To attract volunteer leaders, invest in connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment.
You’ve seen it happen. The same dedicated people carry the load year after year while your most qualified potential leaders hide in the back, politely declining. Or you’ve got some enthusiastic volunteers who step up—but then burn out and walk away. Sound familiar? When attracting busy, talented people to lead, the secret is to start with connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment. Whether you’re leading a volunteer group, a non-profit, or a community team, these four dimensions will help you attract and retain leaders who can keep your mission thriving.
How to Recruit Volunteer Leaders
- Start with story
- Set a rhythm of why
- Communicate opportunities
- Facilitate relationships
- Create bite-size roles
- Limit terms
- Identify habits for success
- Inventory talent and skills
- Include young people and give them power
- Empower possibility
- Allow for failure and learning
- Schedule the finish
- Practice accountability
- Celebrate success
Leadership is leadership—whether you work in a volunteer organization or a for-profit corporation. Same with teamwork and collaboration. And no matter where you lead, the first conversation is with yourself. If you have a poverty mentality (“I have to beg people to do this”), you can’t attract the talent you need.
Instead, you can use the four dimensions of collaboration to create a culture people want to join. With these four dimensions, you’ll attract, keep, and grow leaders in your volunteer organization.
Connection
Connection to a purpose and people is the heart of volunteer service. To attract leaders, connect people to the mission and each other.
1. Start with Story
What’s at the heart of your work? That core “why” should pulse through everything you do. Condense your organization’s work to one sentence that captures what it’s all about. That inspires people to say, “Sign me up.”
Once you have that straightforward “why” spelled out, find ways to tell the story. Think of the people you serve. Tell their story. Better yet, have them tell their story.
Through story, you connect potential volunteer leaders to your values and mission. You want their heart before their time or money.
2. Set a Rhythm of Why
One of the best volunteer leaders I (David) ever worked with started every single gathering with that one-sentence statement of purpose. “We are here to…” It didn’t matter if it was a Board meeting, a happy-hour, or a recognition celebration. He started with WHY. And every member of the organization internalized that why. It drove everything we did and attracted volunteers.
Consistently connect back your WHY to help attract potential leaders to what matters most.
3. Communicate Opportunities
Too often, committees ask, “Who should lead this?” and limit their answers to their established connections. They overlook many qualified people because they don’t know them. Communicate opportunities to cast a broader net and connect your members to the chance to serve and lead.
4. Facilitate Relationships
One of the most valuable benefits of volunteer leadership are the people you meet. You can help your volunteers realize this benefit by investing in relationships. Take time for “connection before content” to help your volunteers get to know one another, understand one another’s expertise, and individual stories.
With limited time, you don’t need to invest hours—even a few minutes at the beginning of meetings for a compassionate conversation starter or SynergyStack habit discussion will help.
Clarity
Clarity about roles, timeframes, and how to succeed is vital for successful volunteers. Invest in clarity to make leadership accessible, help potential leaders say “yes” and succeed in their work.
5. Create Bite-Size Roles
Warning: this will annoy the guy who did the whole job for the last 20 years. You’ll need to politely tell him to chill. He needs relief, and it’s a new day.
Consider breaking the bigger jobs down into something a strong leader with an already booked life could imagine herself doing. As they grow into a bigger role, they may take on more responsibility.
But make that first “yes” as manageable as possible.
6. Limit Terms
It’s easy to rely on the same people to do the same thing year after year. The shoes become too big to fill, and the unintended side effect is intimidation … not to mention stagnation. Plus, knowing there’s an exit strategy is attractive. Everyone saw how the last guy got stuck.
And, the person may want to continue their service. There will still be a place for them.
7. Identify Habits for Success
There are two questions every volunteer (heck every employee, leader…every team member) needs to be able to answer: 1) What does success in this role accomplish? 2) How do I succeed?
Help your volunteer leaders with a clear picture of what a successful outcome achieves for the organization and the specific, observable habits that will help them have that success.
Curiosity
Curiosity helps you tap into the vast set of hidden talents, abilities and experiences your people bring with them. Invest in curiosity to find new people, new approaches, and help people grow in their roles.
8. Inventory Talents and Skills
You need to know what people are eager to give. Some will be too humble to tell you. I (Karin) was directing a children’s musical at our church and was thinking I’d have to bother the usual suspects to paint the set. One of the newer members came to me with his portfolio of AMAZING art, as if he were applying for a job. I had to resist the urge to kiss this man I didn’t know. He spent countless hours creating amazing scenery.
Bottom line, we didn’t know and we never would have asked.
9. Include Young People & Give Them Power
Kids have enormous leadership potential. If you have young people in your organization, scaffold them gently and take some risks. Our teenagers would get so annoyed when adults try to micro-manage their leadership efforts. They’ve got it. Give kids room and watch the magic. Then you can gently coach and help them grow as they run into challenges.
See also: Developing Leadership Skills in Children: 11 Ways to Grow Your Kids
10. Empower Possibility
Some volunteer organizations have a habit of asking someone to “lead” and then tell them exactly how it should be done. That will turn off your most creative volunteer leaders. Be willing to accept radically novel approaches and new ideas. (See Clarity above—if you define what a successful outcome does for the organization, ask them how they might get there.)
11. Allow for Failure and Learning
No one grows without taking risks and stumbling along the way. But criticism and gossip will turn away your best leaders FOREVER. They’ve got enough of that crap in their day job. Encourage, develop, and make it okay to experiment and fail forward.
Commitment
Commitment and accountability tell your volunteers that their work matters. Invest in commitment and accountability to help your volunteers feel a real sense of accomplishment as they fulfill the purpose of their work.
12. Schedule the Finish
One of the most frustrating volunteer experiences is when you work hard to meet a deadline, only to find out that no one else took the work seriously. “Why bother” sets in—and soon you’ll lose those dedicated leaders.
Promote accountability by scheduling the finish and ensuring that everyone has straightforward tasks and a specific time for the team to review progress. Discuss competing priorities to ensure the timelines are achievable.
When you schedule the finish, you bake accountability into the team’s work from the start.
13. Practice Accountability
Many volunteer leaders struggle with accountability. They worry that accountability will drive away their precious volunteers. But it actually does the opposite. When you follow up to ensure everyone follows through, you’re telling your volunteer leaders that you value their work and their time.
Their work matters and they can trust on one another to get it done. Human-centered accountability builds trust and morale as your volunteer team sees the results of their work.
(If you need tools to help you have a human-centered accountability conversation, check out our INSPIRE Method.)
14. Celebrate Success
Your volunteer leaders have contributed their time, creativity, and energy. It’s time to celebrate! Acknowledge what they and their teams have done. Celebrate the progress and achievements. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage, but less of what you criticize and ignore. So if you want more leaders, celebrate them. You will lay the groundwork to attract the next generation of volunteer leaders.
Your Turn
The four dimensions of connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment will help you attract and grow volunteer leaders—and help your volunteer teams collaborate.
And if you could use a tool to help you build effective teams built on these four dimensions, check out the SynergyStack System. It’s got everything you need to help you accelerate performance, build collaboration, and reduce stress.
Now it’s your turn. We would love to hear from you. What is one of your most effective ways to attract volunteer leaders?
Note: This article was originally written in 2014. With the need for effective volunteer leaders as great as ever, we’ve revised and republished the article—so you will see comments from the original.
This is an awesome list!
The only thing I would add is:
Connect what they are doing to the organization’s core mission. In the case of a congregation, share how what they are doing is transforming the lives of others.
Renee, thanks so much! Beautiful add. Totally agree.
Important message. I think the biggest impediment to recruiting lay or volunteer leaders is an over emphasis on the importance of professionals. If you create a culture where individual members are inspired to think that their contribution is as critical as the ‘professionals,’ some will rise to the occasion.
In addition, volunteers need to be trained to think of what they are doing as a job, requiring the same reliability and competence as if they were paid.
One result is that volunteer roles can seque into careers. We have had several volunteers be in the right place at the right time to eventually join staff, as their roles became essential.
Bill, Thanks for enriching the conversation. I was hoping you would chime in on this one…
I’ve also seen some organizations struggle with where to draw the line… should this be a paid role, or volunteer… sometimes the line is very thin.
And as you say, organizations need to be able to count on folks to do what they say they will. I think that’s one of the trickiest part in leading volunteers… when folks aren’t accountable it’s so much more difficult to address, but it does need to be discussed.
I agree with all of these.
I would include the “direct ask.” Often my church ties to solicit volunteers through announcements, but the simple one-on-one ask always is the best way to get them to the first meeting.
Jim, yes, yes! As long as folks spread out the asking 😉
Great list. I would add to understand the motivations of people involved with the group. If you understand why people are there you can get a better understanding of how they might be interested in participating in leadership activities.
Bonnie, Terrific add. Vital.
Whenever I produced a community theatre production, I always recruited one new face.
I’d reach out to people I felt good about and asked.
I don’t believe in recruiting. I want people who enthusiastically enroll.
Steve, what a great approach… building your community one new face at a time.
Make it a habit to honor volunteer leaders. Be plentiful with the gold stars and certificates, but also put their names into newsletters. Write them letters of recommendations. Above all, tell them that you appreciate their work – (observe something specific that was done) and mean it.
Karin, you’ve done it again with another great essay.
Steve B., Terrific addition. My church did a gratitude summer. Each week they would highlight one volunteer who had done something significant (in some cases it was highlighting 20 years of service in many arenas, and in others it was for one big project). They sent an email out to the entire congregation… and it was always a surprise. I looked forward to those emails each week, it was fun to see who was selected and why. I must say, this is a slippery slope, running the risk of excluding… the list seemed pretty well-thought out, and involved all the staff. I was impressed.
Karin, you and I have had similar experiences at our church!
I didn’t skip coffee hour and was recruited as the church’s fundraiser…now going on 4 years!
I like all of your suggestions, but the one that will always mean the most to me is this: let me know I’m appreciated! A few simple words of gratitude, and it’s amazing what I’ll volunteer to do next…
LaRae, I would recruit you as fundraiser too. I bet you’re amazing 😉
I’d like to add one last thing, service is a privilege. I was a volunteer for the organization I now lead for 12 years. I was a pro bono lawyer. I realized that the most fulfilling thing I did was the volunteer work I did. We are a volunteer driven organization. 700k budget, with 4 million in donated volunteer services. That happens because, 1. we work hard to have an excellent volunteer experience and 2, our volunteers get the value to themselves of what they do. thanks as always, NAMASTE
Bill, Thanks so much. You are doing amazing work at such scale. An important add… the experience matters so much. People want to do work that feels good while they’re doing it. Namaste.
What a wonderful post!
I believe to volunteer is beautiful way to give while all the while you are really receiving.
This post is fantastic. Thank You Karin.
You are loved.
Lolly
Thanks, Lolly great point. We often receive more than we give in such contexts. You are loved too. Namaste.
Great points, Karin. For organizations seeking volunteers, I know standards need to be set but they also need to make it “easy” for volunteers to get involved. Time is short and many want to find meaningful ways to give their time. Spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to volunteer will discourage and delay people from jumping in. I have been amazed on how challenging some volunteer organizations make it to find the opportunity to jump in and then figuring how to jump in. Thanks for giving some great ways to engage volunteers! Jon
Jon, Such great points. Thanks so much. Making it easy is key.
Karin,
when looking at the list it reminded me all the corporate initiatives (usually well intention without/with limited budget) and I wonder what would be reason to think differently about volunteer leader recruitment and any other leader recruitment…
BTW thanks for inspiring blog.
Vlasta
Viasta, I so agree with you… we always need volunteers in our day jobs. Great point… So glad to have you in in the conversation.
Terrific post, Karin and one that I can totally relate to! I think another great benefit of volunteering in a leadership role, is being able to transfer those leadership skills and knowledge into our professional lives. Similar experiences in communication, dealing with conflict and difficult people and coaching can be helpful in both volunteer and business. I have written about this too and how volunteer jobs actually prepare us for successful leadership careers.
By the way, in our synagogue, we too are struggling to fill the bigger positions in leadership and have found smaller projects are more enticing for volunteers.
Terri, thanks so much. I so agree, that you can learn so much about leadership from volunteer roles. I think most denominations are dealing with a similar struggle to grow volunteers in an increasingly complex society.
Great thoughts, Karin!
I think sharing a big vision and showing the person how they can be apart of it can help us to keep volunteers. People want to be apart of something bigger than themselves.
This is a great post and the comments have added great insights to the conversation. At our church we a diligent to thank volunteers with personal notes of thanks from time to time and an annual volunteer party where they do nothing but enjoy the staff serving them.
One further thought, give volunteers high quality leadership training. We host quarterly leadership development events and provide an online leader development tool where they can access articles and videos to enhance their leadership as a volunteer and in the workplace.
Linda, Thanks so much. Love that you do thank you note and training!