Marketing Volunteer Opportunities Online

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Marketing volunteer opportunities online offers many benefits for recruiting both face-to-face and online volunteers:

• It's effective, quick, easy, and doesn't require any additional costs

• It's an excellent way to reach non-traditional volunteers, and populations that might be under-represented in an organization's volunteer ranks, such as seniors, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities

• You can reach a very targeted group, such as a particular kind of professional or people in a specific geographic area

Online marketing should not replace your offline recruitment methods, but augment those efforts by reaching new audiences. If you are new to this kind of marketing, consider the following:

• Wait to begin online recruitment until you have well-defined descriptions of an available opportunity. Be sure to have an immediate next step for people who call or e-mail (a date for a face-to-face meeting or orientation, for instance, even if it is several weeks away). Asking for volunteers but not responding to them immediately, or not having a method to immediately place them into your program, is like advertising a product you don't really have, which can cause hard feelings about your agency on the part of potential supporters.

• If your organization cannot or does not answer e-mail within 48 hours of receipt (two business days), don't include your e-mail address as a way for potential volunteers to contact you. Instead, direct volunteers to call.

• Make sure those who answer your agency's phone know you are posting information to the Internet, in case there is an increase in phone calls regarding volunteer opportunities.

When providing volunteer information online, whether in the form of an e-mail announcement, discussion group posting, or Web page, remember to provide

• your organization's name, physical address, phone number, e-mail address (if this is an acceptable way for potential volunteers to contact you), and Web address, if you have one

• information about specific volunteer opportunities, or an overview of the kinds of service opportunities available

• information that will educate potential volunteers about the organization's mission, program focus, and value to the community, as well as the value of volunteers to the organization.

Where and How to Post

USENET Newsgroups

USENET newsgroups (called both "USENET" and "newsgroups") are ongoing online discussions dedicated to a particular topic and propagated to news servers worldwide. Messages, usually referred to as "posts", are posted to a newsgroup for everyone who subscribes to that newsgroup to see (it is free to subscribe to most newsgroups). Depending upon how a user accesses USENET, posts are either sent via e-mail or through an online form. Messages sent to a USENET newsgroup can be read by anyone with a newsreader program, such as NewsWatcher.

Your internet service provider (ISP) may provide access to USENET newsgroups as part of your internet service package. You will need to contact your ISP for information regarding any newsgroup access they provide.

In addition to providing Web-based access to USENET newsgroups, Google Groups provides a good overview of USENET's evolution and the basics of its operation, as well as a guideline for posting appropriately.

Look for groups whose participants are located in or focused on your geographic area, and groups centered around a particular subject or issue. For instance, if you are looking for someone to help with Web site development, contact a discussion group for Web site developers. For someone to help with an environmental project, look for an environmental activists group. For help at a special event for an agency that works in a particular city, find a group for citizens of that city.

Before posting, get a sense of the audience on a particular newsgroup to make sure that the audience would be receptive to your information. For instance, don't post volunteer opportunities to the newsgroup soc.org.nonprofit, as this group is made up of other nonprofit professionals who are looking for volunteers themselves. Posting inappropriately can result in bad publicity for your organization.

E-mail Mailing Lists

Like USENET newsgroups, e-mail mailing lists serve their membership by providing a forum for discussion on a specific topic. Unlike USENET, e-mail lists are not automatically broadcast to a worldwide audience, but to individuals who have subscribed to the list. Lists are usually closed discussions among subscribers, and messages are delivered directly to subscribers via e-mail. Though online archives are sometimes maintained, e-mail lists are usually not archived.

Messages go to a central point and are then "reflected" automatically back to all who subscribe to the list. It is free to subscribe to an e-mail list. However, please note when you subscribe to any of such lists that the address for subscriptions is different than the address for posting comments and questions.

As with most USENET newsgroups, e-mail lists have established posting guidelines. When you subscribe to an e-mail list, you will typically receive a welcome e-mail outlining the mailing list's policies.

Online Communities

Yahoo! Groups and MSN Groupsare collections of online communities for people with similar interests. Like USENET and e-mail mailing lists, online communities exist for almost every topic under the sun.

Information on using Yahoo! Groups

Information on using MSN Groups

Web Sites

According to a presentation given at the 2003 e-Philanthropy conference, 58% of computer users have searched online for information related to volunteering. Given that statistic, it is important that your organization and its needs are represented online.

Even if your organization doesn't have its own Web site, you can still provide information to Web sites that post volunteer opportunities, or link to volunteer opportunities. VolunteerMatch is a good place to start.

If your organization has its own Web site, prepare a page listing volunteer opportunities, or information on how and why to volunteer with the organization. Be sure to add this page to your site map and navigation!