We love all of our volunteers, and we are always looking to expand our community of like-minded people who want to give back to their communities. In this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into what makes a person more likely to volunteer than someone else.

As we have discussed previously, there are a ton of benefits that come along with volunteering. From feeling good to developing a new skill, the possibilities are truly endless. While the benefits are well known, it is lesser known WHY someone decides to volunteer. If we can understand what attracts volunteers to give their time, non profit organizations can use this information as leverage to attract even more volunteers.

The amount of people volunteering has remained relatively stagnant over the past 2 decades, but a compelling finding or strategy could prove to be revolutionary for the non profit world.

YOUTH VOLUNTEERING

In an article published by The Guardian, they delve into the strategies and information used by the #iwill campaign. The #iwill campaign focuses on increasing volunteering among the youth (10 to 20 years old) in UK communities. Each year, the organization publishes an annual report listing social action and recommendations for the future of their non profit.

In their 2015 report, the campaign found that out of 2,010 youth survey participants, 70% of them answered that they would volunteer in the future. Alternatively, 41% of participants said they were unsure how to get involved and where to begin giving back. With this finding, it leads to an opportunity for non profits to boost their clarity and communication on how possible volunteers can get involved.

In the study, analysts divided the participants into 3 groups: Committed, Potential and Reluctant (in terms of the possibility of volunteering in the future). The purpose of dividing these participants into groups is to provide different recommendations for each. For those who were committed, they aimed to emphasize the impact that their contribution had on the community. For the reluctant, they aimed to engage them by promoting volunteer opportunities to parents and teachers. If the reluctant group were to become engaged in one opportunity while they are young, it becomes much more likely that they will convert to a potential or committed volunteer.

The idea here is that if organizations get the youth involved at a young age, they will become life-long volunteers.

BUILD VOLUNTEERING INTO THEIR SCHEDULE

One of the biggest reasons organizations lack volunteers is due to lack of volunteer time. With busy work schedules, children and other extracurriculars; allocating your time elsewhere may seem like an impossibility. The idea to get around this barrier, which may be the most prevalent barrier, is to offer short-term and fast opportunities. If these people become engaged in those opportunities, it becomes much more likely that they will devote their valuable and scarce time in the future.

As an example, there is an initiative called the Casserole Club. The premise of this club is for members to make one or more extra portions of food at dinner. With that extra portion, members will give the food to those in their community that need it the most. The same idea can be seen in the GoodGym initiative. Members make the extra portion and distribute it to people in the community on their jogging route. Molding volunteer opportunities around the everyday life of people makes it much more likely that people will volunteer.

MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE

As we have previously discussed, a great way to get more people involved is to say what’s in it for them. Thanks to The Join In Initiative, they have identified six behavioral principles that will help make volunteering more attractive to prospects.

These six principles are:

Growth: Developing new skills and connections

Impact: Show the volunteers how their contributions are helping the community first-hand

Voice: The different ways you can ask people to volunteer

Experience: Make the process of volunteering easy and accessible

Recognition: Saying thank you and being appreciative of the volunteers

Social Factors: Networking with other volunteers and individuals you are helping

Ultimately, it all boils down to making people feel like giving their time was worthwhile.