Recruiting Volunteers for Camp? 5 Key Things to Know [Guest Post]
Summer camps can be a great way for kids to create childhood memories as they make new friends, learn new skills, and engage in athletic activities. However, managing a camp requires quite a bit of work to create a successful and fun experience.
As a camp manager, there are many factors to take into consideration to ensure a good camp experience, such as planning day-to-day activities, making sure the children are in a safe environment, and communicating with parents. Luckily, volunteer support can help ease up your job by dividing your daily operations.
Recruiting great volunteers isn’t the only challenge camp organizers face — keeping those volunteers motivated and engaged once they join the team is just as important. Volunteer engagement strategies help you pair suitable volunteers with experiences that align with their interests and skills, ensuring you are giving them the best volunteering experience possible.
Recruiting the right volunteers with the right skills and motivations is essential to the daily operations and success of your camp. With such an important role to play, investing in a great volunteer recruitment strategy will be well worth the effort. We’ve compiled five facts you need to know about volunteer recruitment to help you gather an amazing team of camp volunteers:
Peer-to-peer recruitment is extremely effective.
It’s vital to recruit diverse camp volunteers.
Online channels are critical for recruiting volunteers.
Retaining volunteers from previous years can be more cost-effective.
Camp alumni are often eager to return as volunteers.
Before you begin the recruitment process, it's important to define the qualities, skills and demographics of your ideal volunteer. By defining your ideal volunteer, you can craft a more targeted outreach and recruitment strategy that meets your audience members where they are.
Cassandra Smallman
Head of Marketing at InitLive
Cassandra is a passionate content creator dedicated to fostering positive impact through thought leadership in both the Nonprofit sector and live events industry. You can find her work at www.initlive.com or on Linkedin and Twitter.
