Nonprofits: 3 Ways to Increase a Culture of Volunteerism in Youths
Over
the years working with nonprofits, I found that volunteers are essential for
achieving their vision although; one of the biggest challenges they face is
getting and retaining active young volunteers. As a participant in the Coursera
at Northwestern University Social Media Marketing Specialization Program as
well as being a co-founder of a nonprofit organization, I found two articles
highlighting how to effectively engage volunteers and they are important for
you to know.
The
first article, titled “What
can Charities Do to Engage More Young Volunteers?” by Samantha
Sparrow, focuses on the challenges nonprofit organizations face in getting and
retaining young volunteers especially those who are willing to volunteer more long
term as opposed to short term. Sparrow emphasizes on the importance of making
volunteering attractive to young adults by ensuring they can build new skills,
and be able to demonstrate these skills on their resume or as part of their
work experience. The article also talked about how vital recognition is to
young volunteers and if nonprofit organizations want to attract young
volunteers and convert them to long-term retention, then they need to
incorporate a culture of awards and acknowledgement.
Photograph: http://bit.ly/1RErvXe
The second article
is written by the Guardian and is titled “How
to Engage and Retain Volunteers in Your Charity Work,” and unlike the
first one, focuses more on the importance of building one on one relationships
with volunteers. The article also mentions that when volunteers are included in
the planning, properly managed and their ideas are encouraged, it would make
them feel like a crucial member of the team. Appreciation and finding ways to
show gratitude to volunteers is essential to keeping them as active volunteers.
Based on my
finding on these two articles and my experience taking Social Media Marketing
on Coursera at Northwestern University, I have listed three actions that I
would recommend to nonprofit organizations to help them create a culture of
volunteerism in Youths.
- Make it Social – Use social to raise awareness and find
fun ways to recruit volunteers and call to action campaigns with the use
of real time.
- Skills Development – Invest in volunteers through
training, webinars, free online classes that would give them skills and
knowledge that they didn’t have before.
- Be Creative – Find innovative/ fresh ways for young volunteers to attract and engage other young youths in volunteering.
Starting today you need to begin finding new and
exciting ways to attract and keep volunteers in your nonprofit organizations
and for more relevant ideas, check out the VolunteerMatch blog, Engaging
Volunteers
Adebimpe Femi-Oyewo is a
co-founder/ MD of the NGO Kindred Africa Community Development Foundation
(Kinnect), which creates a platform to encourage volunteerism across Africa.
She is passionate about human rights especially children’s rights, education
and peace building and the use of technology, social media and other tools for
advocacy and the engaging of youths as agents of change. I am currently taking
a course on Coursera
at Northwestern Social Media Marketing Specialization Program.
Feel free to reach out to me and connect @BimpeFemi-Oyewo .
