Why Recruiting Donors as Volunteers Works and How to Do It Right

Recruiting volunteers is as simple as asking donors if they're interested in giving their time when they complete their online donations.
Recruiting Donors as Volunteers - Featured Image

Every donor won’t become a volunteer, but giving your donors the opportunity to become volunteers through your donation form makes it easier for them to consider the opportunity. Most volunteers are ready, willing, and able, but haven’t been asked. Asking for volunteers, opens up the possibilities for your donors to contribute in multiple ways.

GiveWP with the Form Field Manager can help you ask for volunteers with just a radio button and phone number field.

Why do Donors Make Good Volunteers?

The best volunteer recruits are those that already believe in your cause. There are several groups that are committed to the success of your organization:

  • Board and employees
  • Volunteers
  • Consumers (those who use your services)
  • Donors

Your board, employees, and volunteers are already working for you in different capacities. Your donors contribute financially. Although many of your donors are content to do that, many might be willing to volunteer if they were offered an opportunity or invitation.

Donors are already supporters, believers in your cause, and fans of the work you do. For some of them, becoming a volunteer is a next natural progression.

bell icon

Like What You're Reading? Subscribe Here!

Newsletter Opt-in

How Can You Ask Donors to Become Volunteers?

There are many ways to recruit volunteers.

  • Post on your social media the different ways for volunteers to be involved in your organization. If you’re a dog shelter, show dog lovers how fun it is to work with the animals. Include details about the jobs you need help with like, dog walking, feeding, and cleaning. If you’re a tutoring center, post about the subjects you need help tutoring in. Find ways to make it real and specific, so that people are more motivated to volunteer.
  • Create a blog post asking for volunteers. Include both volunteer and impact testimonials and videos of other volunteers in action.
  • Use your newsletter to appeal for volunteers.
  • Create a form on your site for those interested in becoming a volunteer to complete.
  • Add a place on your donation form to indicate interest in volunteering.

The last way to recruit volunteers is our focus here. Asking donors if they’re interested in volunteering when they give is quick to set up with GiveWP.

Using GiveWP and Form Field Manager to Recruit Donors as Volunteers

When you use GiveWP and the Form Field Manager add-on, you can give your donors a place right on the donation form to indicate they’d like to learn more about volunteering with your organization. This gives you an easy “upsell” to add a commitment for volunteering on top of the donation.

Here’s how to set it up:

  1. Create your GiveWP form. Try using our new multi-step form template for some real pizzazz!
  2. In the Form Field Manager area of your form editor (usually below the main form settings area) add the following fields:
    1. Radio Button
      1. Field Label: Are you interested in volunteering with us?
      2. Inputs: Yes. Not at this time.
    2. Phone Number
  3. Decide where on your form you would like to place this area. We suggest after the credit card area and before the donate button.

Radio Button Setup in Form Field Manager

Decide where to put your volunteer form fields on your Donation Form

Following Up with Donor-Volunteer Commitments

We know that the person who receives donation notifications may not be the same person who manages volunteers and recruiting. So it’s important that these people are in communication any time someone makes a donation and indicates interest in volunteering.

It’s possible to add emails to the admin notification whenever a donation is made. That way everyone that needs information can be notified. You can configure your forms to automatically send a notification to the volunteer wrangler that they can follow up on.

If you don’t want the volunteer coordinator to receive donation information, then the person receiving the notification would need to pass along the information for timely connection.

Remember, timing is everything! Reach out to potential volunteers quickly, so they know how much interest you have in them, and they feel valued.

As Head of Customer Success at GiveWP, I contributed an article on “How to Attract, Keep and Work With Volunteers” at Sentree Cares. See more of my tips here.

Volunteers Can Be Donors, Too

Don’t forget that you can also ask your volunteers to contribute to your financial goals. Both your donors and volunteers have already committed to your mission with time and/or finances. So just like asking your donors to volunteer, you can share the opportunity for your volunteers to become donors, too!.

Do you have tips and ideas for engaging volunteers? We want to hear them!

About the Author

Share this post

Join Our Newsletter

Get fundraising insights directly in your inbox. Plus a 15% discount off all plans.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright © 2024 Liquid Web, L.L.C.

GiveWP™ is a trademark of Liquid Web, L.L.C.

A Liquid Web Brand

© 2024 All Rights Reserved.