Using social media to find and retain volunteers
Social media is a great way to reach out to donors, vendors, and the those in need. It’s also a great way to find and retain volunteers which are a critical part of any charitable organization.
Determine your voice. Are you cerebral? Fun loving. Worldwide? Now who is your audience? What’s the age range of a typical volunteer? Are you a youth oriented organization of are you dealing with the elderly?
Be real. Post photos of current volunteers in action, events and other activities will attract the type of person you need to help run your organization. You may run across someone who cannot commit time but maybe they can make a cash or in-kind donation. Maybe that person will be a volunteer in the future.
Start the conversation and keep it going. Facebook is fun place to post photos where everyone can leave comments! Let everyone know how dedicated your volunteers are! Maybe everyone can follow each other on Twitter to send group tweets during busy events or keep in touch when someone is traveling. Be sure to retweet and share the content of others, including your volunteers and other causes as well.
Pinterest is a wonderful way to showcase your nonprofit’s work. You can also highlight your volunteers in action through a pinboard sorted by date, project or person. Pinterest also can be used to encourage fundraising and management. Vine and Instagram are also wonderful ways to put your volunteers good work on display!
Once you get the conversation going you will see that your current volunteers, when loved and appreciated, will naturally attract new volunteers!