In the long list of “to do” items for your fundraising
event, it can get overlooked that volunteers are an integral part of your
success. Rarely are there enough staff members to do every job associated with
your event and it becomes necessary to activate volunteers to fill some of
those roles. Volunteers act as ambassadors for your organization onsite and,
depending on their task, often have a chance to interact with more of your
guests than you.
With that in mind, be strategic in their recruitment. Do you
have a volunteer job that requires them to talk directly to guests? Make sure
they are comfortable with that in advance. If they aren’t, consider them for
more behind-the-scenes work like set up/clean up or auction running. If they
are interested in a more public role but don’t know a lot about the
organization, give them some information ahead of time so they can help spread
the word about your great work.
At this year’s Going
Places Gala for Ride Connection, their Heads & Tails volunteers knocked
it out of the park. Their task was to sell as many strands of beads as possible
during the silent auction for a game that would kick off the live auction. They
were raising money and bringing guests into the energy of the event all at the
same time.
Ride Connection couldn’t have done a better job suiting
volunteers to a task. They recruited key people to these positions that were not
only personable and engaging, but knew the crowd well and were incredibly
familiar with the organization. Guests knew them and wanted to talk to them
already. As added incentive, the volunteers actually made a friendly wager among
themselves ahead of time to see who could sell the most, and checked in with
each other the whole time as incentive to keep at it. It created a fun
atmosphere of competition that guests wanted to be a part of all in the name of
fundraising for an organization they were passionate about.
And they sold a lot
of beads! Not only were they effective, but they activated the crowd to become engaged
in the activity of fundraising and anticipate the fun they were going to have
later in the evening.
Strategic volunteer recruitment can add a lot to your
nonprofit fundraising event. Having the correct people in specific volunteer
positions can take your event to the next level. As you think about recruiting
volunteers, be strategic about who you place where. Know your crowd and place people in volunteer
positions that best fit their personalities and strengths.
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