Attracting and retaining volunteers

Finding volunteers takes time and intentionality. Doug believes that the key to his group’s continued success is having a strong and diverse core of active volunteers. With 11 core volunteers, they have enough human power to host a variety of events and activities, which in turn, attracts new volunteers and diverse park users. However, early on, Doug and Friends of Sorauren Park realized that volunteer recruitment was continually landing at the bottom of their agenda, making it easy to ignore They altered their approach to volunteer recruitment by dedicating entire meetings to the topic and deciding the key steps they would take to engage more volunteers. The strategy helped get volunteerism on their radar and keep it there.

If your group does not have the capacity and human power to host several events, Doug suggests focusing your efforts on a couple of key, popular events. If your event is well marketed and executed, it will attract a lot of people. This way you can use events to attract people interested in joining your team. When you host events, be sure to collect e-mail address via a sign-up sheet so you can keep community members up to date on your activities. Finding new team members does not happen overnight, but the more people that know about your group and stay in the loop, your projects, and your needs, the more likely it is that they will eventually  want to join the team.

At the beginning, it can seem overwhelming for a new volunteer to join a committee that meets regularly. Early on, people are often more willing to take on a very specific volunteer task like maintaining a social media account or planning a cleanup event. For example, when Doug Bennet stepped down from the Chair position at Friends of Sorauren Park, he was followed by Joël Campbell. It’s worth noting that Joël had run the group’s adopt-a-park-tree program for several years before taking on the Chair role. Joël had already built a relationship with Friends of Sorauren Park, which made it easier for him to take on a leadership role.

Picture this, someone just attended your Clean up event and loved it. They know about your group but don’t really know how to volunteer with you. How could your group leverage this momentum and make it easy for people to connect with you? Here are some options Doug shared that have helped his group keep communication lines open.

• Make your group meetings accessible to community members: Choosing a recurring and regular time and hosting the meeting in a community space, makes it easier for people to join.
• Make it easy for people to learn about or join your group via your website, e-mail list, or social media: You might dedicate a section of your website to express that you welcome volunteers and new ideas. Test a couple of approaches depending on your community, your capacity, and the technology you have available. For example, Friends of Sorauren Park invites community members to join their regular meetings or contact them online. Previously, they had a  message board for people to email with their general interest, but they weren’t getting much traction.  Now they have a simple form and have noticed an increase in volunteer interest.

Once you have your team of volunteers, don’t forget to acknowledge and thank everyone for their efforts. Volunteers care about the positive impact they are having in their community, so make sure you thank them and show them how their efforts are contributing to the bigger picture. Friends of Sorauren Park acknowledges volunteers in big and small ways. On the large-scale side, they had a sign posted in the park thanking volunteers. They’ve also partnered with a sponsor to host an appreciation event that brought volunteers and supporters together. Depending on the size of your group recognition might look different. However,  the key is to be genuine, focus on the impact, and have some fun. Thanks to Doug at Friends of Sorauren Park for great insights that come from years successful work with volunteers. Remember, once you have people interested in volunteering, make sure you have a way to welcome them into the team, assess their skills and interests, and decide how you can work together. Don’t feel like you have to do everything at once. Take some time to see how these tips apply to your community park group and choose one or two next steps you can take to have more people join your team.