Best way to advertise for volunteers please?

michellen34

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to ask for your advice please.
I work for a small pretty new charity and we are in desperate need for volunteers, we have tried a poster in the window but no one has come forward as of yet. Can anyone suggest any other ways of advertising that doesn't cost (or doesn't cost a lot).

Thank you

Minxy_Bella

I was actually looking into doing some volunteer work today and came across a website called 'Volunteer Centre Newcastle' which links up volunteers with whoever needs them, so maybe your town/city has a similar scheme?

michellen34

Thanks for that my shop is only about 10 miles away (whitley bay) so thats great, Thanks again :j

Minxy_Bella

michellen34 wrote: »

Thanks for that my shop is only about 10 miles away (whitley bay) so thats great, Thanks again :j

Why aye

michellen34

Lol :beer:

fengirl_2

All the Volunteer centre will do is register your vacancies on www.do-it.org.uk, which you can do yourself.
Have you tried contacting local colleges, 6th form schools, adult education? Contact the local paper and ask them to do a feature.

michellen34

Thanks Fengirl, and i will look into what you have suggested tomorrow, Thanks great, Thanks again

bani

Hi
One good source for finding volunteers is your local Volunteer Centre. This may be an independant voluntary/charitable organisation or part of your local Council for Voluntary Service.
The older name for these organisations was Volunteer Bureau, but now many have been renamed Volunteer Centre and many are affiliated to Volunteering England.
All of them that I know about (mainly in the south of England) will maintain a list of vacancies in support of the voluntary/charitable organisations in their area of operation and will perform (to a varying degree depending on their funding and therefore their capacity to do so) a matching service, trying to match volunteers to organisations needing them.
Your local Council and maybe your local library will know where your nearest Volunteer centre is, hopefully!

Good Luck

bani

Hi again
I should really have asked what sort of volunteer skills you are looking for. There are some internet sites which specialise in matching, for instance, managerial and executive potential volunteers to relevant roles in the voluntary sector.

Good luck again

Savvy_Sue

fengirl wrote: »

All the Volunteer centre will do is register your vacancies on www.do-it.org.uk, which you can do yourself.

We have two places finding volunteers, one will also maintain a local register, and the other advertises on their site and sends out a weekly email to interested people, highlighting any new vacancies.

fengirl wrote: »

Have you tried contacting local colleges, 6th form schools, adult education? Contact the local paper and ask them to do a feature.

good ideas, especially if you can work out where your likely volunteers might be found - if you need help during school hours then it's parents! Also never underestimate word of mouth, ask all your current volunteers to let everyone know you need more, be shameless.

When I ask people where they heard about us, it seems half of them are through one particular person. Probably not that many, but this person gets about a bit, doing talks. Passionate, inspiring talks. But I've also bumped into them on our local Art Trail, and they were trying to drum up support there! :rotfl:

cit_k

What sort of volunteers?
Why cant you post on forums like these asking for volunteers, and specifying exactly what is needed, where and when.