Best Practices for Recruiting Online Literacy Program Managers

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Best Practices for Recruiting Online Literacy
Program Managers
Jennifer Bennett, Manager of Volunteer Programs,
VolunteerMatch
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Agenda

• Introduction
• Making the Case for Online Volunteer Recruiting
• Best Practices for Recruiting Online
• Review Real Opportunities
• Things to Remember
• QA

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Recruiting Volunteers Online

• Another Tool to Recruit Volunteers
• VolunteerMatch User Survey
• VolunteerMatch Research
• 100 High Referring Listings
• 100 Listings with no referrals
• Best Practices
• Applicable for any online recruiting site

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8 Easy Steps for Recruiting Online

• Make the Title Work for You
• Catchy, Fun, Interesting
• Keep it Brief
• One Opportunity, 100 words
• Word it Simply and Make it Easy to Understand
• No Jargon, no acronyms
• Make an Impact
• Include a Strong Call to Action

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8 Easy Steps for Recruiting Online

• Provide Direction and Support
• Time Commitment, Training, Restrictions
• Make it Visually Appealing
• Include Pictures, Graphics. Make use of White
  Space.
• Remember to Edit
• Grammar, Spelling
• View your Listing as a Volunteer
• Use a Critical Eye.

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Best Practices for VolunteerMatch

• Title Stands Out
• Call to Action
• Make Good Use of First Sentence
• Visible to prospective volunteers
• Brainstorm and Use Keywords
• What kinds of volunteers to you want to find you
• Keep Referrals on VolunteerMatch
• Information is only useful if volunteers click I
  Want to Help!

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Make Your Title Work For You
Take advantage of the first thing a prospective
volunteer will see.
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Review Opportunities

• Lets take a look at some examples of good
  descriptions
• and those that could use some work.

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Literacy Program Best Practices Panel

• Roberta Roth, Menlo Park Public Library
• Reaching out to your partners Friends of the
  Library, Foundation
• Beatriz Sarmiento, Commerce Public Library
• Tailoring opportunities to attract the right
  volunteers
• Sandy Tosti, Solano County Library
• Recruiting a whole new demographic
• Multi-ZIP

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Remember

• Your VolunteerMatch listing may be the first time
  a volunteer learns about your organization
• Use language that is welcoming
• Clearly state needs and impacts
• Outline any potential deal breakers
• Craft opportunities that will attract the
  volunteers you need

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• Questions?

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Thanks for attending!

• For any questions contact
• Jennifer Bennett
• 415-321-3639
• jbennett_at_volunteermatch.org
• VolunteerMatch Support
• 415-241-6872
• californialibraries_support_at_volunteermatch.org