❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site managers. If you're a program facilitator looking for more information about how to review your programs, click here!
We know how important it is that your volunteer Opportunities grab the attention of volunteers. Simply posting volunteer Opportunities on your site may not always result in an outpouring of volunteer signups. But don't be discouraged if you aren't seeing responses right away! Maybe a little creative reimagining is just what your Opportunities need to shine.
How to create effective Opportunities
You want to draw volunteers to your posted Opportunities. But how? Think like a marketer! Most often, marketing depends on understanding your target audience. When you know your audience, you can create content that grabs and holds their attention. Here are a few of our suggestions to get you started!
1. Be sure to use clear and concise titles.
- Titles are one of the first things a volunteer encounters when looking at your Opportunities.
- Titles should be clear and concise—you don't want them to be so short that they're confusing or so long that they're basically a description.
- Have fun and get creative with Opportunity titles—puns can set the tone and convey excitement for your volunteer Opportunities.
- Match the tone to the work.
2. Include calls to action and attention grabbing details in your Opportunity titles and descriptions.
- Calls to action are a good way to get volunteers to click on your Opportunities.
- Try including attention grabbing language or phrases.
- Be specific—how does their volunteerism help your organization or community? What are your goals?
3. Create detailed descriptions.
- You don't have to create a novella for every Opportunity description, but the text editor can help you spruce it up!
- Be detailed. Your audience wants to know what they're signing up for.
- While creating visually fun to read Opportunities is a great place to start, you want to make sure your volunteers are well-informed about what they're getting into beforehand.
- Use different fonts and headings, bold letters and font colors, images and videos, etc.
- With the text editor, you can get as creative as you want with your Opportunity descriptions.
4. Get creative! Use the text editor to create detailed and visually appealing Opportunity descriptions.
- This is your chance to let that creative muscle shine, you can:
- Add links to resources
- Embed videos from services like YouTube or Vimeo
- Upload images
- Play with font color and size
Here's a little infographic that details this in three steps:
