Is your nonprofit using impact data to recruit volunteers?
Your nonprofits mission impacts people every day. Individuals who have been impacted have a strong relationship to your cause and want to see your organization reach its goals. Your volunteer recruitment strategy can benefit from these touchpoints and they can be used to create new supporters. If you are not focusing on converting people who have been personally impacted by your mission to donors (time, financial) you are missing out on a conversion opportunity.
According to a report from the University of Maryland’s Do-Good Institute, Americans who contribute time and money to charities has fallen to its lowest point in two decades. There has never been a more important time for nonprofits to think outside the box and leverage all of the relationships that they create…. including relationships created by impact directly.
25% of nonprofits do not measure impact
Leverage Impact Data to Create Volunteer Opportunities
Your nonprofit needs to be actively measuring impact if you want to create new volunteer relationships based on the data. According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, 25% of nonprofit organizations have yet to implement a process for strategically measuring their impact and reach. How can an organization leverage mission impact to cross-pollinate relationships if they are not actively measuring results? The answer is they can’t. Nonprofits need to create a data-backed culture if they hope to use data to enhance their recruitment strategy and ultimately their volunteer program.
Does your organization keep track of the people your mission is impacting on a daily basis? Have you used this data to reach out to convert clients (past and present) to financial donors and volunteers? Is there an opportunity to use your nonprofit’s impact on people to develop brand advocates who can be part of your organizations voice and create community engagement? These are just a few questions your organization may want to consider.
Ask Others to Share Their Story
Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with a nonprofit, Midwest Transplant, who focuses part of their recruitment strategy on developing donor recipients into ambassadors. These ambassadors are out in the community sharing their stories of hope and perseverance. What a great way to use impact to drive opportunity. If your nonprofit wants to leverage individuals who have been personally impacted by your mission why not ask them to share their stories and use volunteerism as a medium to broadcast their message.
Current volunteers can also be leveraged in an attempt to create a compelling storytelling strategy. Does your organization ask volunteers to share why they commit their time to your cause? Would your volunteers be willing to help recruit others who may feel the same way? A great tool for finding out volunteer motivations and if they are willing to share their stories is through a volunteer satisfaction survey. Surveys can be used to identify program areas that need improvement and push volunteers towards additional involvement (sharing personal stories ?).
Share Successes with Community
Impact data is meant to be shared and can attract others to join your cause. Share important metrics with the community that demonstrate your mission and its ability to reach/surpass goals. One of the main reasons that people volunteer is because they want to make an impact themselves. If people see that your nonprofit is making an impact they will want to be involved as well. Make sure your organization’s share’s impact metrics on social media, your website, and during community events.
Last but not least, make sure that your nonprofit has a process in place for the community to register to fill available volunteer opportunities. Without a streamlined volunteer registration system, your organization may miss recruitment potential.
Invest in Supporting Technology
If your nonprofit wants to invest in tools to help measure volunteer impact it may be the right time to consider a volunteer management system. A volunteer management system can help your organization promote opportunities, register volunteers, and create reports based on activity. Volunteer management software, like VolunteerHub, can also integrate with your donor database solution to provide even deeper insights about supporter activity.
Are you interested in learning how VolunteerHub can help your organization measure impact and covert more people to volunteers? Request a demo.
