Recruiting Volunteers

1. Recruiting Volunteers What does it mean to recruit volunteers for your organization?

2. Why should you recruit volunteers? • To give your organization the power to do more work. • To reduce the burden on paid staff members. • To give your group a larger, more diverse membership. • To increase awareness and understanding of your organization. • To get as much done as possible with your budget. • To act together to achieve a shared purpose.

3. Basic steps to recruit volunteers: • Research sources of potential volunteers in your community. • Plan and implement your recruiting strategy. • Finding volunteers. • Convincing potential volunteers to become active volunteers. • Challenges and Benefits of Recruiting Volunteers from Varied Cultural and Ethnic Groups.

4. Why should you recruit people from different groups to be volunteers? • To broaden the range of opinions and ideas of your organization. • By encouraging diversity, your organization will have a more universal appeal.

5. Possible barriers when recruiting from specific populations: • Volunteers may not speak English as a second language. • Volunteers may not be able to afford related expenses to volunteering. • Volunteers may be sensitive to screening.

6. Some procedures may seem alien or strange to some groups

7. Accessibility to organization and meetings

8. Ways to recruit members of specific populations • Explain your organization's goals. • Highlight the achievements of volunteers from different cultural groups. • Do what you can to make your organization accessible for non-English speakers. • Actively recruit a diverse paid staff. • Make your agency a nice place for people to "check it out". • Offer opportunities for families to volunteer together.