Tips for Attracting Members and Volunteers

There is a vast differences in volunteer retention among the 50 states, ranging from a high of 76.4 percent in Minnesota to a low of 47.2 percent in Mississippi. Thinking that there were probably some solid managerial tools that could be used to get volunteer retention closer to the Minnesota range, Nancy Shoemaker (President, AAUW North Carolina) did some research and found Rober Grimm, director of research and policy development for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

According to Grimm, one out of three people who volunteer in one year don't volunteer at all the next year. "We have a leaky bucket in volunteering," he said. "About 21 million people who volunteered in 2005 didn't volunteer in 2006."

What's to be done? Grimm had a few ideas:

• Volunteers have to be challenged to use their skills effectively; it's just silly to use a trained social worker to stuff envelopes.

• Regular opportunities to volunteer - rather than sporadic ones - tend to keep people interested and engaged.

• Organizations that screen and match their volunteers, provide recognition for their volunteers and have some kind of individual on staff to manage the volunteers do best at retaining these helpful people.

• Volunteers will thrive if they report to someone who demonstrates that they're important to the organization. Many organizations give volunteers to a lower-level employee, which leads them to believe they're not seen as an important resource.

• It can be very helpful to offer some training or professional development for the volunteers.