Recruitment and Engagement Best Practices
Follow these best practices to achieve the best results in your recruitment and engagement efforts.
Personal outreach is best
When recruiting or engaging members, skip the email and pick up the phone or schedule an in-person meeting. One-on-one contact is essential for building relationships that will keep members, volunteers, and recruits coming back.
Practice active listening
Spend time listening to the interests of potential and current members. Through your conversations, you'll learn how to best involve them with your component.
Welcome new people
At every event, keep an eye out for new attendees. Obtain the registrations lists and identify non-members. There is a lot of competition in today's environment, from family to work to other volunteer roles. Attendees registered for your event for a reason. Find out why and capitalize on it. Personally call new members on the roster or send a personal email.
Follow Up!
When you speak with potential members or volunteers, don't forget to follow up on your commitments. If you offered to make introductions, follow through on them. If you offered to share resources, be sure to send them. As a representative of the component, your reliability represents the entire organization.
Don't be afraid to ask
Just do it! Don't be afraid to ask people to get involved in your component, either by joining or volunteering. If you don't ask, the answer will always be no. If it's not a good fit, find out why. Another opportunity might come up at another time that is a good fit.
Leverage pre-existing networks.
Tips for a Specific Ask
- Make it personal. Tell your own story.
- Adjust your ask to what your target audience is looking for (programs, service, advocacy, networking, mentoring). Listen to the person and identify an opportunity that interests them.
- Make a specific ask. Instead of asking new audiences to "get involved," make a specific request with details. For example, guest write an article for your newsletter instead of "volunteering for a committee."
- Escalate your asks over time. Start with small asks then work your way up to larger requests that require additional time or resources.