If you want someone to volunteer, make sure they know you want them. This may seem like a simple assumption, but most people take blanket recruitment as just that, an "all-call" for warm bodies. Individual recruitment nearly always insures a commitment from the person picked.

Let's face it, everyone likes to be wanted. Recruiting volunteers requires research. Combining these two criteria insures a greater number of volunteers. First do your research, and then start your campaign for volunteers.

Research requires knowing the pool you are recruiting volunteers from. If this is a corporate sponsored event, check with HR, or if you have it, the Employee Activities Committee. Either should be able to give you a list of employees that regularly volunteer for events. Use this list to canvas for volunteers. If the event is outside your employment, and for a non-profit organization they should have records of past volunteers for the event you now need recruits. Use whatever past records you can find to tap into experienced help.

Now that you hopefully have a pool to work with, you should contact each person, either through email, phone call, or personal visit, whichever mode is your best venue. Your first point should be to let the person know you value their assistance, and why. If they have a proven record of success in their volunteer work, be sure to comment on that. If you know some reason why the particular project you are recruiting for will have a personal impact on the recruit, be sure to make that fact known. Just be sure you let the recruit know they have been selected as a possible volunteer because you value them.

But let's suppose you do not get a list of potential volunteers, let's suppose you only have either email or phone solicitation to aid your recruitment efforts. What do you do in this case? You build a fantastic recruitment campaign.

Now you are recruiting volunteers without knowing their circumstances, so the campaign goes up a notch. Recruiting volunteers "at-large" requires more persuasive content in either your letter, or phone call. In either venue you must capture the recruit's empathy as soon as possible. Outline the main reasons for the volunteer's involvement.

For example, if you are recruiting for volunteers for a walk for diabetes, after you have introduced yourself, point out that: every 21 seconds a person is diagnosed with diabetes. Then ask the recruit if anyone in their family had diabetes. What you are after is for the recruit to understand they have a common bond with the issue you are asking him/her to participate in.

Regardless of the pool you have to work with in recruiting volunteers, the main point is to let them know they are wanted, and greatly appreciated. If you get that point across, they will commit.

Learn more about this author, Anne Taylor.
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