How to Recruit and Engage Event-Based Volunteers

Event-based volunteers can be your nonprofit’s secret weapon. When your organization has a major event, like a gala, concert, or auction, these volunteers jump in to save the day and help you handle the extra workload.

But where do you find these individuals, and how can you keep them involved? In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of event volunteer management, showing you how to recruit and engage event-based volunteers so that your organization can make the most of this valuable resource.

What are Event-Based Volunteers?

Event-based volunteers are individuals who work with your organization for one-off events. They form a distinct segment within your volunteer base. Instead of engaging with your organization on a regular basis, event-based volunteers jump in whenever your nonprofit needs more help than your typical volunteers can provide.

Event-based volunteering can cover a broad range of activities, from lending a hand with a park cleanup to assisting with major events, like galas, to offering specialized skills, like sound mixing for a concert. Event-based volunteering opportunities are a win-win: your organization gets the extra manpower you need and individuals get to make an impact without a major time commitment.

The Challenges of Event-Based Volunteering

Event-based volunteers can help your organization maximize its impact, especially during its busiest seasons, but event volunteer management presents unique challenges:

- High turnover rates. Event-based volunteers are more likely to view their involvement with your organization as a one-time thing, making it harder to re-engage them when you need help for your next event.
- Short training window. Event-based volunteers don’t have time for the comprehensive training that you implement with the rest of your volunteer base. In fact, most event-based volunteers receive a quick onsite training, and many nonprofits struggle to develop focused job descriptions and easy-to-understand training materials to distribute ahead of time.
- Scheduling conflicts. Your organization is bringing on event-based volunteers for a very specific time frame, and if your schedule doesn’t match with a new recruit’s, they won’t be able to help.
- Last-minute cancellations. Because event-based volunteers don’t work with your organization regularly and may not fully understand what is expected of them, they tend to be more prone to last-minute cancellations.

Thankfully, you can overcome each of these event volunteer management challenges with some careful planning and thoughtful policies.

Strategies for Recruiting Event-Based Volunteers

In order to mobilize event-based volunteers, you have to recruit them. Many of your nonprofit’s normal recruitment principles will apply, but event-based recruiting does have some key differences.

Follow these simple strategies to maximize your event-based volunteer recruitment:

1. Identify your staffing needs. Figure out exactly how many extra volunteers you will need for your event. Do you just need a few extra hands to help with set up, or will you need to significantly boost your staffing? You should also consider whether you need any individuals with specialized skills, like language fluency or software proficiency.

2. Write clear job descriptions. Determine the exact tasks you need event-based volunteers to assist with and write detailed job descriptions. Event-based volunteers get minimal training, so it’s important that you clearly define each role, its associated tasks, and the time commitment in straightforward terms. Keep the scope small so that it’s easy for your volunteers to succeed, even with minimal training.

3. Craft a compelling message. Build a recruitment campaign that emphasizes this event’s importance. Volunteers always want to make a difference, so it’s important that you communicate how even this one-off volunteering opportunity can have a massive impact on the community and your broader mission. You can also emphasize the benefits of participating, like networking, resume-building, and any incentives like merchandise, free event tickets, etc.

4. Launch your search. Officially launch your recruitment campaign on your website and social media. However, your recruitment strategies shouldn’t stay online. Encourage your regular volunteers and staff to invite their friends to participate, and you can even reach out to donors and past event attendees to see if they are interested in supporting in another way. Try posting your opportunity at local schools and universities; many student organizations require volunteer hours, and event-based volunteering can be an easy way to help meet them!

5. Streamline sign-up. The easier it is for volunteers to sign up for your event, the more volunteers you will have. So, it’s important to make the registration process as simple as possible. Leverage volunteer management software to create event landing pages with online sign-up, configurable forms, liability waivers, and self-scheduling options.

How to Engage Event-Based Volunteers

Recruitment is just part of the battle; engagement is critical to making sure that your event-based volunteers actually make it to their shifts—and continue to support your organization, even after the event is over.

Use these best practices for engaging event-based volunteers:

1. Communicate early and often. Keep event-based volunteers in the loop with clear communication. Take advantage of automated communication features to automatically send volunteers a welcome email after sign-up and text reminders leading up to the event. Provide volunteers with contact information for event supervisors and your volunteer coordinator, and consider preparing an event landing page with FAQs.

2. Provide detailed training materials. Make sure that your event-based volunteers have everything they need to help. Send them comprehensive training materials, including your organization’s policies, their job description, and day-of procedures, ahead of time. If you can, schedule a brief in-person or virtual training before the event, and make sure that a staff member or experienced volunteer is ready to instruct event-based volunteers when they arrive for their shifts.

3. Make check-in seamless. Start your event-based volunteers off on the right foot with seamless check-in. Use a kiosk or mobile check-in app so that they can get to work immediately!

4. Prioritize the experience. This event may be your volunteer’s first experience with your nonprofit, so it’s crucial that you make a strong first impression. Greet each volunteer warmly and guide them through the event with confidence. Small perks, like snacks, drinks, and free merchandise, can enhance a volunteer’s experience. Create an organized, streamlined, and friendly atmosphere that encourages event-based volunteers to come back!

5. Thank your volunteers. Thank each volunteer personally, both in-person at the event and afterward. Then, follow up with thank you notes and a summary of the event’s impact. Combine photos, case studies, and data to show the volunteers that they really did make a difference!

6. Keep nurturing the relationship. Your event-based volunteers have been willing to help your nonprofit once, so they are highly likely to get involved again. Add your event-based volunteers to your database and segment them so that you can effectively nurture the relationship. Depending on their interests, inform event-based volunteers about future volunteering opportunities, invite them to upcoming events as guests, share the latest updates on your programs, and inform them whenever you have a fundraising campaign. If your event-based volunteers build a positive relationship with your organization, they can easily become supporters, donors, or even members of your regular volunteer base.

Turn Event-Based Volunteers into Lifelong Supporters with VolunteerHub

VolunteerHub can help your nonprofit recruit and engage event-based volunteers, getting the coverage you need while building momentum with each event. We have helped organizations like yours manage billions of volunteer hours, so we know what it takes to make sure every event goes off without a hitch.

With VolunteerHub, you can:

- Create personalized event landing pages for marketing and registration.
- Streamline the sign-up process with online forms, liability waivers, and self-scheduling.
- Use automated email and text features to keep event volunteers in the loop.
- Reducing no-shows through shift reminders.
- Simplify check-in with kiosk software.
- Automatically track every volunteer’s hours.
- Show appreciation through thank you notes and point-based reward systems.
- Segment event-based volunteers within an advanced database to nurture continued engagement.
- Generate meaningful reports to articulate event impact and monitor your event volunteer management efforts.
- Boost volunteer-to-donor conversion with donation prompts, landing pages, and secure payment processing.