Harness the Power of the Internet to Source Your Volunteers

Without volunteers, it would be impossible to advance your mission and make a true difference in the lives of others. Finding enough talent can be difficult, especially if you are a small to mid-sized nonprofit with limited resources. Use these tips to boost your online recruiting efforts.

Build a Strong Facebook Presence

If you haven’t already done so, encourage your existing staff, volunteers, board members and other supporters to connect with your NFP on its Facebook page. Post a good mix of content, on a regular basis, to raise awareness about your cause.

While articles and longer posts typically do well on Facebook, make sure that you are keeping things interesting by posting emotionally stirring images and videos. Take care to ensure that the stories that you share are moving, but are also focused on a clear purpose, and in alignment with your NFP’s values, mission and goals. Share the results of studies and other research that illustrates the need that you are trying to meet in your community. Create infographics to make statistics and other results more relatable and meaningful to your supporters.

Encourage interaction by promptly responding to any likes and comments. Conduct a poll or host a contest on your Facebook page to generate additional interest in your nonprofit and its work.

Once you’ve built an online community of supporters with your Facebook page, some individuals might simply read your posts and become interested in joining in. Taking a more active role, however, will help increase your recruiting results. Let your followers know about openings in your volunteer program in your posts.

Encourage your existing volunteers to share their experiences in the program on your Facebook page. Create posts that recognise and reward your current volunteers for their hard work. Engaging with your volunteers and other supporters on Facebook not only boosts your recruiting, but can also improve your relationships with members, donors, advocates and other stakeholders!

Create Your Own Online Database of Potential Volunteers

How easy is it for your supporters to sign-up to volunteer? Simplify the process by posting an easy to fill out online form on your NFP website. This form should collect their contact information, availability, and the pertinent details of their skills and experience. Save this information in a database that will allow you to search for volunteers based on their abilities so that you can quickly find a match.

Segment your volunteers based on skills, age, location and other demographics. Try to create opportunities that will match each segment. By making it easier for anyone to join in and help, you generate more significant interest in your work. This increases the chance that your supporters will come back for more opportunities to assist in their communities.

Create Short-Term Tasks

Think about the volunteer opportunities that are available with your organisation. Break down duties and tasks and create some “micro-jobs” that can be completed quickly, and online, where possible. This makes it a lot easier for people that are busy and crunched for time to pitch-in virtually for just a few moments. Post these opportunities on your own site, as well as third-party apps to increase awareness about these types of opportunities to connect with your organisation.

Once someone has completed a few smaller jobs, they may be more inclined to make room in their schedules for positions that require a commitment of more time. They may also become more willing to volunteer on-site in addition to their online service.

Use Third-Party Apps

There are a host of sites that seek to match potential volunteers with nonprofits. Vollie is an Australian company that matches volunteers with specific skill sets and certifications with the nonprofits that need help from individuals with specialised backgrounds. It allows anyone in the world to connect with a nonprofit that needs their specific talents and experience, with tasks being completed online. The duties that these volunteers perform are quite diverse, from answering calls to providing expert advice..

The Taproot Foundation is another third party that’s connecting experienced volunteers with nonprofits, although the opportunities that they offer may need to be completed either online, or onsite at the nonprofit’s facilities or other designated physical location.

Make Engagement Easy

One of the most straightforward ways to support your recruiting efforts online is often overlooked. Keep in mind that the easier it is for your supporters to interact with your nonprofit online, the simpler it will be for you to create an engaged, vibrant, online community that supports your work by volunteering, advocating, and donating to your cause! Take the time to update your website on a regular basis! Make sure that it loads easily, is effortless to navigate and has been optimised for mobile to ensure that engaging with your NFP is a fast and fun experience!

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What Is Cloud Computing

To help get an understanding of cloud computing let’s have a look at a traditional computer set up.  Currently you are most likely to have a hard drive on your desktop computer or connected via a network at the organisation you may work at.  These internal networks will have the entire technical infrastructure such as cabling, routers, network hard drives as well the programs, software, data and files that you need to access and use.  For example, when you use an accounting system the software is installed on the hard drive of the network that you can log into and process your transactions.

In effect, cloud computing is replacing most of the internal IT infrastructure and hard drives with the internet so all the programs, software, data and files are stored and accessed via the internet.  Importantly, cloud computing also allows you to control who will have access to your files.  For example, Google is an example of a public cloud.  Google has huge banks of hard drives and servers that store the information that people can access when they do a search.  Alternatively, you can set up a private cloud whereby you can control and limit who can access your information.

One important benefit of cloud computing is that you can easily access information from anywhere a computer can connect to the internet.  This is done via simply logging in to the program or service you want to access.

In a lot of cases it can be easy and relatively inexpensive to move to the cloud.  Even now most people are already utilising cloud computing through the use of email accounts such as Gmail where your emails are stored in the cloud.  Furthermore, a lot of organisations are offering low cost applications such as customer relationship management, project management and accounting systems that are easy to use.

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