6 invaluable tips for recruiting volunteers for your event (with pro advice)

An amazing event volunteer is someone who’s enthusiastic about making your event as brilliant as possible. Who acts as a true advocate for your organisation. And who forms a vital part of your event planning community. A not-so-amazing volunteer is someone who seems uncommitted, flakey, or generally unenthusiastic about their role – leading to poor performance and a negative impact on your event. The truth is, most volunteers mean well, but if you find yourself struggling with the latter, it might be that you’re not promoting your programme to the right people. Or that you’re expecting too much of your volunteers for too little reward.

Here's the crux of the matter – many events rely on volunteers to exist!

Speaking about one of the main challenges of running their events, Denise from English Wine and Food Festival sums things up in a word: “Manpower. This year we struggled to get volunteers for car parking etc. but did eventually succeed. Time taken for set up and breakdown was also challenging with a limited number of people.”

With all this in mind, we’d say recruiting an army of passionate, committed folk should be well up high on your organisational list!

As we explore in this article – which draws on some really great insights from event creators in the Ticket Tailor community – there are a number of things you can do to find brilliant volunteers who a) do a brilliant job and b) return to volunteer at your events again and again. Read on to find out more about each of the below tips for recruiting amazing volunteers:

1. Go for a multi-channel approach when promoting your programme
2. Understand what motivates people to volunteer
3. Show your volunteers a great time
4. Focus on attracting like-minded people
5. Know that not all roles will be as appealing
6. Get set up with the right tools

👀 Tip: We also have a basic guide to recruiting volunteers if you’re brand new to this. If so, give that a whizz through then return here for more nuanced tips and pro advice.

Go for a multi-channel approach when promoting your programme 

This is all about casting the net far and wide – but in a way that’s targeted, too. When seeking out volunteers, you want to spread the word to enough people, but also the right people. 

Charity Concierge is a fundraising initiative from Child.org, and provides a range of luxury services at festivals (think tent-pitching, buggy transport and drinks service!). And it relies heavily on committed volunteers in order to work. 

When talking to us about the volunteer recruitment process for Charity Concierge, Child.org’s Communications & Fundraising Officer, Hattie Rowan explains: 

“We market Charity Concierge on our social media pages (Instagram and Facebook), and run Google Ads [...] Some charities also are entitled to a Google Ad Grant which is of course a great way to reach more people [...] We also reach a lot of new volunteers by posting on local Facebook groups (this has proved to be a very successful marketing tactic!).”

When it comes to marketing your own event, and seeking out volunteers, think about which platforms your potential volunteers are most active on. And don’t be tempted to just stick to one platform. Research shows that multi-channel marketing campaigns are 37% more effective than single-channel campaigns. 

We love Hattie’s suggestion to use local Facebook groups – not only is this a free way to market your volunteer programme, it helps you connect with a much smaller, more targeted group of people who are genuinely likely to be interested in volunteering at your event. 

Understand what motivates people to volunteer 

Why would anyone want to volunteer at your event? Asking yourself this question can help you hone everything from the wording you use in ads to the actual volunteer roles you develop. And it’s such an important exercise if you want to make sure your volunteers feel valued, and that their experience has been enriching. Ultimately, these guys aren’t getting paid, so it’s important to figure out what motivates them, and to then deliver on that. 

Research shows that some of the key reasons people volunteer include:

• Wanting to improve things/help people
• Having spare time
• A chance to meet people and make new friends
• Meeting a community need

Other reasons could include a direct tradeoff – think free tickets to your festival – or simply wanting to do something fun for free. Think about – or better yet, find out – what might motivate people to volunteer at your event. You could run a quick social media survey or email past volunteers you’ve had to dig deeper here. 

When you know what’s driving people to volunteer at an event like yours, you’ll be much better equipped to target your outreach messaging. 

Understanding these motivations will also help you to deliver an experience that feels rewarding and exciting for your volunteers. As we’re about to find out, this is so important when it comes to the holy grail of volunteer programmes – return volunteers!

Show your volunteers a great time

Your volunteers aren’t relying on working for your event to make ends meet. Which means that if they have a bad experience, there’s no real reason for them to return – whether to one of your future events or even their next shift. 

“If you make sure your event is welcoming and fun, volunteers will return and they’ll also bring their friends!” Hattie explains. “As we have many returners, we get a lot of volunteers who bring friends each year and spread the word for us.”

And she’s not the only one to understand the importance of ensuring volunteers have a good time while working for an event.

Louis Murphy-Harris, Event Director of Aotearoa Surf Film Festival (ASFF), describes how: 

“Volunteers want to be there to help, so it’s super important to give people a really clear and fun job that’s people-facing. I’d say to anyone looking to work with great volunteers – don’t make their jobs too hard! We like to ensure things are nice and fun for our volunteers and that they get to enjoy the films [at our festival] too.”

He makes a great point. Yes – some volunteer roles are taken by people for purely altruistic reasons. But others are taken by people who just want to be part of something fun – festivals provide a great example of this type of volunteering. For these types of volunteers, it’s crucial to make sure their jobs aren’t too boring or taxing. Their payoff for working for free is that the job is actually pretty enjoyable, and they get enough time to enjoy your event, too. 

Focus on attracting like-minded people

“I always let volunteers come to me,” Louis says. “Because the festival centers around surfing, we are all connected through the love of the ocean and surf, so it’s great to have that common ground from the get go!” This touches on an important point when it comes to attracting volunteers. Sometimes, it’s not about how far and wide you advertise your volunteer positions, but about the strength of the community you build around your event. If you have an enthusiastic following made up of folks who simply love what your event is all about, you’re halfway there when it comes to finding great volunteers.

In this sense, taking a less formal approach to recruiting can work. When you’re active in your event community, opportunities for connecting with willing volunteers can be born organically – as Louis alludes to. 

👀Tip: Check out our article, 6 tips for building a loyal event community.

Know that not all roles will be as appealing

We’ve talked about giving volunteers roles that feel enticing. But it would be unrealistic to say that every single role you need fulfilling is as exciting to every single volunteer. 

“[One] pain point [for us] tends to be around recruiting for less popular roles,” Hattie says. “While it’s easy to find volunteers to drive golf buggy taxis, it is more of a challenge to find volunteers for our General Service roles, for example. We’re working on how we can market this role to the right audience.”

When it comes to the less glamorous or appealing volunteer roles for your own event, think about how, as Hattie touches on, you can market these to people who are more likely to take them up. And think of additional ways you can incentivise people to take these roles, too. 

For example, if yours is a sellout event, you may find that those who missed out on tickets will be willing to take a less exciting role if it means they can attend your event. You could promise these volunteers shorter shifts and extra leisure time so they feel they will still get to enjoy your event without slogging away the whole time. 

Get set up with the right tools

A volunteer’s experience of your event hinges on everything from how easy it is to get there to the tech you use to manage their experience. You want to make sure that every stage of the process feels easy to navigate, from initial sign-up through to working their actual shifts and getting paid. If things get complicated, you risk volunteers feeling deflated and frustrated. Which means they may be more likely to no-show at their next shift. Or could even deter them from signing up in the first place.

Hattie talks about how Ticket Tailor helps them provide a seamless sign-up process for volunteers:

“We needed an easy and efficient way for our volunteers to sign up for Charity Concierge. After some research, we felt that Ticket Tailor seemed like it would offer a really smooth process that would both make our sign-up better for our volunteers, and make the process easier and quicker for our team to manage. (This is especially important given we are a very small team.)” 

As well as making your volunteer sign-up process smoother, deploying efficient tools and tech can be a great way to ensure volunteers have an easy time of it while actually working. For example, if you have volunteers working at check-in for your event, using the latest digital ticket scanning technology will make their lives a lot easier than if they were to have to handle everything manually. 

👀 Tip: Ticket Tailor has a free check-in app which means tickets can be scanned from mobile phones or an external scanner. It works offline and provides you with live reporting on attendee numbers 🎉.

Ticketing Services Manager for 2023’s Leeds Year of Culture, Ollie Wheatley, describes how:

“Ticket Tailor’s free check-in app has meant that we have saved money on higher market ticket scanners, instead using mobile devices that can then be used for other tasks across the team. The app has simplified ticket check-ins at events, making sure that queues move quickly and crowd control is kept manageable. With our wide range of events, we’ve had different people helping us at each event. The app’s simplicity has made it possible for volunteers, placements, freelancers, LEEDS 2023 staff members and external organisations’ staff to use whilst we’ve been helping them ticket events.”

Nice! 🙌 This really highlights how, when you’re running an event with multiple spinning parts, having the right tools available for your volunteers is crucial. It all boils down to the fact you need to know they’re able to do their jobs efficiently – otherwise you could find yourself in a logistical mess, to put it lightly. The easier it is for your volunteers to do a good job, the more likely it is that they’ll find their work rewarding and not overly stressful. Bingo.

🚀 Maximise your volunteer programme with Ticket Tailor

As the event creators quoted in this article can attest to, Ticket Tailor can be a really handy tool when it comes to working with volunteers. Not only can you use it to create a seamless sign-up process, it can be used by volunteers who help with aspects of your event like ticketing, checking in attendees, and general event promo. 

Our platform is super user-friendly with an uncomplicated, easy-to-navigate interface. So you don’t have to worry about volunteers getting stuck – plus, we offer round-the-clock customer support (we get back to queries in minutes, wherever you are in the world 😌). And we have the lowest ticketing fees around. 

Looking for a ticketing partner that can help you run a thriving, stress-free volunteer programme at your next event? 

Create your free Ticket Tailor account today >