17 Strategies to Recruit the Best Bell-Ringer Volunteers

Once the calendar page turns to August, you most likely have kettles on your mind. Specifically, how will you fill all the shifts with bell-ringers?  Each year, thousands of people volunteer to ring bells for The Salvation Army.  Recruiting and retaining those volunteers is no easy task.

The Salvation Army of Greensboro, NC shared their 17 knockout strategies to fill bell-ringer timeslots:

1. RedKettleVolunteer.org — Load all your locations/shift options, and activate online sign-up to make bell-ringing accessible and easy for the community.
2. Launch early and remind often.  (We kicked off our campaign in late August.) 
3. Use national graphics to keep brand consistency.
4. Set up a website banner announcing your campaign, and link to the virtual sign-up or to the Kettle Coordinator’s email address.
5. Utilize daily social media posts about bell-ringing leading up to the season.  
6. Pay for “boosted posts” on Facebook to improve the reach.
7. Alert past volunteers.  Using the national graphics (see below), we mailed 200+ postcards to bell-ringers from prior years.  All postcards had a specific campaign email address, website, and phone number to make signing up easy.
   
   
8. Purchase a mailing list.  We purchased a list of 300 affluent households to mail a bell-ringer promotional postcard.  Employing the same methods we used for our past volunteers, signing up was made easy.
9. Form a Kettle Committee with board members and volunteers.  Our Kettle Captains are charged with contacting bell-ringers from years past, and reaching out to new prospective groups.
10. Connect the dots.  Your volunteer message should connect bell-ringing hours directly to the impact on programs and services.  (For example, “Four hours of bell-ringing will feed a family for a week.”)
11. Set a goal both for net profit and volunteer hours.  Communicate this goal often!
12. “Upsell” your volunteers.  When communicating with volunteer groups, see if they’re willing and able to adopt their Red Kettle for one more shift than they had planned.
13. Confirm past volunteers early.  By mid-October, you should know how many new individuals/groups you’ll need to acquire to reach your goal.
14. Assign an individual specifically to volunteer onboarding and communication.  
15. Send volunteer reminders via email and phone 24 to 72 hours before the shift.
16. Write thank-you notes (electronic and via mail) to all volunteers. 
17. Mail a post-Christmas impact report to all volunteers, showing the value of their service.