5 steps to Building a Network of Volunteers

Organizations may have robust traffic on there website, but are they taking advantage of this traffic to build a network of volunteers? We created a campaign for The Last Green Valley to build their volunteeer list and to identify what areas of interest volunteers had in helping the organization. Here are 5 steps that may help you build your volunteer list.

Step 1

Have a good landing page and a clear Call to Action (CTA), so people interested can see that you're interested in them. List what your your looking for.

Step 2

Create a form that captures volunteer vitals. What are vitals? The obvious is who they are, where they are and how to contact them. But also creating a checklist of what ways they can participate as a volunteer. By understanding what interests a volunteer the easier is for you to match up the right people. If they don't see it on the checklist ask them for other ways the would like to help. You might discover a need that your group isn't covering.

Step 3

Automate. Building a form on your website that captures the information will also let you send it to your email marketing list. I like to use Gravity forms. It easily connects with all of the major email systems like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, Emma, etc.

Create a separate mailing list just for volunteers. You can also segment a list and send out group emails. Use your email system to create an autoresponder that welcomes new volunteers and gives them an overview of how your organization works with volunteers and what they can expect.

Step 4

Make sure your volunteers receive your newsletter if you send one out. This will keep them informed on what the organization is doing. Sending out the newsletter can be automated using your email system.

Step 5

Optimize your web landing page for SEO. It will help get your page found in a search. Are you using an SEO plugin for your WordPress site? Here's a link to review of various SEO plugins by Elegant Themes including my favorite Yoast SEO.

The bottomline is to bring in new volunteers, streamline the registration, so you have more time to spend on making a difference. Here's a great guide by Audience Ops about creating effective Calls to Action

Let me know if you found this helpful. Halagan Design has worked closely with National Heritage Corridors, trade groups and associations helping them connect the dots with web apps that connect audience, volunteers, staff, with customized websites and landing pages, ecommerce, event management, business directories, email marketing, and social media.