1 Michele Canning Director of Volunteer Services San Francisco, Conservatory of Flowers How the Internet Has Changed Volunteering: An Insiders Guide to Recruiting a New Generation of Volunteers September 22, 2005

2 Serena Pahal Volunteer I Have a Dream Who are they?

3 Deirdre Araujo Manager of Volunteer Services Exploratorium What are they interested in?

4 Jeff Jones Program Coordinator MicroMentor What is so different?

5 So What? Bryan Connell Volunteer OUTDOOR Exploratorium Project

6 User Research Study December 2003: 996 random interviews selected from VM’s 30,000+ nonprofit user base 1 1,122 random interviews with active users sampled from VM’s 1.5+ million annual visitors 2 Published in the Journal of Volunteer Administration, Volume 22, Number 3, &2 Based on 2003 Numbers

7 Profile Overwhelmingly female (84% women, 16% men) Highly educated (57% have at least a college degree), and of the 39% who do not have a degree, half are under age 18 Young (50% are under age 30, 32% are 40+ Diverse (58% are Caucasian, 11% are African American, 10% are Hispanic)

8 What they care about? Compared to other things you do in your life, how important to you is your volunteer work? One of the most important things in my life Very important Somewhat important Not very important

9 How often do they volunteer? How often do you volunteer? Three times a year or less Four to 11 times a year How many hours per visit do you volunteer? One to three times a month One or two hours Under an hour Three or four hours Five or more hours Once a week or more

10 First-time volunteers I had not volunteered before I had volunteered before

11 What are they most interested in? Children/youth Animals Homeless/housing Education/literacy Advocacy/human rights Community Arts/culture Hunger Environment Women Health/medicine Crisis support Seniors

12 What are their challenges? Finding volunteer opportunities that match my schedule Getting specific information about volunteer opportunities Finding volunteer opportunities that interested me Finding opportunities nearby/ convenient to get to Finding opportunities that matched my skills/abilities Finding an organization with a cause I care about Finding an organization that needed help Finding an organization responsive/easy to work with

13 Volunteers Using the Web to Connect Monthly Visitors 50,000,000+ page views in 2004

14 Word of mouth Our Web site Internet recruiting services Live presentations to groups Events Newspaper ads Local volunteer center Relationship with local corporations Direct mail Radio/TV ads Nonprofits Using the Web to Connect Most useful nonprofit volunteer recruiting strategies 71% 45% 37% 33% 29% 17% 15% 8%

15 Finding the right place to serve How many volunteer opportunities do you generally respond to before finding the right place to volunteer? One Four to six Two or three Seven or more

16 From referral to volunteer On average, what proportion of the people who respond are you able to engage as volunteers? 50% to 100% of the people 20% to 49% of the people None of the people 10% to 19% of the people 1% to 9% of the people

17 Strongly agree with statementSomewhat agree with statement Impact on Nonprofits 26% 32% 38% 49% Has helped us reach out/ recruit volunteers we wouldn’t have found Makes it easier for us to find the right volunteers Has helped us find the volunteers we need Has allowed us to free up valuable resources 85% 68% 85% 79%

18 Impact on volunteers 41% 40% 50% Strongly agree with statement Somewhat agree with statement Makes it easier for me to find the right opportunity I am more likely to find satisfying volunteer relationship I am more likely to volunteer 86% 79% 82%

19 Common Online Recruiting Mistakes Putting the sign in the garage Forgetting volunteers have choices Not being specific enough Mistaking a referral for a reservation Not being ready to say, “No Thank You.” Letting listings rot

20 An Insiders Guide Use the web to build relationships, not dump information Give volunteers a chance to help the organization do what it does, not what the staff would rather not Don’t feel obliged to take volunteers Think big and re-shape your opportunities accordingly Be choosey It is your responsibility to lead

21 Real World Examples Think outside the box about what volunteers will do Tech support, focus groups, web development See the big picture, scale matters Working with groups, national recruiting, automate Distribute responsibility by breaking down big activities into manageable parts Open source model, media volunteers

22 Final Observations The web has quickly become a powerful tool bringing good people and good causes together Choice and information are shaping a new generation of volunteers Volunteers have higher expectations of their volunteer experiences The growing supply of volunteers is allowing nonprofits to be more particular Meaningful volunteer experiences require strong nonprofit leadership

23 Serena Pahal Volunteer I Have a Dream Thank You