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 .