Identifying

Volunteer Recruitment

As you plan your recruiting efforts it is important to consider a number of factors. You and other members of your county faculty must be convinced that volunteers are needed for 4-H in your county to achieve its mission. If you are not convinced, it will be very difficult to convince others. It is important that the 4-H mission and the role of volunteers in accomplishing that mission be clear.

As we begin recruiting, the volunteer service descriptions developed from the earlier needs assessment step become critical. These descriptions clearly define the types of volunteer services needed and imply the types of people who might meet these needs.

Volunteer recruitment is a year-round endeavor, but some counties find it useful to conduct a concentrated volunteer recruitment drive that lasts for one or two weeks. For both the constant and the concentrated recruitment efforts, a good base of public information and awareness is helpful. You lay the groundwork for recruitment by establishing among the public knowledge of the nature of the 4-H program and the important role of volunteers in it. This general information should be part off your larger public information effort.

Laying the Ground Work

Getting good media coverage that includes stories about 4-H program successes, including mention of the key role volunteers played in those successes is critical. Distributing informational brochures and posting flyers in places where people congregate helps. Displays in appropriate places of business or other places people congregate are good ideas. The placement of ads in newsletters and in internal documents of businesses and organizations within your community can also contribute to this good base of information.

Another effective means of getting your story out is through giving presentations about the 4-H program to community groups. If you have trained adult and teen volunteers that are prepared to give presentations about 4-H and volunteer opportunities, there are a lot of civic groups in need of a program that addresses their organization’s purpose. If you have difficulty getting scheduled on the program, and you have volunteers with enough flexibility in their schedule to be "on call", they can be added to the emergency speakers list to call if there is a late cancellation.

Some have found that information/recruitment booths set up in cooperation with a local PTA, at union meetings, at professional meetings, or at a general volunteer recruitment event with other youth serving agencies can be a good strategy for becoming known.

While very few volunteers are directly recruited through media and rather impersonal group meetings, these can be important to establishing in the eyes of the general public 4-H as an effective youth organization with volunteers playing key roles.

Developing a Recruitment Strategy
At this point we have a clear vision for the 4-H program and a commitment among salaried staff and volunteers to increase the involvement of volunteers. A good groundwork for general public familiarity with the 4-H program and the important role of volunteers is being developed. Now what? How do we recruit volunteers best suited for vacant positions?

To identify volunteers needed for your 4-H Program, consider things such as the parts of town they are likely to live in, their current relationship to 4-H (or 4-Hers), their educational background, their work setting, hobbies, leisure time activities and organizational affiliations related to these activities, publications they might read, etc. What would motivate someone to volunteer? Consider things like helping their own child, sharing a hobby, promoting their career to youth, meeting new people, learning new skills, keeping productively involved, personal growth, or out of desire to give back to 4-H or their community.

Another good step for determining potential motivators for accepting 4-H volunteer roles, is to survey your current volunteers. Do they all have the same type of motivation? Are there similarities in their education or experiences? Were they recruited similarly? Answers to these questions can give hints as to where to start and also alert you to potential problems in past recruitment and for volunteer support, if you have a very homogeneous volunteer corps. Especially as we attempt to broaden the participation of volunteers to communities which have traditionally been under served, it is important for us to identify and eliminate systemic barriers to volunteer participation. Among these are out-of-pocket costs of volunteering, transportation to carry out the volunteer roles and to attend training, the need for expensive childcare while performing the volunteer service or attending training and others. If your current volunteers include only these for which these would not be barriers, you need to review your system to see if eliminating these barriers would be helpful.

Methods of Recruitment
A general profile of the types of volunteers we seek has been developed, and some thought has been given to where they might be found. Next, the methods of recruitment and who will be doing the contact with potential recruits must be decided. The methods sometimes dictate who can best do the recruiting.

If your county is typical, many of the volunteers that support clubs come from the ranks of parents of 4-H members and additional volunteers from the friends and associates of 4-H parents. A major source for identifying potential volunteers is through current volunteers, 4-H parents and other Extension clientele.

Concentric Circles
One method for recruiting through this group is sometimes referred to as concentric circle recruiting. While it may seem obvious, people who are currently connected to 4-H and Extension programs are among the best potential targets for recruitment. Concentric circle recruitment operates like ripples in a pond. To use this method, first look to the people closely connected with your program and work outward. Are there current volunteers whose contribution to the program would be greater in another position? May currently uninvolved parents be appropriate volunteers to fill this role? Who is best to contact them? Do current volunteers know of potential recruits for vacant positions? Would they make initial contact?

Key Informant Referrals
Another method of recruitment is through the use of key informants. This method involves working through individuals who are knowledgeable of the community and who might have the qualifications we seek. Key informants might be ministers, community leaders, school principals, the volunteer fire chief, leading farmers, or anyone who has a broad knowledge of the community.

This approach requires that we first convince the informant that 4-H would be a valuable asset to their community. We then let them know about the volunteer opportunities available and ask for referrals. Depending on the level of commitment these referrals can be used in a variety of ways. If the key informant is willing to help, but does not want to be "blamed" for our contacting a potential volunteer, we should respect that desire. The contact with the recruit is made without mentioning who has recommended them. This is not as good as other key informant methods, but far superior to cold calls.

A second method using the referrals list is possible if the key informant is willing to have their name used in the initial contact. "I’ve been talking to Principal Potter and she says you would be perfect for an opportunity we have to get the kids in your community involved in positive activities. When can we meet to discuss what we have in mind?"

The best use of the key informant referrals is when you have convinced the informant to truly partner with 4-H and they personally make the initial contact with the people they’ve referred. "I’ve been talking with Sammy McQuire, the local 4-H agent, and I feel sure that you’d be perfect for one of the opportunities that they have available to help in the positive development of youth in our community. When can you meet with Sammy to discuss it?"

Of course, you may be so effective with the key informant that they personally make the visit to the referrals! Even short of that, this method makes it less necessary that the recruiter be personally knowledgeable of the community in order to target potential recruits.

Sponsoring organizations
A method that has worked for project and community club volunteers is the sponsoring organization approach. This method is based on seeking a commitment from an existing adult group to sponsor a youth group. In project areas this might be an adult horse club, Cattlemen’s Association, Audubon Society, Garden Club, or any civic club that agrees to provide a volunteer team for a 4-H club in their areas of interest. Your recruitment task becomes selling the organizations’ board on the benefits of using 4-H to help them meet their objectives. The organization will recruit from among their members the individuals to be trained and to carry out the needed volunteer role. Clubs formed in this way typically have periodic changes in leadership, but a long life. That is as long as 4-H continues to meet the sponsor’s needs.

Community club sponsorship can be by a block or tenant association, a civic club, business or church groups. The same approach can also work for a special interest program such as a day camp.

One to one Recruitment
Using the profile of the types of people that might be appropriate for each volunteer role and where they might be found, we can try to home in on an individual that fits the bill. If we want a workshop on photography or small engines then "let your fingers do the walking." Professional photographers and lawnmower repair shops are logical starting points and they’re in the yellow pages!

98.6 Recruiting
Some recruiters use the approach that if a person is still alive they are a potential volunteer. When there are many volunteer positions to be filled, having this attitude may help you identify diamonds in the rough. There are many potentially great volunteers that would not be identified through targeted recruitment. The main cautions are to properly screen these recruits and avoid recruiting more volunteers than you need.

A key to recruiting is to be pro-active in identifying what volunteer roles need to be filled and in identifying potential recruits. We must actively involve others in this process. When the rare individual calls or comes by your office to volunteer, celebrate with an extra dessert, but don’t rely on this method to find all volunteers needed!

The bottom line on recruiting methods is ... Ask, Ask, Ask!

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