How to Recruit Volunteers for Major Fundraising Campaigns

Whether it’s your organization’s annual fundraising initiative or a capital campaign to renovate your facility, there’s no way around it: major fundraising campaigns are hard work. They require all hands on deck from both your internal team and your external community of supporters and stakeholders. 

One of the most important groups in your major fundraising projects is your volunteers. Dedicated and talented individuals who donate their time to your organization make a difference in how quickly you can accomplish your goals. However, research shows that 62% of nonprofits find volunteer recruitment is “a big problem.” Perhaps that’s why only 63% of organizations utilize volunteer campaign chairs in a capital campaign, according to Capital Campaign Pro’s research.

So, how can your organization successfully recruit volunteers for major fundraising campaigns? Better yet, how do you engage and retain those volunteers beyond one campaign? Let’s dig into some guidance you can apply to your own volunteer program as you prepare for your next campaign.     

Why your volunteer recruitment strategies matter 

First, let’s explore why it’s important to have concrete strategies for recruiting and managing volunteers during a campaign. Consider these reasons:

• • The right approach can help you find volunteers with the time, dedication, and skill sets to meet your organization’s campaign needs. 

  • An intentional approach to recruitment allows you to build a diverse and inclusive community of volunteers as you design opportunities that fit a variety of schedules and interests. 

  • Recruiting and managing your volunteers thoughtfully will improve the volunteer experience and deepen your relationships with them. This will also allow you to strengthen your relationship with the larger community and boost your brand image. 

  • As volunteers stay engaged and eager to participate, you’ll reduce your need to continually find new recruits, saving your team time in the long run. 

  • Volunteering creates additional ways to engage important donors. Get them even more involved with your mission by tailoring new opportunities to their interests and skills.

  • On the flip side, volunteers often become donors. According to VolunteerHub, volunteers are 66% more likely to financially support an organization than non-volunteers. 

Volunteer recruitment and engagement should be built into your campaign plans from the start. Of course, you can adjust your approach over the course of the capital campaign as needed. Just remember that scrambling to recruit on the fly when a committee needs members or dealing with declining engagement are much bigger obstacles if you don’t have an established playbook to follow. 

How to recruit enthusiastic volunteers 

Your volunteers must be passionate about your organization and goals and feel excited about their roles in your campaign’s success. To recruit a community of enthusiastic volunteers, follow these best practices: 

Create a clearly defined recruiting process. 

Your recruitment efforts need a solid structure. As you reflect on your current strategy and how you can improve it, answer these questions: 

• • What are the qualities you are looking for in a volunteer? 

  • What are the roles for which you wish to recruit volunteers? 

  • What criteria will you use to decide whether to recruit an individual?  

  • Who will prepare job descriptions for different volunteer roles? 

  • How will you determine when it’s time to recruit more volunteers? 

Answering these questions will give your recruiting strategy the internal structure to run smoothly.  

Be selective as you recruit volunteers. Passionate, responsible volunteers will help drive campaign results, but those who aren’t great fits from the start are unlikely to become star volunteers. You can and should define what makes an ideal volunteer for your campaign. Create a list or persona with characteristics like passion for your mission, previous volunteer experience, an interest in making a difference, and availability.

Look within your network first.

As you begin recruiting, ask those closest to your organization for recommendations and referrals. Because of their personal connection to your organization, referred volunteers often prove to be valuable and engaged team members.  

Staff, board members, current volunteers, and highly engaged donors can likely all provide helpful introductions. Take an organized approach by creating a quick survey or sharing clear instructions for staff and volunteers to submit referrals. Bring up your volunteer program in your next board meeting and conversations with top donors.

Explain the benefits of volunteering. 

Make sure your recruitment process doesn’t only emphasize what’s expected of volunteers. Any effective appeal paints a complete picture, including the importance of your mission and campaign, what you’re asking of them, how their help will make a difference, and what they can expect from you.  

In your recruiting materials and conversations with candidates, explain that joining your campaign will allow them to drive real impact while working on something significant. They’ll meet new people in the community who share their passion while expanding their personal and professional networks along the way. And if your regular volunteer program offers any perks or special benefits, mention them, too!

Be clear about the roles and responsibilities volunteers will take on. 

No one wants to sign onto an unclear commitment. And when you don’t clearly explain to candidates what they’re signing up for, you risk attracting individuals who, while eager to help, might not be a great fit for a specific campaign position. 

Create blurbs or short job descriptions that lay out what you’re looking for in ideal candidates for the various volunteer roles in your campaign. The specifics will vary, but each blurb should at least clarify these expectations:

• • Purpose of the volunteer role 

  • Expected tasks and responsibilities 

  • Preferred level of experience 

  • Any special skills required 

  • Time commitment

You’ll recruit for different roles at different points in your campaign. For instance, as the quiet phase of your capital campaign draws to a close, you’ll need to build your kickoff and public phase team. Having job descriptions prepared will make it much easier to find new recruits if needed. Plus, it gives previous volunteers from the earlier stages a clear idea of the new ways they can help.

Help volunteers find roles that match their interests and availability. 

Once you’ve established the roles and responsibilities you need volunteers to take on in your campaign, you also need to consider your volunteers’ perspectives. 

Volunteers should enjoy their roles, and one great way to ensure they do is to help them find roles at your organization that match their interests. For example, you might know one volunteer who is passionate about event planning; they may be interested in a position on your capital campaign kick-off event committee. Or, you may see on a volunteer registration form that another individual is interested in learning more about how fundraising works, so you recruit them to help you design donation asks for your public phase. 

You should also consider volunteers’ availability. Everyone has a different schedule, which means some volunteers may be available during the workday or on the weekends, and others may not. One way you can accommodate different schedules is to offer remote volunteer opportunities. For instance, a volunteer may be able to write donor thank-you letters at home instead of coming into your facility to do so. 

Provide thorough training and support. 

Volunteers want to feel confident and prepared when they step into their campaign roles. Help them feel ready (and reduce the amount of oversight required by your team) by offering thorough training and support. 

Consider hosting a required volunteer training or orientation to get everyone on the same page and then providing additional training for specific roles and responsibilities. You should always provide accompanying documentation so that volunteers can review the information you shared in these meetings whenever they want to. 

Additionally, volunteers will have questions and issues pop up as they execute their roles. Ensure that they know who to go to for support so that your campaign runs smoothly!

How to engage and retain volunteers 

Once you’ve recruited volunteers and begun working on your campaign as a team, you’ll need to actively engage and retain them. Remember, volunteers give you their time because they believe in the importance of your work. You have to maintain their motivation to ensure they stay effective and will want to stick around through the end of the campaign and beyond. 

It’s worth reiterating that a smooth-running volunteer program made up of engaged individuals starts with recruitment. Be selective and stick to the job descriptions you create. Ask your volunteers to help attract other like-minded supporters. Retention becomes a much easier task when volunteers all enjoy their roles and feel like they’re part of a community.  

Also, the length of capital campaigns makes it possible to be flexible and adaptive with the opportunities you can offer to keep volunteers engaged. You may need or want to redirect volunteers to new or adjusted roles if:

• • A short-term role or committee is wrapping up its work and will soon disband

  • Volunteers are feeling drained during the longest, most challenging phases of the campaign

  • An individual volunteer is passionate about the campaign and has skills to offer but is disengaged by their current role

When these situations arise, we recommend a simple exercise to identify ways to redirect volunteers’ energy:

1. 1. Gather materials like a flip chart and post-it notes. 

   2. Work as a team to brainstorm all the activities that volunteers might help with. Start with what you know you need, then open it up to allow volunteers to list new ideas based on their thoughts, skills, and preferences. 

   3. Flesh out your brainstormed list. As a group, review the full timeline of your campaign and the various tasks and responsibilities that fall under each part of the cycle. 

   4. Write one item from the list on a page from the flip chart and post them around the room. 

   5. Distribute post-it notes and have the volunteers write their names on them.  

   6. Then, ask each person to post their name on the activities that best suit their interests and skill sets.

For engaged teams wrapping up their current assignments, this exercise will excite them about new projects that keep the campaign moving forward. For teams feeling drained, this exercise lets them self-select new tasks that energize them and allow you to recruit fresh volunteers who will re-energize the flagging committee or project.  

In both cases, allowing volunteers to play a direct role in choosing their assignments will boost long-term engagement and retention. It also maintains your campaign’s momentum by keeping everyone focused on moving forward. 

In addition to ensuring volunteers stay energized by their roles and responsibilities, you should also prioritize thanking your volunteers for their hard work. You can do this in dozens of ways, from gifting merchandise branded to your organization to writing thank-you letters that detail the impact they’ve made on your campaign. As you demonstrate your appreciation for each individual, you’ll inspire your volunteers to keep working hard for your organization. 

The success of your next major campaign will likely hinge (at least in part) on whether volunteers in your community are willing and ready to give their time and energy to see your organization succeed. 

Ensure you have a strong community of volunteers by creating effective recruitment and engagement strategies. Doing so will not only pay off when you reach your campaign goal but also when you create and maintain a strong community of volunteers you can count on for years to come.