Volunteers add value to your organization; even if the majority of your volunteers are students looking to boost their resumes, they are solving problems in a field they are most likely interested in and your organization has provided a platform that gives them an advantage over their peers. 

From disaster aid, global health aid, and social impact, thousands of people volunteer to promote a just and fair world. These roles are very critical but may never get filled if they were not volunteer roles. However, you may lose out on volunteers if your recruitment process is rigid and hard to navigate; for example, 11% of volunteer organizations shut down in the US because of COVID restrictions. But if these organization had adjusted their recruitment process to fit remote work, they could have avoided shutting down. 

The bottom line is that the simpler and more accessible your volunteer recruitment process is, the better your chances of recruiting. Let’s look at how to make your volunteer recruitment process easier, more cost-effective, and accessible with volunteer recruitment forms.

Why Do I Need Volunteer Recruitment Forms?

Here are the major reasons why you should streamline your volunteer recruitment process with a form:

Engagement

Over 1 billion people volunteer worldwide, which is a significant number of people. However, the majority of these volunteers are baby boomers. We need the younger generation to volunteer more, especially for more physically demanding volunteer roles such as disaster aid, sports community outreach, etc. 

Having a volunteer recruitment form makes your recruitment process more engaging for the volunteers. For example, you can add a video introduction or the statistics of your organization’s impact to help volunteer gauge how much impact they would be making with their actions. 

You could also ask more thoughtful questions about the potential volunteer’s interests, skills, and availability to gauge their fit for roles and assign them based on that. This helps you put them in roles that heighten their strength, which would boost their confidence, and satisfaction while volunteering.

Efficiency

The traditional method of waiting for volunteers to walk through your door or email you means you are recruiting people with a passion for the role but you would be sacrificing efficiency. Using volunteer recruitment forms helps you to recruit volunteers in batches instead of waiting for volunteers to discover you or be recommended. 

You can also always filter out people who aren’t passionate using interviews and assessments. However, by using the recruitment form,  you would be maximizing your resources by recruiting as many volunteers as possible within a short timeframe. Another thing to consider is that most volunteers have full-time jobs or are students, so having a form helps you understand their schedule and assign them roles that fit their availability.

Professionalism

So many non-profits shut down less than a year after opening them and one of the major reasons for this is poor management and planning. Having volunteer recruitment forms, especially well-designed ones ensures potential volunteers take you seriously. The structure the form presents ensures potential volunteers know you are committed to a cause and their time won’t be wasted.

The information collected on the form also gives you the data you need to properly plan your resources and operations. For example, volunteer availability data helps you know how to schedule tasks and events.

How to Create a Volunteer Recruitment Form

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your volunteer recruitment form with Formplus:

• Go to the volunteer recruitment form template and click use template.
• Next, sign up or log in to your account and the form will open.
• Edit the form questions to fit your volunteer requirements and click save. For example, you can a file upload option to allow volunteers to add their resumes, letters of recommendation, or portfolios.
• After that, customize your form by adding your organization’s logo, color palette, and font choices, and you’re all set.

Additional Features with Formplus

• Use logic to show or hide questions based on previous answers. For example, if a volunteer selects a specific role, you can ask role-specific questions. You can also close their applications if their motivation or availability isn’t a good fit for your organization.
• Add payment methods such as Paypal, Stripe, and others for volunteers to donate (optional).
• If your volunteer recruitment form is a bit long, you can split the questions into multiple pages and add a progress bar to keep respondents updated on their application progress.
• This is optional but it’s always best practice to add a thank you note and additional information or resources for volunteers on the post-submission page.

Publish and Share

• Embed the form on your website or share the link through social media and email. You can also create flyers and add the form’s QR code and link to promote the volunteer opportunity on your communication platforms.

What I Need on My Volunteer Recruitment Form

Here’s a list of the most important things to include in your volunteer recruitment form:

• Personal Information: volunteer’s full name, address, telephone, e-mail address, and demographic data 

• Skills and Interests: volunteer’s skills, qualifications, and areas of interest

• Availability: days and the time applicable are available to volunteer.

• Experience and Background: education, work experience, nationality, languages spoken, past volunteer experiences, and other relevant background information to help you understand the volunteer’s history and strengths.

• Emergency Contact:  this allows you to contact the volunteer’s trusted emergency contact if an accident happens while volunteering.

• Consent and Agreements: This ensures volunteers legally consent to the organization’s terms and conditions. It also ensures you protect their data while working with you.

Additional Tips for Effective Volunteer Recruitment Forms

• Keep it Simple: go straight to the point; collect only the information you need from volunteers. Also, avoid using technical terms that might confuse potential volunteers.
• Ask Relevant Questions: Tailor your questions to the specific volunteer roles you are recruiting for to help you filter out candidates.
• Use Different Question Types: ask both open-ended and closed-ended questions to get detailed information from volunteers. For example, for experience, education, and skills you can use close-ended question options. However, questions such as motivation and statement of interest should be open-ended.
• Show Volunteers’ Progress: Add a progress bar to motivate volunteers and maintain their engagement during the application.
• Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your form is mobile-friendly, as many people use smartphones to complete online forms.
• Add a Thank You Note: craft a heartfelt thank you message for your post-submission page to appreciate volunteers’ efforts and build goodwill with them.
• Improve your Form: Use your responses and analytics dashboard to analyze response data and identify improvement opportunities for your recruitment process.

Conclusion

An effective volunteer recruitment form is not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. It helps you collect all necessary information on the volunteers to make their recruitment process easier and makes it easier for you too by matching them into positions and fostering a positive volunteer experience.