Tag: millennials

The answer is probably yes.

Some organizations have brand recognition enough to not have a unique strategy to recruit young volunteers. But most organization don’t have that advantage.

For a recent client, 27 Shift conducted interviews with nonprofit executives across Canada. Interestingly, some organizations lamented the dearth of young volunteers, how young people don’t volunteer anymore. Completely inaccurate if we go by the results of the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating.

However, organizations that enjoyed the time and talents of young volunteers often had success because they intentionally sought out Millennials, and didn’t just wait for them to show up.

Here are some ideas for intentionally building space for young volunteers:

• partner with university courses
• partner with other nonprofit organizations with young clients
• develop roles that speak to the interests of young people
• create low barrier entry points
• create ways for boomers to volunteer with their young adult children

A few of the various hats that I wear involve working with young volunteers. One question I ask when interviewing an individual for a particular role is:

“What triggered you to email me about this volunteer role?”

While “contribution to a cause I care about” is usually high on the list, the reality that many of them share is that they loved how the roles were short-term, had a specific end-date, had clear outcomes and objectives, and would have a large and direct impact on the success of the organization and its mission. Even more specifically, some younger volunteers shared how the commitment fit perfectly with their schedule – a month off before law school started up again, a flexible schedule leading up to giving birth, etc.

One of the messages I take away from these conversations is people are willing to contribute their time if it’s worth it.

These short-term, high-impact roles can take a few different shapes:

• research
• task-force (designed to give advice on a specific area)
• committee
• project (with a goal to produce a specific output)

Some of the favourite work I’ve done involved setting up a group of young volunteers with clear objectives, helping out with clarifying process (eg. timeline, communication preferences), divvying up roles/responsibilities (including one person who is responsible for driving the timeline) and just sitting back and only stepping in to support when necessary. My role becomes less day-to-day volunteer management and more volunteer engagement strategy.

I’m not saying you can’t rely on young volunteers, it’s just better if you don’t have to.

With any volunteer role, if the world will fall apart because an individual volunteer is not able to show up for a role, there’s a flaw in the role design.

Millennial volunteers have diverse time commitments that are often fast changing – high pressure work deadlines, school projects, child care complications, person health issues. Often a volunteer commitment is not of the highest priority, regardless of good intentions.

Rather than lament on this fact, design roles from the outset so that the work can continue.

• Make work virtual – allow them to work on their own time and not at a set time and place
• Design group roles – if one person needs to drop away for a bit, the rest of the group can continue
• Provide autonomy for flex-time decisions – if a volunteer wants to still complete the work, but can only do it on a different day or a different week, allow for scheduling changes

Volunteering is an opportunity for learning and growth for young people. One method to increase engagement in a volunteer role is to introduce an opportunity for Millennials to demonstrate leadership beyond personal leadership.

Some ideas:

• Ask for their feedback about another area of the organization. “I know you are involved in area XYZ, but I’m interested to hear if you have any ideas about ABC.”
• Ask them to share their knowledge with others. Facilitate a rotation of lunch and learns where each volunteer can teach other volunteers a specific skill, tool, or base of knowledge.
• Ask them for input on the volunteer role. Part way through the role, ask for their advice on changes to the volunteer orientation, the way volunteers are organized, or the volunteer work itself.