This article originally appeared on www.mavanetwork.org and is featured here in partnership with the Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement.
By Jordan Zabel
Over the past couple of years, Volunteer Coordinators and their organizations have noticed a decline in the number of volunteers, which has posed significant challenges in achieving their mission objectives.
However, one organization successfully tackled this challenge by using volunteer events to recruit new volunteers. They strategically planned and hosted engaging community events that not only attracted potential volunteers but also highlighted the impact and importance of their work.
This case study explores Mentor North's innovative volunteer recruitment approach, the steps they took to implement it, and the lessons they learned along the way.
Case study: Mentor North
This decrease in volunteer support has greatly affected the programs and services offered at Mentor North. In their youth mentoring programs, Mentor North asks volunteer adult mentors to commit to a 1-year mentoring relationship with a youth, and meet with them for at least four hours a month.
It’s an intensive volunteer opportunity due to the onboarding process and time commitment, but they still have youth on their waitlist and they know that their onboarding process is essential for ensuring healthy and safe matches. They won't stop recruiting until all of the youth in their community that wants a mentor, have one.
To make this possible, Mentor North embraced a new method of recruitment through the form of recruitment events and they've started listening even more to those already volunteering in their programs.
Listening to current volunteers
One step Mentor North took to engage volunteers was holding a mentor focus group, where they sought volunteer insights and knowledge to help grow their youth mentoring programs.
Their mentors shared that the best recruitment approach during events and outreach was to “paint a picture of what volunteering with the organization looks like.”
Mentor North realized this was a powerful way to focus on the work that they're doing, and how they share their volunteer opportunities with the community at large.
Planning the first recruitment event
Mentor North had its first recruitment event in April 2022, and due to the success of that event, they're now looking at holding more.
Having never held events like this, their first step was to connect with community partners to locate a site to host the event and determine a theme/activity for the event. They partnered with Duluth Art Institute for a painting class where they provided the space, instructor, and supplies.
Then Mentor North invited all of their waitlist youth and did outreach to the community about the event where interested individuals could learn more about their program and get to know some of their youth.
The main goal of Mentor North's recruitment event was to show a small sample of what mentoring could look like and that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to mentoring relationships.
Moving forward with what they've learned
As Mentor North looks to host more events, they have multiple community partners who are interested in hosting the events, as they believe in their mission and want to help their youth get matched to a mentor.
Time spent while mentoring can look different for each match and Mentor North wants to illustrate that throughout their upcoming recruitment events by doing a variety of activities such as skating, canoe building, yoga classes, and more!
Mentor North said, "If you are considering running a recruitment event and have hesitations, I would say to go for it! Even if you recruit one new volunteer, it’s worth it, as they are going to enhance your organization."
Mentor North has also recognized the need to focus on retention because we have such a strong volunteer team and we know how valuable they are.
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We also recommend listening to your volunteers and holding focus groups! The findings from our focus groups continue to help us keep a strong, focused vision as we move forward into the unknown which is volunteer engagement.
If you are ever curious about where to start or what steps to take next, with volunteer recruitment and recruitment events, never hesitate to connect with MAVA or with other volunteer coordinators as we are all in this together and when we work together we only enhance ourselves, our organization, and one another!
