- in using the organization’s Facebook page, blog, web site and other online activities to recruit volunteers and tout the accomplishments of such
- in reaching out to the media about what volunteers are doing
- in connecting media to those working with volunteers at the organization when the media says they want to do a story about volunteerism
- in understanding when volunteers are doing something particularly special or innovative, or staff working with such are, such that it would be worthy of external attention (or internal attention, for that matter)
- in including information about the organization’s volunteer engagement in all traditional publications, including paper newsletters and annual reports
- in talking about volunteer engagement as more than just the monetary value of volunteer hours
Marketing staff: either help promote volunteer engagement or GET OUT OF THE WAY
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My blog today is actually for public relations and marketing staff at nonprofits, rather than those managers of volunteer programs. And my message is this: either help promote your organization’s volunteer engagement OR GET OUT OF THE WAY.
I talk to people managing their organization’s volunteer engagement activities – recruiting volunteers, supporting those volunteers, creating the majority of opportunities for those volunteers, helping other staff engage with those volunteers in their work, etc. – and among the many complaints I hear about challenges to their success is this one: the public relations and marketing staff won’t support me.
Those leading volunteer engagement at your organization need a variety of support from marketing and public relations staff:
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.