The Volunteer Recruitment (and Membership Development) Book

by Susan J. Ellis

Crammed with innumerable recruitment ideas and recommendations! Starts with designing assignments attractive to new volunteers and continues by addressing organizational image, where to look for volunteers, why people volunteer or do not, how to select the right recruitment technique, what "diversity" means to an organization, and the impact of trends in volunteering today. Includes a full chapter on membership development for all-volunteer organizations and an appendix on how to use the Internet for volunteer recruitment.

Paperback

First published July 28, 1994

Reviews

[MD · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book because it included a section on all-volunteer organizations. Unfortunately, much of that chapter is devoted to increasing membership, which is probably an entirely separate group in most organizations. It certainly is in mine. When she does get around to discussing volunteering, the advice isn't very helpful. Place a volunteering requirement on all members? That would make recruiting new members more difficult whch is not where we want to go. Another issue with all-volunteer organizations which the author does not recognize is that there may not be a persistent infrastructure. For example, there may be no office. Volunteers may use whatever software they own or know, and when they rotate out the next person may use something completely different.

But as in most books related to volunteers, there is some information that applies to all-volunteer organizations as well. For the most part, this book covered the same ground as other books I've read on volunteer management, with an occasional original nugget here and there.

In addition, although the book added an updated appendix on the web's role in recruiting volunteers, it isn't integrated with the rest of the book. This makes the rest of the book seem very out-of-date until you finally get to the appendix. Which is also dated ("cyberspace"), yet shows some surprising foresight. There is a useful paragraph about creating and using instruction sheets or checklists for some types of positions.

I encountered a couple of quotes I liked, even though they don't really apply to us, such as "(implying 'please take one of your waiting volunteers out of the freezer and send the warmed up body to me')".

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book to teach a graduate level course on volunteer management.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-organized and thoroughly-explained guide to the COMPLETE task of volunteer recruitment, including changes that might be necessary on an organizational level to be a good option for how prospective volunteers spend their time, but ultimately too outdated to be of much use. I laughed out loud at the sentence warning me that I'll probably never meet an AmeriCorps volunteer (in my 4 person department, we have 4 total terms of AmeriCorps service between us). Perhaps a revision to include suggestions on how to incorporate AmeriCorps service into your organization would be more appropriate there, and I would have liked to see the information about online recruiting as a part of the main text rather than as an appendix as I do a majority of my recruiting online. Overall, I'll be using Ellis's text as a guide in my effort to revamp my employee attitudes to volunteers at my agency, but I'll only be referring them to this book because it's the only one they'll have access to and I'll only recommend the first several chapters.

[Jayne Cravens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too many organizations think advice for recruiting volunteers is about making a list of places to send your volunteer notices. Susan Ellis talks about the realities of successful volunteer recruitment, focusing on volunteer task design (one of the most neglected aspects of successful volunteer recruitment, IMO), "inviting, not pleading" in recruitment messages, targeting qualified candidates who will stick around rather than large numbers of responses, and recruiting for diversity. Whether you want to stick with traditional communications avenues or to use networking technologies, this book is essential for volunteer managers to help them successfully recruit enthusiastic, ready-to-serve volunteers.

[Island Connect Consulting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many organizations struggling to recruit volunteers would benefit from this book. Too many start asking for help before they are ready to put volunteers to work. At best this can lead to frustrated volunteers who are under-utilized, or worse: staff spinning their wheels to address high volunteer turnover, and even worse: unhappy volunteers bad-mouthing your organization. When dealing with volunteers, the scout motto to "be prepared!" is quite apt. This book sets forth a clear strategy for volunteer recruitment (and retention) that begins with organizational readiness.

[Shishir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where and how to recruit

[Shishir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentials
• Making it meaningful for volunteers
• Choose the most qualified
• Be aware of changing needs and diversity
• Always be asking for the order “ask” for volunteer meaningful service