Want Volunteers? Reach out to Students

So you’re sending out killer emails, drawing in both donations and traffic to your social media channels. Things are looking up for your growing nonprofit—but what if you need more volunteers to achieve your mission? Sure, you can use these same methods to call people to action, but there is another approach you can consider.

Looking for a new volunteer pool to dip into? Have you considered the student population?

Students are Natural Helpers

Why students? First, understand why you can consider the local student population a great volunteer resource. Educational facilities like colleges, high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools typically have good reasons to promote volunteerism.

For younger students, expect a structured volunteer system set up by teachers and parents. As students reach high school and college, they are sometimes promoted to volunteer on their own time and in student run organizations.

Understanding Student Volunteers

Why would a student want to volunteer? Yes, most people volunteer to help. For a student, they might have a grade attached to their drive. Don’t’ let that dissuade you, though, because help is help! Apart from academics, sometimes participating in Greek Life requires students to volunteer, so find your local university and see how fraternities and sororities can help. For an academic approach, contact professors and instructors who can work assignments into volunteering.

When you’re dealing with student volunteers, we suggest implementing that social media campaign we talked about. Since students have a heavy social media presence, tap into that with your own customized hashtag. Hey, you might even inspire your next batch of volunteers that way!

Make Volunteering Fun

And whatever you do, make sure you keep your volunteer events fun and lively! If you’re on a campus, give out free stuff and mimic a festival atmosphere if possible. You can give out things like t-shirts, Frisbees, water bottles, or anything that you can support your cause with.

Don’t forget, any event you plan, you will want to capture with video. Still don’t have a video plan? Check and see if the school you’re working with has any budding videographers willing to volunteer their services! Grab some interviews with students from before they volunteered, during their events, and afterward and you will have some killer promotional material!

So start Googling your local colleges, and look for their student outreach programs! After you raise all those funds, be sure to e-file your tax exempt returns with ExpressTaxExempt! We offer Form 990 long, Form 990-N (e-Postcard), and Form 990-EZ. We even offer tax extension Form 8868, for nonprofits that need some more time!

Questions? Contact our dedicated support team in Rock Hill, SC by phone at 704.839.2321, live chat on our website, and by email at [email protected].