Recruiting Volunteers for Your Afterschool Programs

Picture this: You have an exciting new idea for an afterschool program, such as coding and game development or comedy improv. However, you don’t have the staff power to run this new program. What do you do? The answer: recruit volunteers!

Whether you’re a school, community center, dance academy, or anything in between, you know that your afterschool programs are valuable for growing young minds. When you can’t afford to hire new staff members and lack support in key areas, sourcing volunteers is a great way to get the help you need to offer memorable experiences. In this guide, we’ll examine how you can recruit volunteers for your afterschool programs.

Why Do You Need Volunteers for Afterschool Programs?

It’s well-known that many schools offer afterschool programs, but that’s not the extent of organizations that do so. From Jewish Community Centers to parks and recreation organizations, a wide variety of organizations offer these programs, and they may need assistance in varying ways.

Volunteers can provide that support, helping organizations:

• Work around budget constraints
• Boost program quality
• Increase program capacity
• Offer diverse perspectives
• Provide mentoring and role models

With a highly motivated volunteer base, you’ll always have access to the manpower you need for your afterschool programs. But before you can worry about engaging your volunteers, you must recruit individuals to join your volunteer team.

How to Recruit Volunteers for Afterschool Programs

1. Assess your volunteer needs.

Before you start the recruitment process, you need a clear idea of the kind of help you require. To help you clarify what you’re looking for in potential volunteers, answer the following questions:

• In what areas have you noticed a lack of staff manpower?
• How satisfied are students, parents, and community members with your programs?
• What areas of your afterschool programs are underperforming?
• What specific tasks or projects are overwhelming your team?
• Where are your operations experiencing delays or difficulties?
• Are there any recurring issues that keep cropping up?
• Do you have any new initiatives or programs that need support?
• What skills or expertise are lacking in your team?
• What feedback have you received from students, parents, community members, and other stakeholders?
• What types of external assistance have worked well in the past?

Use the answers to these questions to identify where volunteer help would be most impactful, providing the foundation for your volunteer opportunities.

If you’re planning to rely on volunteer help in the long term, consider purchasing a volunteer management solution. The right tools will help with recruitment, training, scheduling, supervision, engagement, and more. You’ll have everything you need for a robust and effective volunteer program!

2. Create compelling volunteer opportunities.

Now that you know what type of help you need, you’re ready to design your volunteer opportunities. Brainstorm a list of roles that you need to fill, and then write out listings to give potential volunteers a holistic overview of what’s expected of them and what they can expect from working with your afterschool program.

Your volunteer listings should include the following information:

• Position title: A volunteer title, much like a job title, should summarize the general responsibilities of the position. 

• Position purpose: This should be a quick sentence or two covering the general scope of the volunteer’s duties to help the reader quickly identify if the role is one they’d be interested in.

• Responsibilities and duties: This will be a much longer, comprehensive list of all the tasks the volunteer will need to complete.

• Time commitment: Make it clear to prospective volunteers how much time you expect them to serve in this role, whether that’s a few hours every week or five hours on a specific weekend.

• Location: State where the volunteer will perform their duties. This may be a specific location, or you can allow them to work remotely if their role allows for it.
• Skills and qualifications: Some roles require specific skills not everyone has. For example, if you take CommunityPass’s advice and invest in afterschool program software, you may require volunteers to have previous experience using management tech tools.

Here’s an example of a volunteer role listing for a school that needs support for its afterschool programs:

• Position title: Afterschool Social Media Marketing Assistant
• Position purpose: This individual will be responsible for creating and posting promotional content about our afterschool programs on our organization’s social media pages.

• Responsibilities and duties:

• Take photos of students in afterschool programs (with parent permission) for use in social media content.
• Develop and draft posts, graphics, videos, and other social media content.
• Respond to comments, messages, and mentions across social media platforms.

• Time commitment: You will be expected to create at least one piece of social media content for each of our platforms (Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn) each week and spend at least one hour a day interacting with our audience on social media.

• Location: Remote four days a week, on-site one day a week for photography

• Skills and qualifications: Previous experience with graphic design and social media marketing is a plus, but not required.

If you’re not feeling confident about your volunteer listings, take a look at job boards and examine how they format their listings and what information they include. Although you’re not hiring for a paid role, you can approach listings in a similar manner.

Don’t forget to add a section with more details about your organization and your afterschool programs. This information helps you build credibility and trust with volunteer applicants and provides a starting point for them to connect more deeply with your goal of providing great afterschool experiences to your community.

3. Promote your opportunities.

After you’ve designed your volunteer positions, it’s time to spread the word about them to your community. This is a key step in the recruitment process—if potential volunteers don’t hear about your opportunities, they won’t know to apply for them.

According to Lever, there are four stages to a recruitment marketing campaign:

• Increase awareness of your employer brand. You’re likely already spreading the word about your organization, mission, and programs to your audience to increase enrollment in your programs. Piggyback on your existing marketing processes by identifying individuals who may be interested in volunteering and sending them messages regarding your opportunities.

• Generate interest in open roles. In your messages, feature a few volunteer roles that you need to fill urgently. Additionally, include stories and quotes from current volunteers about what it’s like to work at your organization.

• Nurture candidates into applicants. When community members show interest in volunteering, encourage them to apply to join your team. Share more detailed information about your volunteer team, volunteer program culture, and anything else potential volunteers want to know about.

• Convert candidates with an easy application process. Make volunteer applications easy by creating a streamlined form and adding it to your website. For organizations that don’t have an applicant tracking system (ATS), start with Google Forms to keep the process simple.

Segment your audience by identifying groups of individuals who would be most interested in volunteering. This may include parents, teachers, community members, donors, previous volunteers, and more. Then, promote your opportunities to them through their preferred marketing channels.

For nonprofits that host afterschool programs, pay particular attention to people who work at companies that offer volunteer grants. This form of corporate giving encourages volunteerism by providing monetary grants to organizations where employees regularly volunteer. If you choose individuals who work at companies that offer these programs, you can acquire extra funding for your afterschool activities!

After this point, the volunteer recruitment process looks different for every organization. For example, some will conduct interviews or ask for references, while others won’t. Take the time to customize the process to your organization. Once you’ve acquired the volunteers you need for your afterschool programs, don’t forget to show your appreciation for all their hard work to keep them engaged and retain their support!

About the Author

Mary Coyle is the Head of Product Management at CommunityPass and has held senior level roles in Program Management and Marketing Operations.

She has an MBA from University of Texas at Austin and a Finance degree from University of Illinois.