making the most of your volunteermatch account: … filemaking the most of your volunteermatch...
TRANSCRIPT
Making the Most of Your VolunteerMatch Account: Advanced Tools
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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
Making the Most of Your VolunteerMatch Account: Advanced Tools
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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?
VolunteerMatch Learning Center
http://www.volunteermatch.org/nonprofits/learningcenter/
Help with Best Practices
Jennifer Bennett
415-321-3639