Guest Blog: Creating a Fan Culture Through Volunteers

Volunteer.  A simple word that defines a person who is willing to freely do something.  Yet trying to find that person is anything but simple.  The shear thought of recruiting volunteers can leave the recruiter overwhelmed and frustrated.  Why are volunteers so hard to find, not only during times of disaster, but during quiet times as well?  Countless articles, books, and blogs have been written about this subject.  I do not claim to be the most knowledgeable person when it comes to volunteer recruitment; however, I’ve been recruiting volunteers for the past 15 years. 

Many of us are using an out-of-date volunteer model to recruit modern-day volunteers.  The retiree/PTA model of the past is not relevant anymore.  Twenty years ago, organizations could rely on retirees and stay-at-home moms to fill their volunteer needs.  In today’s world that is no longer the case.  A whole 65 percent of Boomers plan on working past the age of retirement, and 6 out of 10 retirees are not going to be able to volunteer with your organization, because they are staying in the workforce.  According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics; 2017 Employment Characteristics of Families, 62 percent of American families have both parents employed.  Once again, that is 6 out of 10 people that are unable to volunteer. 

For an organization to succeed in recruiting volunteers, they should move from an audience mentality to a fan culture.  Think of it this way: When the casual audience member leaves a movie, they may discuss it with whomever they attended with, but by the time they drive home, they don’t think about the movie anymore.  They probably won’t talk about the movie at work unless someone directly asks them about it.  The fan, on the other hand, has already sent out four tweets about the movie before they even make it to their car.  They’ve talked about the movie in detail with anyone who will listen, and are not able to sleep because they’re replaying scenes in their mind.  By lunch, everyone at their workplace knows how great the movie was, because the fan has not stopped talking about it. 

The Salvation Army needs a fan culture when it comes to volunteering.  Imagine the impact on bell-ringing if your volunteers posted on social media while ringing bells.  If they left after their shift talking about how much fun they had … then went to work and told their supervisor about the fantastic time they had … and in turn, asked others if they would be willing to ring bells, too.  Fans recruit. 

Three Steps to Create a Fan Culture from Your Volunteers

1. Have a clear goal.  What do you want the bell-ringer to accomplish?  Ringing a bell to raise money is not a good goal.  That is the result we need, but the goal is greater than that.  The goal is to fund the food pantry, to continue the after-school program, and to help keep homeless people off the streets.  Part of creating a clear goal is to create an enemy.  Everyone wants to be the hero, so create a scenario where they are the hero.  Enemies can be abstract like hunger, human trafficking, and homelessness, etc.
2. Craft a compelling call-to-action.  Now that they know the goal, what do you want the volunteer to do about it?  This is the core message of your program. When crafting the call-to-action, make sure it is strong enough to inspire your volunteer.
3. Empower your volunteer.  This is probably the scariest part of creating a fan culture.  The idea of allowing a volunteer to promote The Salvation Army brand without oversight is scary.  Think back to the ice-bucket challenge.  This is a powerful example of allowing people to promote your cause without being in control.  The ice-bucket challenge raised $100 million dollars for ALS research over the summer of 2014.  This challenge was not created by the ALS foundation, but by one individual and his social media page. 

One final thought when creating a fan culture: What will your Corps look like if you achieve your call-to-action?  By adapting our audience-driven volunteer model to a fan culture, your location should begin to have success with volunteers.  At that point, the word volunteer returns from a scary and frustrating word to a simple word that has lasting impact. 

Clay Steelman is the Volunteer and Training Coordinator for The Salvation Army’s Texas Division.  Clay started working for The Salvation Army Texas Disaster Service Division in 2016.  Before joining The Army, Clay worked for the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief and served as a church pastor.  Click here to connect with Clay.

Are you a Salvation Army professional who would like to share your fundraising best practices or community engagement tips with your colleagues?  Email info@TrueSense.com for more information about writing a guest post for The Ringer.