Nonprofits with strong communities have an easier time reaching their funding goals. Encouraging community members to get involved is a surefire way to fulfill your mission, but it’s not just about inspiring gifts—it’s also about obtaining the helping hands you need to run your events and programs through volunteerism.
Getting the volunteers you need to support your cause requires a different approach to soliciting donations. Mostly, it involves crafting materials to market your volunteer program to a wide audience. The more people your marketing reaches, the more likely you’ll reach the individuals who would be excited to sign up to volunteer.
Not sure where to start? Discover the top strategies for marketing your nonprofit’s volunteer program here.
1. Emphasize the impact of volunteering.
Before discussing more specific volunteer marketing tips, you should know how to frame your messages to inspire the most participation. Much like donors, volunteers are giving your nonprofit a gift—their time and energy! Therefore, it’s essential to highlight why they should give their time and energy to your nonprofit.
Emphasize the impact of volunteering by:
- Laying out the benefits of volunteering. Most volunteers do so because they’re invested in your cause and want to help. However, it’s still a good idea to frame how volunteering benefits them to entice them to sign up. Explain that volunteers gain a community of like-minded individuals, professional and career development opportunities, exposure to new perspectives, and valuable opportunities for learning and personal growth.
- Showcasing real-world impact. Discuss exactly how your volunteers enable your nonprofit to make an impact on its beneficiaries. For example, if you run a nonprofit soup kitchen, you could highlight how your volunteers cook and serve food to the people visiting your facilities, allowing you to feed over 3,000 individuals weekly.
- Including testimonials where possible. Social proof is powerful, showing potential volunteers that other real individuals trust your nonprofit and find it worthy of their time and efforts. Where possible, include testimonials from your volunteers in your marketing materials. These can be conveyed through text or videos. Just make sure you get the volunteer’s permission before sharing their story!
By framing your volunteer program marketing through the right lens, you can facilitate a strong supporter journey that leads to lifelong support of your nonprofit and garners your organization the help you need for programs and events.
2. Create a dedicated volunteering page.
You know that having a donation page on your nonprofit’s website is essential to capturing gifts from supporters. Signing up to help your nonprofit should be as easy as possible, so apply that principle to your volunteer program by creating a volunteering page.
On this page, highlight why volunteering at your nonprofit is important and impactful, as we discussed in the previous section. Then, direct the visitor to open volunteer opportunities. You can think of these as similar to job listings, except they’re for volunteer roles.
Make sure to cover the following information on each volunteer listing:
- Details to include on volunteer listings
- Volunteer role name
- Your nonprofit’s mission/purpose
- Why the role is important to your nonprofit
- Location
- Expected time commitment
- Typical responsibilities
- Required skills or certifications
Add a button or other call-to-action (CTA) that links from the listing to a user-friendly application form. For best results, make sure that this form integrates with your volunteer management software. That way, when individuals fill out your application form, their information is automatically entered into your volunteer database, making it easier for you to plan orientation, schedule volunteers when they’re needed, and conduct other volunteer management activities.
You can also take this time to revamp your nonprofit’s website design, if necessary, to deliver a smooth user experience. Make sure your website is accessible for all users, mobile-friendly, and viewable on devices.
3. Promote volunteering to the right segments.
Not all of your nonprofit’s community members will be interested in or eager to volunteer for your mission. If you send messages about volunteering to these individuals, they’ll likely fall flat and not generate the results you desire.
As part of your general marketing efforts, Allegiance Group + Pursuant advises that you research your nonprofit’s audience. Part of that process includes creating audience personas, which you can refer to throughout marketing campaigns to confirm that each message resonates with your supporters.
Based on the information you’ve gleaned from your research, pinpoint a few audience segments that are most likely to respond positively to your volunteer marketing. Here are a few examples of segments to start with:
- Long-time donors who are excited about alternative ways to get involved
- High school students who have community service graduation requirements
- College students who want to give back to the community
- Young professionals who want to develop more skills
- Retirees and empty-nesters seeking a meaningful way to stay involved in the community
- Corporate volunteers who are incentivized to volunteer by their employers
- Members of community groups that often promote volunteerism initiatives, such as a church group
Start by sending volunteer marketing messages to these segments. Gauge how successful these messages are and make adjustments as necessary. As you refine your strategies, you can expand to more omni-channel marketing to reach more volunteers.
Additionally, ask your existing volunteers to spread the word! If they’ve been enjoying volunteering at your nonprofit, they’ll be happy to tell their friends and family about any upcoming opportunities you might have.
4. Leverage community partnerships.
At times, the easiest way to spread the word about your nonprofit’s volunteer program is to tap into another organization’s audience. Community partnerships enable you to do just that.
The best place to start is with businesses and corporations that are interested in corporate philanthropy. Double the Donation defines corporate philanthropy as “a company’s voluntary activities or investments in the betterment of society.” When businesses have dedicated philanthropic programs like matching gifts or volunteer grants, that’s a sign that they’re likely open to collaborating with your nonprofit to promote your volunteer program.
When connecting with businesses, don’t frame your appeal just in terms of the impact on your mission. Also, highlight the benefits the business will gain from helping you spread the word about your volunteering opportunities to its employees and audience.
For example, you could discuss that employees who participate in CSR are also more likely to be engaged at work. You can also offer to add their logo to your sponsorships page to help them boost their brand visibility and their reputation.
Marketing your volunteer program is only the first step in a long journey to fostering long-term supporter relationships. Implement other key volunteer retention practices, such as thanking and recognizing volunteers for their hard work, inviting them to volunteer appreciation events, and keeping them apprised of the impact of their contributions.
About the Author
Liz Murphy
EVP at Allegiance + Pursuant Group
Liz Murphy is an EVP at Allegiance+Pursuant Group, a direct response fundraising agency and technology company. Liz has more than 30 years of experience growing digital and integrated fundraising and communications programs for social justice, health, and international relief nonprofit organizations.
Liz is an award-winning copywriter and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including ANA, DMAW, Bridge, and NTC. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington Educational Foundation.
