As the Weather Girls said, “It’s raining volunteers…hallelujah!”

No, it’s really not.

The thing about good volunteers, really good ones, is they often don’t just show up at your door offering assistance.

Let me explain- put yourself in the potential volunteer’s position for a moment.  Let’s imagine you see an article in the newspaper, and ad on a volunteer matching website, or hear a PSA on the radio- do you drop what you are doing and volunteer your services immediately?

No.

Why not?  Because the decision to volunteer is not that easy.  You have to determine how it will fit in your lifestyle, what you have to offer, and what you have to gain.  Sometimes you have to hear that message many times before you even decide to take the time to learn more about the volunteer opportunity.

Now, let’s imagine again- someone you admire and trust says, “Hey- you know, you are really good at X, and this group I’m working with really could use that.  Could you help?”. Do you volunteer your services?

Maybe.

You may still have a lot of questions, but at least at this point you are in contact with a trusted source.  Someone you believe will have honest answers for you.

70% of volunteer organizations say that Word-of-Mouth marketing is their most effective means of recruiting new volunteers.  Check out these great suggestions for easy Word-of-Mouth marketing strategies to recruit new volunteers:  Word of Mouth Volunteer Marketing

Your task for this week:  Instead of the time you’d put into writing a clever volunteer recruitment ad for your local newspaper, send out a few emails, or better yet call some of your trusted volunteers, and ask them to “invite a friend” to serve your 4-H program.  Let them make the contact, and engage them.