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Making the Most of Your VolunteerMatch Account: Advanced Tools

Jennifer Bennett, Manager Volunteer Programs, VolunteerMatch

Maura Koehler-Hanlon, Client Relations Manager, VolunteerMatch

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Agenda

• Introduction

• Review VolunteerMatch & Best Practices

• Advanced Tools: Using Community Leader

• Things to Remember

• Questions

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VolunteerMatch Overview

“Helping everyone find a great place to volunteer”

• Use of technology to connect volunteers with nonprofits

• Over 1.6 million volunteer members, 70,000 nonprofits and over 4.3 million referrals

• #1 on Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for finding volunteer opportunities

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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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Great Opportunity

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Advanced Tools: Community Leader

• Photo Manager

• Custom Question Manager

• Greeting Manager

• Document Manager

• Syndication Tool

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Photo Manager

• Opportunity to ‘show’ the work

• Attracts more volunteers– Higher referral rate

• Can store up to 5 photos with titles and captions

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Custom Question Manager

• Include up to 3 questions on referral form

• Ask logistical questions– Dates, shifts, lunch preference, t-shirt size

• Ask qualifying questions– Can you, Do you, Are you able to?

• Ask for experiential information– Briefly describe your experience with…

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Greeting Manager

• Personalize automatic referral email to volunteers

• Create relationship immediately/automatically– Primary contact

• Include additional information– Orientation dates, links to website or membership form

• Reinforce important information – Age, training, commitment requirements

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Document Manager

• Attach a document to the referral email– Microsoft Word, PDF, Text, Excel, RTF or HTML files

• Communicate specific program information– Volunteer brochure, handbook, application

• Provide graphic or visual information– Location map, race course

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Syndication Tool

• Promote VolunteerMatch listings on other sites

• Changes to listings update automatically

• Customize the colors/fonts to match your site

• Choose how opportunities are displayed

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Questions?

californialibraries_support@volunteermatch.org

VolunteerMatch Learning Center

http://www.volunteermatch.org/nonprofits/learningcenter/

Help with Best Practices

Jennifer Bennett

415-321-3639

jbennett@volunteermatch.org