Why Didn’t You Just Ask?

As an association management company, recruiting volunteers and fund raising is a big part of the equation. Without volunteers on the front line helping to raise money, existing programs cannot run and new programs will never get off the ground.

Although your tactics may vary depending on the audience you’re trying to recruit volunteers from, there are some basic guidelines we can follow and pitfalls we should avoid to help recruit volunteers and get them excited about what they’re doing and who they’re doing it for.

I recently stumbled across an interesting article by Thomas W. McKee called, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Recruiting Volunteers” and realized that a lot of us probably commit at least one or two of these “sins” when trying to recruit volunteers.

Sin One: Expect Announcements to Get Volunteers
Many people will never volunteer. Why not? Because people want to be asked. In the case of Alpha Zeta, we looked to our Board of Directors to put together some workshops at the 2010 National Agricultural Leadership Conference. It was not until we asked specific people directly and gave them one or two ideas that they willingly and excitedly volunteered to put something together.

Sin Two: Go It Alone
Partnering is another effective way to recruit volunteers. By partnering with a local organization that has a strong following or membership you can pool your resources. Create a recruiting task-force that meets once a week to brainstorm and discuss progress and strategies.

Sin Three: Recruit Life-time Individuals—Not Short-term Project Teams
Recruiting teams rather than individuals is particularly effective with younger volunteers. Many people are afraid of getting tied into a job for a lifetime and never being able to get out of it. Volunteers are more willing to say yes to a short-term commitment with an end-date in sight.

Sin Four: Assume That "No" Means "Never"
Timing is everything. When we get the courage to recruit someone and then they say "no," we often feel rejection. Sometimes the "no" means, "not now." Sometimes it means that he/she would rather do something else. When the answer is "no," I often ask if there are any positions in our organization that they would love to do, but were never asked.

Sin Five: Fall Into the BIC Trap
We often fall into the “Butt in the Chair” trap because we are in desperate need for a volunteer and need them quickly. Most times the chair is better empty than filled with the wrong person who does nothing or is high maintenance.

Sin Six: Be People Driven Rather Than Position Driven
Another variation of the "Butt In the Chair" method is just to say, "Please come and be a part of our group. We have a great time and we need your expertise." But we don't tell the prospect what we want them to do. When recruiting volunteers, ask “what positions do I need to accomplish our mission" and "what do I want the team members to do?" And then I look for people who can fill those positions.

Sin Seven: Give the Position the Wrong Job Title
What's in a name? Plenty. By the names we use for our non-profit professional staff, we are telling them that volunteer administration is not their primary job—which it really is. We are recruiting professional staff, but not professional volunteer administrators.

I took a lot away from this article and will use it as we start to recruit volunteers and create excitement for Alpha Zeta’s National Service Trips. Last year we had a hard time recruiting student members to participate in service trips to Texas and Puerto Rico (hard to imagine, I know). The current state of the economy and the fact that our volunteers are college students with little income makes recruiting difficult and we ended up committing some of these “sins.”

Here are some other articles from VolunteerPower that you may find helpful:

1. The Seven Deadly Sins of Recruiting Volunteers: http://bit.ly/aP066A
2. Motivating Your Very Busy Volunteers: http://bit.ly/9vxJ5p
3. Oh, By the Way, The Four Words that Volunteers Hate to Hear: http://bit.ly/actbQK
4. Why People Join: http://bit.ly/9ipgf4

Managing Successful and Profitable Volunteers

Managing association volunteers can be a struggle, but if handled properly it can create desired results. In my case, that result was fundraising dollars.

In 2009, the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation created a fundraising program for supporters of Trees for Troops. The program is called TweetUp4Troops. The idea couples the social media giant, Twitter, with eager Trees for Troops volunteers. CSF used Twitter to recruit volunteers and in turn, the volunteers used any means possible, including Twitter, to encourage those in their community to attended local events they were hosting to fundraise for Trees for Troops.

As you can imagine, CSF was excited about the prospect of this hands-off approach. However, we learned very quickly that "hands-off" was not the proper term. In fact, some volunteers were so turned off by the lack of guidance and instruction they received, they lost interest in hosting a local event, making this event a real "hand-holder." After raising $5,000 and many lessons learned, CSF dissected the project. It was turned into a case study to decide what could be done better next time. Similar projects such as Charity Water's Twestival and Epic Change's Tweetsgiving were used to gather data and compare results.

CSF is now much better equipped for the coming year. Below are some important things discovered from TweetUp4Troop's, Twestival's and Tweetsgiving's results to keep in mind when managing volunteers who in turn are working for your hard-earned fundraising dollars:

• Do not plan in coordination with a major holiday - When it comes to volunteers, keep in mind that these individuals are not being compensated for their hardwork. All they receive is a feeling of goodwill. If you are asking them to volunteer around a holiday and it interferes with their time spent with family and friends, forget it!
• Align your values with the volunteers - Empower the people to spread your message
• Create tools for your volunteers to use - In the case of CSF's TweetUp4Troops, documents with ideas, tips and other information were uploaded to the web site for volunteers to download. Creating these documents eliminated a step for volunteers. They were equipped with ideas for events. Visit www.tweetup4troops.org and check out the File Cabinet for examples of uploaded documents.
• If a volunteer shows a little interest but does not commit, be persistent - People are skeptical by nature, so it is your job as the volunteer manager to go out and recruit.
• Keep it simple - plain and simple!
• Don't ask for too much up front - Volunteers need to grow and learn to trust you. If you start out the relationship by asking for things, you will not get far.

With these lessons learned, the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation is hoping to make 2010 TweetUp4Troops a greater success!

Need an Energy Boost? Try Brainstorming!

A little over a month ago, the association that I manage – the Dairy Calf & Heifer Association – elected new directors and officers. I’m excited about this new board because they have a lot of energy to direct toward the association.

At our last board meeting, the ideas that surfaced could have a huge impact on our members. Now it’s up to the staff (and volunteers) to keep the momentum and excitement going! Perhaps that’s one of the biggest challenges in association management.

It’s actually quite logical when you think about it, though hard to accept sometimes. The volunteers who make up the board are just that – volunteers who want and need to commit their time and energy to make a difference. They have a true passion for the organization and the industry. Staff, on the other hand, is paid to put in their energy.

In the case of DCHA and many of the Drake & Company clients, the staff’s job is to manage the association and its programs. And sometimes, the daily grind gets in the way of the energy that we receive from our volunteers.

 I have found that regular communications with my volunteer board help me to stay energized about their goals and objectives. This goes beyond the conversations about approvals and decisions. I ask them about their work – how are things going, what are the challenges they face right now, how are others in the industry managing things?

I find that when I start asking them questions about trends in their own business or in the industry overall, brainstorming just “seems to happen” during that conversation. And the excitement stems from that brainstorming and thinking of the possibilities at hand.

 I would challenge anyone in association management to think of each conversation with a volunteer leader as a potential “brainstorming session.” Ask questions – the right questions – to get them thinking big, and draw from the energy that comes from that conversation. Not only will you build good relationships with your board members, but they’ll come to realize that you share the energy they do in building a strong, successful association.