwork to be laid before you are ready to begin the recruitment process. Among other things, you need to
Before going out into the community to recruit volunteers:
How have volunteers been used in the past? Which programs were successful and which were not? With what groups has your organization collaborated? What was the outcome? Which staff members have been involved with the organization's volunteer program? How did they feel about that experience? How have volunteers felt about their experiences with the organization? Have volunteer evaluations been consistent over time?
What sort of publicity - good or bad - has your organization or its cause received that might impact your recruitment effort? Understand the issues involved and be prepared to provide an informed and constructive response.
Can you speak knowledgeably about your organization's mission and/or cause? Do you feel comfortable talking about the organization's programs and initiatives and how they help to accomplish the organization's mission? Can you articulate how volunteers and the work they will be/are performing contributes to the organization's mission?
Are there clear boundaries and chains of command? Is the workplace open and friendly to newcomers, volunteers and visitors? Does the organization value process, product or a combination of the two? Is the general office demeanor serious or is humor widely employed? Do staff members feel that their positions are stable or insecure? Would you recommend every office/team setting to friends that are interested in volunteering? Why or why not?
Your organization's culture greatly influences the type of volunteer positions you will develop, the type of individuals you recruit and the way volunteer supervision will be handled. If your organization is hierarchical, for example, you will want to recruit individuals who are comfortable following policies and procedures. If your organization is loosely organized and values entrepreneurial ideas, you will want to recruit individuals who are self-starters and comfortable working with less structure and supervision.
Is Your Workplace Hierarchical? Questions To Ask Yourself:
TIP: Listen for "I's" and "We's" and the use of names with tasks. This can help you to determine workplace boundaries and lines of responsibility.
Pre-Recruitment Checklist:
To ensure that the potential volunteer's first impression of your organization is positive, staff must be trained and a volunteer management system must be in place before any recruitment effort is made.
Interview and screening procedures, orientation and training plans, evaluation processes and record-keeping and risk-management systems must all be established prior to making your appeal. Similarly, your organization's staff needs to be trained and ready to work with volunteers.
Even when no specific recruiting has been done, your organization may receive inquiries from potential volunteers. Everyone in the office who receives calls from people who express an interest in volunteering should know who key volunteer management staff are and be prepared to transfer the call or forward a message. Never ask a volunteer to call back! By the same token, many of your organization's employees are in contact with potential volunteers every day. Make sure that they know about the range of service opportunities available throughout your organization and where to refer individuals who express an interest in volunteering.
Tips from the field:
Finding volunteers to meet your agency's or organization's needs requires careful thinking and planning before an appeal is made. Prior to actually going out and asking people to help, you must
A volunteer program that is well planned and executed and offers meaningful work lays the groundwork for successful recruitment.
Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services' Volunteer Manual, p.12
The volunteer manager - in concert with staff, board members and volunteers - helps clarify the work that needs to be done by volunteers to achieve the goals of the organization and then segments that work into components that reflect the reality of today's volunteer work force.
Almost any work that needs to be done to meet the objectives of your group, agency or organization can be done by volunteers. There is no rule that says that only certain assignments can be done by a volunteer! Remember, physicians regularly staff 'free' medical clinics and board members often provide professional services at no cost. If the person is qualified for the task and is interested and willing to perform the work without monetary compensation, then the task can be performed voluntarily.
Several strategies can be used to identify meaningful service opportunities in your organization or agency, including:
Advisory teams of employees and volunteers can be very helpful with the design of appropriate volunteer tasks and the integration of volunteers into the staff team.
The Arc of the Capital Area, for example, has an advisory team of staff, volunteers, and volunteer leaders from other organizations that discusses possibilities for volunteer service and recognition. In addition, the volunteer coordinator sits on several cross-agency planning teams. The planning results in broad descriptions of client, agency, community needs. From there, program leaders, in consultation with the volunteer coordinator, develop volunteer positions geared towards addressing specific needs.
Surveys can also be used to identify volunteer assignments that will help advance the goals of the organization. Here are some sample staff surveys that can be modified for use at your organization or agency:
Job Development Report,Texas Department of Health Volunteer Health Corps
This report is generally used with programs that the volunteer staff has never worked with or in areas of high staff turnover. It elicits information that is critical not only to task development but to volunteer matching and placement. Sometimes program staff members have a specific volunteer request but they haven't had the time to consider other ways that volunteers can support their goals and objectives. The Job Development Report helps the volunteer coordinator and the agency staff flesh-out new areas for volunteer involvement.
Request for Assistance, Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Volunteer Program
This form is sent out to all volunteer liaisons (3) times per year. The OAG asks liaisons to fill out the form even if they don't want any volunteers. This forces liaisons to think about what tasks they want a volunteer to do, instead of just saying "send me one and I'll find a position for them." It makes them consider what qualifications and skills the task really requires and how much time it will take.
NOAH stands for the Need Overlap Analysis in the Helping Process. Essentially Scheier advocates a process whereby staff members are each asked to identify the tasks that they perform on a regular basis. Next they are asked to identify a list of tasks that they wish they had time to perform. The lists are then analyzed to ferret out those pieces of work that the staff member either must perform or most enjoys doing. Items of work that remain on the list become starting points for a discussion about assignments that could be performed by volunteers.
In the final analysis, elements of enjoyment and challenges must be present in both staff and volunteer positions. Be sure that your discussions with staff don't lead only to volunteer assignments that are considered unfulfilling and/or menial. The same process can be used with clients and volunteers to identify additional service assignments.
This process is the basis for the discussion of "Creating Volunteer Jobs" in Essential Volunteer Management (1989) by volunteer management experts McCurley and Lynch.
It is very important to listen to the needs of your organization. Exciting new volunteer opportunities can emerge from informal conversations with colleagues, volunteers and customers. Here are a couple of tips from professionals in the field:
When designing volunteer positions to meet your organization's needs, its important to take into consideration the realities of today's volunteer workforce. Create a diverse portfolio of volunteer opportunities. Different pieces of work or types of service attract different types of people. Some volunteers are looking for positions that tap their creativity, present a challenge or provide the opportunity to learn new skills. Other individuals may want to support your cause, but need a break from the demands of their 'day' jobs. By identifying a range of positions requiring different skills, abilities, inclinations, backgrounds and levels of commitment, you can appeal to a wider array of potential volunteers.
Trends and groups to consider when designing service opportunities include:
In the past few decades, researchers and practitioners have recognized the demand among volunteers for short-term or episodic assignments. Episodic volunteer opportunities include both positions that are short in duration - with definite start and end dates - and positions that occur at regular intervals such as annual events. (MacDuff 1991, pp. 7-8) While some volunteer positions require a long-term commitment on the part of volunteers, many assignments can be successfully completed on a short-term basis. In addition to allowing time-crunched people to serve, short-term service opportunities "provide the volunteer with the opportunity to see how they like working with the agency, its staff and its clientele". (McCurley 1991, p. 10, full citation) Try breaking up a long-term commitment into several short-term placements that can build on one another.
Resources:
Increasingly, adults are looking for opportunities to perform meaningful volunteer work while spending time with their families and teaching them the value of service. When adapting an existing volunteer task for family volunteers, the Points of Light Foundation (POLF) suggests that you consider:
Family volunteering projects can involve children, parents, grandparents, foster parents, aunts, uncles and the extended family - or any combination thereof. When designing family volunteer programs for the first time, be sure to connect with local volunteer programs that already have a track record of successful family involvement.
Resources:
"About 25% of American Colleges and dozens of high schools have recently instituted volunteer work in the curriculum" (Brudney, 1990, p. 161). In addition, most institutions of higher education have offices that coordinate on-campus student organizations and activities, including service groups. Some tips for recruiting college volunteers and interns are:
Resources:
Many people are looking for volunteer opportunities that they can complete via their home or work computers and the Internet. Family commitments, personal time constraints, a disability and other factors can all make it difficult for individuals to volunteer their services. Virtual volunteering allows anyone to contribute time and expertise to not-for-profit organizations, schools, government offices, and other agencies that utilize volunteer services, without ever leaving his or her home or office.
Although still a relatively new trend, there are numerous examples of both technical assistance and direct service Virtual Volunteering. Here are just a few:
People with disabilities are an excellent yet often underutilized source of volunteer talent. 19.1% of the U.S. population has a disability and "of all people with disabilities, 66% are unemployed; 79% of them want to be engaged in meaningful work." (Taylor 1995, p. 15)
The Americans with Disabilities Act provides for full participation in and access to all aspects of society, including volunteering. Many reasonable accommodations can be made with little effort and expenditure. Other agencies and organizations can sometimes lend adaptive equipment for the use of a specific volunteer.
Texas statewide agencies and groups that might serve as resources in your outreach to persons with disabilities include:
Resources:
A volunteer position description outlines the work that needs to be done by the volunteer. An incredibly useful tool, the description forms the basis for your recruitment effort because it defines the assignment, skills, abilities and interests necessary to perform the task successfully. Although there are any number of ways to develop task assignments, the following items reflect key components of the assignment guide.
Notes:
An increasing number of organizations are recognizing the added value of volunteer involvement. Service programs are more sophisticated and volunteers are being regarded as customers to be satisfied, not just community persons to share the workload. As emphasized by Fischer and Cole,
[Volunteer Managers] need to satisfy the interests and needs of prospective volunteers, who, like discriminating consumers, can choose from a multitude of alternatives in the volunteer marketplace. Simply having a worthwhile cause and meaningful volunteer activities to offer are no longer sufficient.Source: Fisher, James C. and Katherine Cole. Leadership and Management of Volunteer Programs. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993, p. 81. To attract and hold volunteers, you need to determine what you have of value to exchange with the volunteer for time contributed. Specifically, you need to know:
the benefits of volunteering: why people serve and what they gain through volunteer service
the costs of volunteering: what the volunteer position requires of potential applicants (time and resources)
The inexperienced recruiter prints 5,000 brochures and then muses: "where can I distribute these?" The experienced - and more effective recruiter - first asks: "where might I find the right volunteers for each job" - and then selects the best technique to match each potential source.Susan Ellis, The Volunteer Recruitment Book,1994, p.1
Once you have clearly identified your organization's volunteer needs and have created position descriptions that take into account the costs and benefits for volunteers, you are ready to develop a recruitment plan. The process of developing a recruitment plan begins with close examination of the volunteer assignment(s) to be filled. For each assignment, ask yourself:
In general, your recruitment strategy - who you will ask to volunteer and how will you ask them - depends on the needs of the organization as specified in your volunteer position descriptions. When the assignment requires a specific commitment, a high level of expertise or an ability that is not commonly available, a targeted recruitment plan is best. When the assignment requires no special training or commitment and/or a lot of people, broad-based recruitment approaches can be used. Most directors of volunteers find it necessary to establish a recruitment strategy that combines these two approaches and provides multiple access or entry points.
Targeted RecruitmentTargeted recruitment is specific, focused, and addressed to the audience where you believe that you will be able to find people with the skills, interests and availability needed for the position. It requires you to analyze the position and define, as clearly as possible, the type of person you are seeking and the type of message that will motivate them to serve.
Broad-Based RecruitmentWhile targeted recruitment is good for identifying people to fill positions that require special training and specific abilities/characteristics, broad-based recruitment can be effective for positions that can easily be done with minimal training. It is particularly useful when you need a lot of people for a short-term term event such as a walk-a-thon or a fundraising event.
In a broad-based recruitment plan, the goal is to keep your organization's volunteer needs in the public eye through media campaigns, public-speaking engagements, the distribution of recruitment brochures, and other techniques geared towards the general public. Instead of targeting a particular market sector, broad-based recruitment or "undifferentiated marketing (generally) assumes that everyone is alike in their needs and motivations for volunteering." (Fisher and Cole, 1993, p. 88)
Broad-based recruitment strategies include:
What projects and fund-raisers are you involved with that might qualify as feature articles? Who is working with you that might be considered newsworthy? Public Service Announcements (PSAs), while they may generate only limited response, do keep your name and your cause visible. Present a clear and straight forward message and make sure that people are asked to volunteer.
Remember: any materials distributed to your target market (internal or external) are a reflection on the image of your program and your organization.
Brochures and flyers strategically placed in the community call attention to your efforts. But remember, often the only person who will pick up a brochure with the word "volunteer" on the front, is another director of volunteers or the person already working as a volunteer. Find other, more compelling ways to spark an interest in supporting your organization's work.
Be sure to register your volunteer opportunities with existing volunteer referral services in your community such as volunteer centers and university student volunteer centers. Your community library and city web site may also distribute listings of local volunteer opportunities. And don't forget about the Blue Pages!
Make it your business to know the service groups in your area: what they are interested in, when they meet and the type of programs they offer. Can you provide a program for one of their meetings and promote your service opportunities simultaneously? School fairs, chamber of commerce events and community group gatherings may be good places to have a display. Who are your community leaders? Networking with these individuals provides you with a support system to turn to for special projects and opportunities.
Best recruitment tool: word of mouth.
Things to Remember:
Take advantage of your existing network
When the volunteer manager begins to think about their community, their most common reference point is geographic - their city, neighborhood, county or region. It's easy to overlook the community most available to you and your organization - your organization's existing network of employees, clients, volunteers and community organizations. Think about your circle of influence beginning with your program, group or organization. What individuals are you in contact with on a regular basis during the course of a day? What groups do you regularly work with? By sharing your volunteer opportunities with these contacts, you may be surprised at the number of recruitment ideas and sources that emerge.
Another place to begin your recruitment effort is with your office building, your block, or area businesses and stores within walking distance of your office or volunteer project.1 Who are your neighbors? Do they know what your organization does? Do they share similar concerns with you? Would they be willing and interested in helping with your project? Even if they aren't interested in volunteering, a neighborhood store may be willing to make an in-kind donation to your program of food or parking space.
The primary reason people volunteer is because they are asked. So look around and ask!
Enter into collaborations and partnerships
Suggestions to consider include:
Community colleges frequently engage students in workforce re-entry training programs. Do your volunteer opportunities offer work-related skills that would be valuable to one of these programs? Colleges, high schools and youth groups often have internship and service-learning requirements. Maybe your group could offer a service placement. Be creative as you explore partnership options. Once established, these relationships can become long-term sources of volunteers. Some of these organizations even provide administrative support, coaches and volunteer supervision!
Community groups such as corporations, civic, church, or student groups often have existing methods of mobilizing and supervising volunteers. Involving them in one-time and ongoing projects can be an efficient way of meeting your volunteer needs. In addition, many large corporations have full-time community relations staff that will actively recruit volunteers from corporate employees. It is important to nurture your relationship with groups that provide volunteers. Know their timelines and their needs.
Work with another community group or organization to staff a volunteer recruitment booth. The collaboration will enable you to cover more territory and learn about other groups and organizations. To ensure the success of such collaborations, however, be sure to carefully outline expectations and duties.
Companies, small and large, want to be viewed favorably by the community. A local business may be willing to develop an advertisement that simultaneously promotes their service and your volunteer opportunities. They may also be willing to provide volunteer recognition gifts or food/supplies for volunteer initiatives. The sky is the limit with such joint ventures, but remember that some services and companies may bring "baggage" to the venture as well as possibilities.
Internal collaborations are often overlooked but highly valuable. Make it your business to learn where your executive director has been invited to speak and encourage him or her to mention your recruitment effort. Sending recruitment brochures to such events can yield substantial contacts. By the same token, if your agency has a public relations arm, explore ways that you can work together to gain visibility and community involvement.
The importance of:
Whether you are seeking volunteers to collect tickets at a major charitable event, or an accountant to audit the books of a fledgling grass-roots organization, it helps to have some ideas about where to look within your community for potential volunteers. The following lists are provided to help you begin to think about the wide range of individuals and groups that may want to support your efforts:
You can reach people with disabilities via many of these recruitment avenues. However, there are several ways that you can outreach specifically to volunteers with disabilities. Send your volunteer opportunities to:
Your recruitment message should be the same as it is for all volunteers, in that it should explicitly state that the organization is committed to placing individuals into the volunteer setting that best matches their interests with the needs of the organization.
Remember to ask each person that you interview how they learned of your program. Keep track of the information. It will help you focus your efforts in the area with the greatest return on your investment of time and money.
Don't forget to look for volunteers within your own organization or agency. Staff members and their families, current and former agency clients and other people already familiar with the work of your organization can be great volunteer prospects.
Don't forget about the Internet! Look into posting volunteer opportunities on your organization's Web site or on one of the many online resources designed to promote volunteerism.
Originally written for the Directors of Lay Ministry, the following pointers are applicable to volunteer recruitment in a wide variety of service settings. With permission from Leadership Training Network (LTN), they have been adapted for inclusion in this guide. To purchase the Starter Kit, contact LTN at 1-800-765-5323.
Source: The Starter Kit for Mobilizing Ministry, Leadership Training Network (Dallas, Texas), 1994, p. 2-83.
The following tips have been included here with permission of the authors.
Deliberately select the groups before whom you wish to speak. There are two types who are most helpful: those groups whose membership regularly participates in helping out in the community (Rotary, service clubs, etc.), and those groups whose membership as individuals are likely to have a common interest with your cause. Schedule these types of groups first.
In seeking entry to speak to the group, consider going through a group member. The member can serve as your authenticator to his/her peer group, paving your way to a more receptive audience. They can also make it more likely that you will be invited to speak. Many groups have program chair who is often desperate to find speakers.
Try to time your speaking to meet with the group's process and your needs. Find out what other projects the group is already committed to and time your talk to coincide with their need to develop a new project. Determine how much lead time they need and make sure that your request is not too precipitous for them to meet.
Pick your presenters carefully. Make sure the person who is speaking can explain what your agency does and exactly what is needed from the group. Consider sending a volunteer who can speak forcefully about the worth of the effort.
If possible, utilize a visual presentation, with slides, pictures, etc. to increase interest. If your presentation is boring, the group may assume that your jobs will be too.
Be prepared for people to offer their services. Take along brochures, examples of jobs for which they are needed, sign-up sheets, etc. If someone expresses interest, don't leave without their name and phone number and commit yourself to following up with them. Follow-up as quickly as possible.
Be prepared for too much success. You may need to have a back-up plan to handle the entire group wanting to volunteer together to help you out, not just a few individuals. If several group members decide to volunteer, you will need to consider ways in which they might work together while performing the volunteer work.
Remember that at some point during your presentation you should directly and unequivocally ask the audience to volunteer. Very few people will insist on volunteering for your program without being asked to do so.
Source: Vineyard, Sue, and Steve McCurley. 101 More Ideas for Volunteer Programs, Downers Grove, IL: Heritage Arts, 1995, p. 12.
Finding volunteers qualified to meet the needs of your group requires work. Once you've successfully secured a volunteer's support, it is important to ensure that the benefits of volunteering continue to outweigh the costs.
When volunteer initiatives are well managed and individuals are matched to service opportunities that are mutually beneficial to the organization and the volunteer, your recruitment job becomes much easier. Satisfied volunteers can be strong advocates for your organization's mission and persuasive partners on your volunteer recruitment team.
There are many ways to foster volunteer retention. Just as people are attracted to volunteer at your organization for a multitude of reasons - the cause or people being served, their religious beliefs, the recreational aspect of volunteering, and so forth - there are many reasons why they continue to serve. Oftentimes, these reasons are different than the ones that persuaded them to give of their time in the first place. For example, a 1983 study of volunteer firefighters by Pearce "found that these subjects stated that they joined the organization for predominately service reasons, but friendships and social interaction were more influential in their decision to remain with it" (cited in Brudney 1990, p. 162).
In the Fall of 1997, TxServe convened an action team of managers of volunteer initiatives at several Texas state agencies and nonprofit organizations to discuss volunteer recruitment. They shared the following successful retention strategies:
A Word of Caution: In an environment of down-sizing, staff may see volunteers in "high" or professional positions as a threat to their job-security. The topic of volunteer-staff relations is well handled in Building Staff/Volunteer Relations by Ivan H. Scheier.
The best incentives emerge from listening to volunteers. Not every volunteer or group of volunteers will be motivated by the same set of incentives. Ideas that work with one group or individual may not appeal to another. Jayne Cravens of UN Volunteers tells a story that illustrates this point beautifully:
An organization that recruits volunteers to help nonprofits and small community groups with technology issues such as building Web sites and networking their computers decided to host a recognition event. In addition to thanking volunteers for their time, the goal of the reception was to provide a forum where volunteers could network and socialize with each other. Out of 100 invitees, only 2 arrived.
What went wrong?
Because this particular group of volunteers was very technology-focused and performed much of their volunteer work at home, they weren't interested in attending what appeared to be primarily a networking event. A more successful approach might have been to present the gratitude of the Executive Director or the Board via the Internet - including information about how their work has benefited the organization. The sign of appreciation was appropriate but the networking angle of the event and the method of delivery were out of touch with the interests of the group!
At the same time that you are listening for ways to keep them coming back, be sure to listen for organizational barriers to continued volunteer involvement. Some of the reasons why volunteers leave are out of your control; others may speak to program management, organizational culture, or logistical issues that can be addressed. Just as positive word of mouth by volunteer supporters can enhance your recruitment efforts, negative word of mouth by former participants can undermine future endeavors to attract volunteers.
Once you've 'lost' a volunteer due to program or organization inadequacies, it is hard to get them back.
Brudney, Jeffery L. Fostering Volunteer Programs in the Public Sector. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.
Ellis, Susan J. The Volunteer Recruitment Book. Philadelphia: Energize, 1994.
Ellis, Susan J., Anne Weisbord, and Katherine H. Noyes. Children as Volunteers: Preparing for Community Service. Philadelphia: Energize, 1991.
Fisher, James C. and Katherine Cole. Leadership and Management of Volunteer Programs. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Kotler, Phillip, Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975
Lowenthal, Phil, Stephanie Tarnoff, Lisa David, Eds. Recruiting College Volunteers: A Guide for Volunteer Recruitment and Management, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, 1995 (28 pages).
Lynch, Rick and Steve McCurley, Essential Volunteer Management. Downers Grove, IL: Heritage Arts/VMSystems, 1989.
McCurley, Steve. Recruiting Volunteers for Difficult or Long-Term Assignments. Downers Grove, IL: Heritage Arts, 1991.
MacDuff, Nancy. Episodic Volunteering: Building the Short-Term Volunteer Program. Walla Walla, WA: MBA, 1991.
Rehnborg, Sarah Jane. The Starter Kit for Mobilizing Ministry. Leadership Training Network (Tyler, Texas), 1994.
Taylor, Lisa. "Disability as a Part of Diversity", The Journal of Volunteer Administration, Volume XIII, Number 2, Winter 1995.
Thurmond, Donna P., and James Cassell. Family Volunteering: Putting the Pieces Together. The Points of Light Foundation, 1996.
Vineyard, Sue, and Steve McCurley. 101 More Ideas for Volunteer Programs. Downers Grove, IL: Heritage Arts, 1995.
Independent Sector, Giving and Volunteering in the United States: Findings from a National Survey, 1996 edition.
Ordering Information:
Almost all of the works cited in this document can be purchased via the Web through one or more of the following sites: