Managing education volunteers means getting creative with your recruitment strategies. While there are many educational volunteer opportunities, it can seem like there aren’t enough volunteers for the job. Use these 11 strategies to recruit education volunteers, grow your team, and achieve your goals.
1. Use Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful tools we have for communicating with people worldwide. Using platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram is a great way to showcase your mission, values, and impact. Create engaging posts that highlight what you do, and you’ll get eyes on you from everywhere.
Use hashtags relevant to education, volunteering, and your local area to increase visibility and engagement. Try targeting posts towards recruiting volunteers with information or links to sign-up spots.
Additionally, get your followers involved. Encourage them to share posts or try targeted ads. These methods will expand your reach and help you find the volunteers you need.
2. Offer Informational Events
Hosting informational sessions is a fantastic way to help people understand what you’re all about. You can attract interested parties and let them know about your mission, goals, and positions.
Host in-person or virtual events that allow potential volunteers to hear directly from your staff and current volunteers. Hearing firsthand what working with you is like can educate people and motivate them to join your cause.
Dive into past projects and success stories to inspire attendees. You should also provide information about volunteer opportunities in education. Offer training support resources to volunteers, such as handbooks or manuals. Take questions and encourage everyone to have fun.
3. Visit Career Fairs
Career fairs are another way to get the word out. Career fair attendees are actively seeking out job and teaching volunteer opportunities to boost their experience. Work with professional, community, and university associations to attract new talent. Set up your booth to show off your opportunities and goals to get people interested.
Have informational packets and brochures ready to hand out to interested parties — they’ll want to know more about what you do. Like all recruiting sessions, be ready to answer questions and collect contact information from potential volunteers.
4. Partner With Colleges
Colleges are full of talent looking for opportunities. Students, graduates, and educators are all potential volunteers. Try to establish partnerships with academic departments, student organizations, and career centers to attract volunteers.
Your organization can offer internships and field placements that align with student interests. Whether they want to volunteer for special needs assistance or create educational materials, colleges are an excellent resource. You’ll create opportunities for the next generation while expanding your volunteer base.
Try to get people on the ground at career fairs or events. You want your organization to connect with potential volunteers face-to-face. Remember to provide resources about your mission. Work to help students and volunteers understand the expectations and benefits of working with your group.
5. Create a Newsletter
Developing a volunteer newsletter can keep potential and current volunteers informed about your work. Regular newsletters highlight your volunteers’ impact and the educational impact you’re making on the world.
Fill your newsletter with volunteer stories, project updates, event information, educational milestones, and tips for helping out. You can also update education partners on training and spotlight volunteers who have gone above and beyond.
Try to send newsletters through email marketing tools and platforms. These options let you track metrics and engagement so you can see how effective your communication is. The better your tracking strategy, the more you can target your newsletter and media for better engagement.
6. Offer Virtual Opportunities
Virtual volunteering opportunities can widen your volunteer net. Not everyone can travel to your location and become an education volunteer. Instead, these volunteers can help out through virtual activities. Develop virtual volunteer roles, like online tutoring or mentoring, to help these individuals get involved.
Consider using virtual roles to create educational resources and curriculums, help with administration, or provide support for teachers. Online platforms, video conferencing, and collaboration software make virtual volunteering more accessible than ever.
7. Reach Out to Alumni
Alumni networks are helpful resources for reaching education volunteers. Groups with strong connections to your mission, institution, or current volunteers might be interested in giving back.
Look at alumni groups or past volunteers and staff to get support for your current mission. Alumni might have newsletters, social media groups, and events. These are great spots to recruit new volunteers and share information about your initiatives and needs.
8. Create Content
Engaging content brings more eyes to your work, attracting and retaining volunteers. Blog posts, articles, social media posts, videos, and testimonials are all content you can build around your mission.
Highlight the importance of education, the challenges students face, and how volunteers make a difference. You can even share student and teacher stories about how volunteers have impacted their lives. Remember to include visuals, such as videos, photos, and infographics, to enhance your content.
9. Work With Corporations
Corporate sponsorships let employees volunteer while supporting educational initiatives. Find businesses that participate in outreach initiatives and explore collaboration opportunities.
You can work with corporate partners to develop events and volunteer programs that meet both your goals and interests. You can offer skills-based volunteer tasks, employee volunteer days, and even team-building activities that give employees impactful experiences while promoting community education.
10. Ask for Referrals
Get your volunteers involved with recruiting. Encourage them to reach out to friends, co-workers, and anyone they know who might be interested in volunteering in education. People often flock in groups with similar interests.
Use your volunteer network to find more education volunteers. Consider offering rewards for the most referrals, and give your volunteers informational resources to pass out to their network and spread the word.
11. Host Appreciation Events
Your volunteers love to support education — show your support for all their hard work with appreciation events. Recognizing your team’s contributions shows you value their work. It can encourage them to stay and recruit more volunteers. Potential volunteers may see this support and want to work with you.
You can host dinners, award ceremonies, and social events to thank your volunteers for the time and effort they’ve given your initiative. Encourage volunteers to bring friends, family, and colleagues to attract potential parties. Letting volunteers connect with each other and potential team members builds community and shows everyone that you value all they do.
Streamline Your Volunteer Management With Volgistics
Recruiting and managing education volunteers can get challenging. With Volgistics, you can manage volunteers through recruiting, scheduling, and beyond. This software offers powerful features designed to simplify communication, scheduling, recruitment, and reporting.
From customizable online application forms to detailed volunteer profiles, Volgistics has everything you need to stay organized. Use streamlined communication tools and a comprehensive tracking database to monitor everything volunteer-related in one user-friendly interface.
Get customized volunteer management with Volgistics. Sign up for your 30-day free trial, or contact us for a demo today!
