Recruiting and Managing Seasonal

Volunteers To hear the presentation by phone call:

(516) 453-0031

Access Code: 481-683-842

Jennifer Bennett, CVA, Senior Manager, Education & Training

Matt Wallace, Senior Associate, Nonprofit Relations

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VolunteerMatch Overview “VolunteerMatch strengthens communities by making it easier for good

people and good causes to connect.”

92,286 nonprofits… 78,641 Active Opportunities…. 6,757,988 referrals since 1998

• VolunteerMatch has been around for 14 years, and is the top-ranked website for online

volunteer recruitment and employee-volunteer programs

• Our Learning Center offers over 20 webinar topics focused on volunteer management

and VolunteerMatch tools, serving an audience of over 6,000 attendees each year

VolunteerMatch & Walmart: Fighting Hunger Together

What are our goals?

• Support nonprofit organizations that are working to end

hunger in local communities.

• Provide hunger relief organizations with the resources

they need to deploy, manage and expand their volunteer

engagement program.

• Support, train and share best practices for engaging

volunteers, and creating a multi-faceted relationship with

volunteers – donors, advocates.

• Increase visibility of the need for volunteers at hunger

relief organizations.

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Agenda

• Seasonal Volunteer Engagement

• Recruit Seasonal Volunteers

• Create a Connection

• The Importance of Communication

• Create a Communication Plan

• Create More Engagement

• Things to Think About

Seasonal Volunteer

Engagement • Seasonal volunteers can make a huge impact for

your organization.

– Can be passionate, loyal and involved

– Allow your organization to meet the needs of clients

during busy times

• May also come with engagement challenges – not

necessarily unique to season volunteers

– Only interested in certain days times

– Ownership of certain work

– May lose interest/not think about organization during

other seasons

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Find Seasonal Volunteers • Give yourself time

– Create a recruitment timeline that gives you enough

time to find and communicate with volunteers

– Balancing act – not too much time for the volunteers

to “forget” their commitment

• Include groups in your recruitment plan

– Fill many slots with one effort

– Ask groups to take on project, day, or shift

• Include impact or seasonal need

– Create messaging about the importance of

volunteering through a season, not just on a certain

day 6

Create a Connection Share information with seasonal volunteers

• Goals – Share what you hope to accomplish

– Set the stage for work to be done, needs of clients or

community

• Impact – What will volunteers be able to change

or how can they make a difference

• Organizational information – what’s going on,

are there milestones, successes, challenges

• Empower them to share their experience, or

spread the story

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Create a Communication Plan During Recruitment

• Different seasons may require a different

message even if the impact is the same

• Convey the importance of the work

– Create a connection or an understanding on an

individual level

– “You and your family will be working on… This is a

really important piece of our work because…”

• Make it easy for volunteers to communicate with

you

– Texts, emails, phone calls

– Recruit other volunteers to be points of contact 8

Create a Communication Plan

During the season

• Focus on the long term need, and share open

shifts – Christmas Day is fully staffed but…

• Share the impacts with all of the volunteers

– Not just hours, but actions and impacts too

– Take pictures

– Use social media - spread the thank you

– Include ways for them to get more involved

• Don't forget to share how that work serves your

mission

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Create a Communication Plan

After the season

• Take advantage of social media

• Create an offseason engagement team

– Ongoing or seasonal volunteers

– Messages with updates, new projects programs –

encourage volunteers to share!

– Pre-Season events

• Always include opportunities for more

involvement

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Create More Engagement Build opportunities for seasonal volunteers to

become more involved with your organization

year round

Consider different types of opportunities

– Projects, skills based, single day events

Invite them!

– Share opportunities and include an invitation to get

involved or to participate

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Resources Learning Center Find upcoming webinar dates, how-to videos and more

http://learn.volunteermatch.org

VolunteerMatch Community Ask and answer questions after the webinar – use keywords Fighting Hunger Together,

Volunteer Management

http://community.volunteermatch.org/volunteer

Fighting Hunger Together Information about the program and additional trainings and resources

http://www.volunteermatch.org/fighthunger

Questions?

FightHunger@VolunteerMatch.org

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Thanks for attending! Join us online:

Like us on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/VolunteerMatch

Follow us on Twitter: @VolunteerMatch

Visit Engaging Volunteers, our nonprofit blog:

blogs.volunteermatch.org/engagingvolunteers/

For any questions contact:

Jennifer Bennett

(415) 321-3639

@JenBennettCVA

jbennett@volunteermatch.org