Recruiting Volunteers on LinkedIn: 5 Steps to Take Right Now
In many regions, volunteering rates have been trending downward in recent years. In the U.S., national volunteering has been experiencing a “slow and steady decline for the past thirteen years,” while in England, it hit a historic low after the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend poses a significant challenge to organizations that rely on recruiting volunteers to deliver their services, making it more important than ever for nonprofits to use every tool at their disposal.
If you’re not currently using LinkedIn to recruit volunteers, it may be time to start. A 2023 survey found that LinkedIn members are significantly more likely than the average internet user to say they have volunteered in the past or do so currently (71% vs. 55%). The survey also found that 3 in 4 LinkedIn members are interested in starting to volunteer or volunteering more. And nonprofit professionals are seeing that commitment: 64% agree they have successfully sourced new volunteers via LinkedIn.
Recruiting volunteers on LinkedIn is all about getting your request out there, ensuring it reaches the right audience, and inspiring them to offer a helping hand. Follow these five steps to get started today.
1. Evaluate your nonprofit’s volunteering needs and benefits
To find the right volunteers and ensure your opportunity resonates with them, it’s important to have a clear view of who you are trying to recruit, what you need from them, and what you can offer in return.
As a professional network where people look for new opportunities, LinkedIn is an especially valuable platform for recruiting skilled volunteers. This could include people with professional experience in the specific areas your nonprofit needs who want to give back. But it could also encompass early career professionals and people making career pivots who want to practice their skills and gain more experience. How can you make your volunteer opportunities appeal to both groups to maximize your chances of success?
Start by assessing the role and creating an inventory of key skills that your ideal volunteer will have. Then, make a list of everything that a volunteer will get out of the experience, such as:
Ability to gain new hard and soft skills
Opportunity to meet new people and make new connections
Chance to lead a team
Access to training materials and resources
- Sense of purpose
It’s also important to get clear on the expected commitment in terms of both time and availability. The more specific and accurate you can get, the easier it will be to achieve mutual alignment.
2. Write compelling job descriptions for your volunteer roles
As with any job, the way you write your volunteer job descriptions can have a huge impact on the number and type of people who respond. Here are some best practices you can follow when drafting descriptions of your volunteer positions:
Start with a little research: Reviewing postings for similar volunteer roles from other organizations can be a good source of inspiration, while asking current or previous volunteers what attracted them to your nonprofit can help you communicate your unique value proposition effectively.
Keep it concise: A volunteer listing that is overly long, demanding, or confusing can put people off. Lead with what is most important and use bulleted lists to convey key information like what your volunteer will do.
- Get a helping hand from generative AI: Rather than staring at a blank page, consider using an AI-assisted tool like Microsoft Copilot to create a first draft of your volunteer listing that you can review and edit. LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting 2024 report found that recruiters using generative AI cite the ability to write job descriptions faster and more easily as the biggest benefit.
3. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s Volunteer Marketplace
Posting job and volunteer opportunities on LinkedIn is easy, and you can post one opportunity at a time free of charge. If your organization has a VolunteerMatch account, you can also sync your profile with LinkedIn. This ensures that when you post skilled volunteer opportunities on VolunteerMatch.org, they will automatically be posted to LinkedIn as well.
If you haven’t updated your nonprofit’s LinkedIn Page lately, it’s worth taking a moment to review the Page and ensure that all the information on it is current, complete, and will send the right message to the volunteers you wish to attract.
4. Share content that speaks to potential volunteer candidates
In addition to sharing volunteer opportunities on LinkedIn, you can use your nonprofit’s LinkedIn posts to reach, inspire, and engage people who may be interested in volunteering. This can include a mix of:
Videos and photos highlighting the important work that your volunteers are doing and the impact it makes on the communities you serve
Testimonials from volunteers sharing how meaningful and rewarding their experience has been
- Appreciation posts showcasing how much your nonprofit values its volunteers
You can also comment on and share great content posted by volunteers themselves. This kind of content can help bring the experience to life for people considering getting involved. After all, no one can speak more authentically about the joy of volunteering than those who have done it before.
5. Encourage past and current volunteers to spread the word
People volunteer for your nonprofit because they’re passionate about the important work that you’re doing — especially if they volunteer for you frequently. These individuals may be more than happy to help amplify your volunteering roles if you ask them.
Encourage current and former volunteers to take a few simple steps on LinkedIn, like adding their volunteer experience to their LinkedIn profile and following your LinkedIn Page to get the latest updates from your organization. When new volunteering roles open up, you could also ask your volunteer base if they know anyone who might be a good fit and encourage them to share the opportunity with their network.
The volunteers you need are on LinkedIn
Recruiting volunteers can be challenging, but LinkedIn is making it easier for potential volunteers to find the right opportunities for them with a new Open to Volunteer feature. Available globally in English, this feature empowers professionals to share their skills, causes, and volunteer preferences, helping LinkedIn to surface the most relevant opportunities for them.
