As a freelancer who has been involved in creating the literature that promotes volunteer causes for both colleges and alumni associations, I can attest that it has become clear that recruiting the best volunteers is the foundation on which every fundraising organization or nonprofit is built.

Follow this guide to getting the volunteers who want to give the most.
Schools have a virtually endless supply of potential volunteers.

Get Students Involved in Planning

In any school, there is a bountiful crop of ambitious young people looking for a cause to fulfill their inner desire to make an impact on the world they are just beginning to enter as adults. There is no better way to draw students to your program than to make them feel like they’re in a position that is pivotal to the success of a worthy endeavor.

By offering leadership roles in your volunteer drive, you’re much more likely to draw bright minds looking for a place where their talent and ambition will be recognized and appreciated – and they’re also more likely to get their friends on board.

Harness the Power of Social Media

If you’re trying to bring people together and aren’t using a savvy social media strategy, you’re hobbling your ability to do the thing for which social media was invented: connecting like-minded people.

Create a new Facebook page just for this specific event or program. The page should be your volunteer program’s home base, filled with stories, photos, and all pertinent information. Then use your school’s Twitter account to advertise the page and direct people toward it. Have current volunteers write guest posts about the program on your school’s blog and place links to the post on all your social media.

Get Some Gear

It sounds corny, or perhaps contrary to the very spirit of volunteerism, but people like stuff. T-shirts, hats – tangible, visible items. Not only is merchandise a token of appreciation to someone who just did something for nothing, but it serves a much bigger function – unity and the appearance of an organized front.

When a website shows a picture of 10 people with some text talking about their efforts at the blood drive, it doesn’t carry the same weight as when those same 10 people are wearing matching shirts with matching text and matching logos. Merchandise makes a group look like an organization.

Articulate Your Cause

More than anything else, the best way to get and keep good recruits is to show them the impact that donating their time and energy can have. Take a blood drive, for example. Because blood can be used for red blood cells, plasma, and platelets, one volunteer can save three lives. Let them know that there are few other places their precious, finite, non-refundable time can have such an impact.
A single volunteer at a blood drive can save three lives.

More than a quarter of all students will volunteer their time at some point in their academic career. Volunteers are a special breed of people who deserve our best efforts at matching their talents and ambition with a worthy cause. They’re out there. Go get them.

This post was written by Andrew Lisa