Finding Great Volunteers

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Matt Hugg
February 24, 2025

“We’ll take anybody.”

Have you said that when asked about volunteers? Did you mean it? How’d that work for you?

If you were lucky, then fine. But do you want to rely on luck to find great volunteers?

Ooooo… wait a minute. You want great volunteers, not just any volunteers, right? 

So, define “great.” 

Someone with a passion for your mission? A specific skill set? Shows up on time? Lives nearby? Cares about their community? Can leap tall building in a single bound?

Hold on! “If I put too many conditions on what I need, I’ll never find anyone,” right?

Actually, you might start seeing the right ones. Let’s take a lesson from the business sector.

A business looks for “great customers” by defining exactly who that customer is. The closer they get to matching the customer to their product, the higher their chance spotting a great customer—one that buys their product again and again. Something else happens, too. When they know what their great customer looks like, their chances increase of seeing that great customer—in their database, on the street and ultimately, in their store.

And the business doesn’t keep this a secret from their employees. They define what they want and get everyone looking—not just the leaders, or the marketing department.

There’s some brain science behind this. By training their brains to spot what was good to eat, what was not and what might eat them, our ancestors lived longer.

For you? Start your hunt with what your great volunteer might “look” like? I put “look” in quotes because it’s not about surface attributes like ethnicity, gender and even clothing. It’s about identifying attributes that will make a difference for your mission. It’s also important to identify attributes that are essential, verses those that are nice to have,  but optional.

For example, let’s say that you are running an after-school program for neighborhood kids. 

The “essentials” might include an 8^th grade education, be comfortable reading aloud, at least one Monday through Friday availability from 3 PM to 6 PM or Saturday from 8 AM to Noon, with the ability to get themselves to/from your location at those times.

“Nice to have” attributes? Experience working with children, and having child safety clearances for your state. The clearances are essential when doing the work, but optional in recruiting.

Where would you find these people?

Hmmmm… how about high school kids, traditional age college students, and retirees? What about someone who works 9 to 5, Monday through Friday? Sure, but that’s only likely to get you the Saturday people, and you want to “fish where the fish are,” so to speak. Start with the obvious ones who have a better chance for the required availability to increase your chances of filling your need.

Let’s focus on the high school kids. Just by identifying these people, you’ve done some demographic profiling: age and where they live (within a school district), and a certain education level (at least 9^th grade). High school kids who might like to do this are probably some of the active kids on campus—and they tend to have better grades, and thus higher reading levels—and that maybe an indicator of higher motivation in whatever they commit to. Where to find them? How about service clubs, future teacher organizations? Now, a bit of reality. Most young people interested in careers in education identify as female. It’s an example of how you may need to adjust your recruiting based on your need—like if more boys need reading role models. It’s a decision you may have to make.

What attributes disqualify after-school reading helpers? Do they have disciplinary issues? Is transportation a problem? How about parental permission? Are they just doing this to meet school service hour requirements or to get a college recommendation? Does that matter?

Now that you’ve defined who you want and their attributes, put yourself where the local, active, high student-aged, people are. No, you’re not going be the creeper, hanging out near campus. You are going to use your network to contact teachers or staff at the schools. You’re going to enlist them as “volunteers to find volunteers.” Try your LinkedIn contacts, or people you know in your community with kids in the school.

Then you sell your opportunity to them. Yes, sell. (Need a confidence builder? Read “To Sell is Human” by Daniel Pink.) Instead of just saying “I need kids to help…”, they’ll respond much better if you tell them exactly the attributes you’re looking for. And even better, they may have some suggestions, like whether an attribute is unrealistic, or whether there’s another you never considered.

And one more thing: like I said in “Where do You Find Volunteers”, when you finally identify the right kids, like members of a school club, resist the temptation to gather them all in a room and say “who wants to help?” Ask them one-to-one.

In the end you have two choices. The most popular is to cast a wide net and ask for anyone’s help. It’s easy and a minimal investment of your time. Chances are that most will sit on their hands. Of those who volunteer, the number of “keepers” will be low. You’ll probably waste your time and energy training people who won’t stay, or if they do, could be ineffective.

Or you can put in upfront time, find a smaller number who match your needs and get some great volunteers!

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Author: Matt Hugg is president of Nonprofit.Courses, and mentor at the John S. Watson School of Public Service at Thomas Edison State University. He can be reached at [email protected].

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