Before you Recruit Your First Volunteer

Before you recruit your first volunteers you will need to gain support for the volunteer programme. Once you have the support of the CEO, board, management, and staff you will need to develop a Volunteer Policy (see our ‘Step By Step Guide to Developing a Volunteer Policy.’) The Volunteer Policy will help you develop clear guidelines on why your organisation is involving volunteers, and how volunteers will be involved, recruited, supported, recognised and evaluated in your organisation.

Next you will need to develop a volunteer registration form. This form might include:

• Name
• Address
• Phone/Mobile
• Email
• Best time to contact
• Age category (such as below 16yrs, 16-25yrs, 26-39 years etc.),
• Gender
• Emergency contact
• Days and times available to volunteer
• Check list of volunteer interests (possible tick box style)
• Volunteer skills, experience and attributes they will bring to the role
• References
• Do you have any prior criminal convictions? If so, please explain.
• Do you have any special support needs we should be aware of? If so, please expand.

The next step is to develop the volunteer role descriptions. In order to gain staff confidence it is important they are involved in developing the volunteer role description. After all, the volunteer will be working for them and the staff person knows exactly what needs to be done. When starting out, try to recruit your first volunteers for staff who have a positive attitude towards working with volunteers. A positive experience will encourage other staff members to work with volunteers. The volunteer role description should include:

• Name of volunteer role
• Brief description of volunteer role
• Location
• Supervised by
• Days and times needed
• Minimum length of volunteer commitment required
• List of tasks or duties
• Qualifications, qualities and/or skills needed
• Training provided

When developing the list of tasks/duties for the volunteer role description you might consider the following:

• Volunteers are there to help so start with duties that actually need to be done. This will help the volunteer feel effective and the staff will feel that volunteers are helpful.
• Include duties that need to be completed on a regular basis.
• Include projects that the staff member would like to see completed but because of time constraints never gets around to doing.
• Include projects that the staff member does not have the skills to complete.

Volunteer roles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The roles you develop will be based on your organisational mission, your clients, the goals you need to achieve and your resource capacity for involving volunteers. To get you started here are some examples of volunteer roles:

• Board of Directors
• Data entry, filing, collating, receptionist and other types of administrative work
• Pro bono legal work
• Visiting/befriending the elderly
• Planting trees
• Coaching a sports team
• Picking up litter
• Web designer/manager
• Youth mentor
• PR campaign specialist
• Delivering meals on wheels
• Teaching English to foreign nationals
• Walking or caring for animals
• Special Events
• Daycare, youth group, summer camp volunteers
• Speakers bureau – train volunteers to give talks about your organization or issue or distribute information on your behalf at events
• Driver
• Painting a wall mural
• Phone line help
• Gardening
• Working with people with disabilities
• Fundraising

The list is endless so be sure to put your thinking cap on and be creative. Have a brainstorming session with your staff and toss around all the possibilities. You can then whittle these down to several role descriptions.

Remember too that some volunteers want to change the world and make a dramatic difference but most people are content to take on unassuming roles and help in less dramatic ways. So, answering phones, picking up litter, entering data, or cleaning out cat litter boxes may be just what the volunteer wants to do.

One last word of advice, be sure your volunteer roles do not duplicate or replace paid staff roles.

Now you are ready to recruit your first volunteers. The next step is developing your Volunteer Recruitment Campaign.