Three smart ways to find the right volunteers

Volunteer recruitment isn’t one-size-fits-all. The approach that works for a community litter pick looks very different from the one you’d use to find a fundraising bid writer. Here are three main recruitment strategies, why each one works, and what happens when you pick the wrong one for the situation.

Open recruitment: welcome everyone

Some volunteer opportunities are straightforward. You need lots of hands, and almost anyone can help. The open-door approach works best when the barrier to entry is low and the tasks are easy to pick up: community clean-up days, large events where many hands make light work, simple tasks that need minimal training, drop-in opportunities where people show up when their rota allows.

The reason this works is that the activity itself is the qualifier. If someone is willing to show up and pitch in, they can do the work. Your job as the coordinator isn’t to filter people. It’s to remove the friction between “I’d like to help” and “I’m at the right place at the right time.”

List those roles where people actually look: Doit Life (the current home of the UK public volunteering database long known as Do-it.org), your local volunteer centre or CVS (NAVCA can point you to the nearest one), and channels you already use. VolunteerMatch and Idealist are US-leaning; don’t treat them as the UK default.

Example: “The town carnival needs 50 volunteers to welcome visitors, steward the car park, and hand out programmes. No experience needed. Choose a 4-hour shift that works for you.”

When you’re recruiting large numbers of people for straightforward tasks, focus on removing barriers while keeping just enough structure to stay organised. Write role descriptions that are clear and inviting. “Welcome booth greeter” reads better than “Event staff position A-1.”

Keep your sign-up process simple and make sure it works on mobile. One tip that experienced coordinators swear by: recruit about 20% more people than you think you need. Life happens, and a few backup volunteers can save the day when someone has a last-minute emergency.

Periodic recruitment: build a project team

This approach is project-based. You need a dedicated group of people for a defined timeframe, with a moderate level of commitment. It fits when you have a clear timeline, when tasks follow a sequence that benefits from continuity, when volunteers can naturally recruit peers, and when activities are easy to put on a rota in advance.

The logic is different from open recruitment. You’re not just trying to fill a slot for one shift. You’re building a temporary team that holds together for several weeks or months. Volunteers stay because they feel part of something specific, with a defined start and end, and because they form connections with the others doing the work alongside them.

Example: “Join our Christmas gift-wrapping team. We need 15 volunteers to staff our shopping-centre pop-up from 1 to 24 December. Choose two 3-hour shifts per week. All proceeds support local families in need.”

The key is creating a sense of shared purpose around the project. Help people see themselves as part of something bigger, whether it’s a Christmas campaign or a summer programme. Build natural teams where people can connect. Pair experienced volunteers with newcomers, or group people into buddy systems.

Track progress publicly. Something as simple as a thermometer showing donations collected can build real momentum. When people see their impact growing day by day, they’re more likely to stick with it and bring friends along.

Targeted recruitment: find the right fit

Sometimes you’re not casting a wide net. You’re looking for someone specific. Targeted recruitment is about finding people with the right skills or experience for specialised roles: accountants, designers, trustees, leadership positions, high-responsibility roles, skilled technical work, or long-term commitments where the wrong person creates more problems than no person at all.

This approach works because most truly skilled volunteers don’t browse general volunteer listings. They commit through professional networks, referrals from people they trust, or invitations that recognise their specific expertise. Treating their time as scarce and valuable is part of how you actually reach them.

For professional skills and trustee roles, Reach Volunteering is the UK skills-based volunteering charity. Self-service volunteer recruitment is free; volunteers typically need three years’ professional experience in a listed skills area. Don’t lead with US networks such as Catchafire or VolunteerMatch.

Example: “Seeking an experienced bid writer to join our fundraising team. Help us secure funding for youth education programmes. 5 to 10 hours monthly, minimum 6-month commitment. Previous bid-writing experience required.”

Your approach should reflect the professional nature of the role. Write descriptions the way you would a compelling job posting. Highlight both the impact of the position and any professional development it offers. Get in touch personally through professional associations, LinkedIn, sector events, and Reach.

Treat these volunteers as the professionals they are. Give them meaningful autonomy and make sure they have the resources to succeed. When someone feels their expertise is genuinely valued, they’re far more likely to make a long-term commitment to your organisation.

What happens when you mismatch the approach

The framework matters because mismatching the approach to the need has predictable, painful consequences.

Try open recruitment for a specialised role and you get the wrong applicants, or none. Posting “Volunteer bid writer needed” on a community Facebook group rarely surfaces an experienced bid writer. It surfaces enthusiastic generalists who think they could try, and a lot of suggestions to “ask around.” The role stays unfilled for months while the organisation loses funding opportunities it could have pursued.

Try targeted recruitment for an event and you’ll have ten qualified people doing meaningful work, plus forty empty volunteer slots on Saturday morning. Reaching out personally takes hours per recruit. If the work itself doesn’t need professional credentials, you’ve spent that time filling roles any willing adult could have done.

Try periodic recruitment when you really need flexible drop-in volunteers, and you’ll lose people who can’t commit to specific weeks but would gladly help on individual days. The reverse fails too. Open recruitment for a project that requires a coherent team produces thirty different people across twelve weeks instead of fifteen people who know each other and the work.

The friction in all of these failures is the same. The recruitment approach doesn’t match the kind of commitment the role actually requires. Match the approach to the need, and recruitment becomes much easier. Get this wrong, and you’ll keep struggling with what feels like a generic volunteer shortage but is actually a strategy mismatch.

Most organisations need all three approaches running at once. You might be doing open recruitment for the summer fair, periodic recruitment for the November campaign cohort, and targeted recruitment for next year’s treasurer in the same month. The skill is recognising which strategy each role needs, then giving each one the attention it deserves.

How Zelos can help

Zelos is built to support all three approaches at once. Sign-ups, hours tracking, and a growing volunteer pool live in one place, ready for whichever approach the situation calls for. People choose the slot; software doesn’t assign them. Whether you’re coordinating a community clean-up, running a Christmas campaign, or searching for a bid writer, you can manage everything without a separate tool for each kind of role. There are no public recruitment pages — listing on Doit Life or Reach still happens where the public looks. Sign up for a free account and see how it fits your team.