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October, 2004 -by Peter C.
Brinckerhoff
This Month's topic:
Attracting and retaining younger staff, board and volunteers
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A new
resource for you!
Problem: There is
so much going on in our field that a once-a-month communication doesn't seem
adequate. Moreover, with a single monthly topic in the newsletter, what do I do
if I hear something important about, say, Political Activities (last
month's topic) in November? How do I get the information out to you
promptly?
Solution: The Mission-Based Management
Blog. I am trying to post every day with something of value to
nonprofit board, staff, volunteers, and funders.
Check it out, see if
you find things that can help you. My postings are in no particular order, just
what's on my mind, or what has crossed my desk or monitor that I think you
should be aware of.
And, like any blog, you can comment right on the blog
for others to see. If you agree, disagree, or have other resources to share,
please do! |
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| This Month's Topic: Attracting and Retaining Younger Board, Staff
& Volunteers |
Each month, this area provides with a
number of my favorite and most helpful sites regarding the topic of the month.
|
Management
Tip of the Month
Each issue, I start with a discussion
of my management perspective on the month's topic, and give you a few hands-on
ideas to consider. |
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Recommended Publications
Here, I provide you with my
recommendations on the best printed materials available that can help you
become more mission-capable in the area of Recruiting the
young. |
Technology
I provide you with some good ideas for
uses of tech to better your organization in the area of recruiting younger
people
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|
Marketing
Tip
So much to say, so little space to say
it.....
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Next
Issue
In November, we'll examine a difficult issue
nearly every not-for-profit wrestles with: Outcome Measurement.
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Websites of the
Month
This section includes websites of interest on this
month's topic, Recruiting Younger Board, staff and volunteers.As with
the books listed below, neither deals with this topic exactly, but both have
much to offer as you develop an organizational strategy in this area..
| www.energizeinc.com/ |
Susan Ellis'
Energize is the best place around to look for recruiting and managing
volunteers of all types, sizes, and ages. |
| www.techsoup.org/ |
TechSoup is a great
place to look for ways to appeal to younger people through your website, email,
chat and blogs. |
Back to
Top
Management Tip of the Month
Attracting and Retaining Younger staff,
board and volunteers
Here's the deal. You're getting older. So am
I. Sad, but true. The problem with nonprofits is that the mean age of boards
and volunteers for most organizations is aging as well. I hear over and over
and over from people when I speak: "How can I attract younger board members?".
And someone will call out, "And volunteers!", and then "And
employees!"
The old saw is that the children are our
future. Cheesy, but true. For nonprofits, the future is in the young
employees, volunteers, board members and donors that they can recruit, and more
importantly, retain.
It should be a field ripe for our picking. Young
people graduating from college have, as a group, volunteered far more than
their parents did by that age, in many cases far more than their parents ever
have. They understand charitable need, and to a degree, the charitable sector
as an important part of society.
So what's the problem? Time and money, just like
everything else. Young college graduates ages 22-30 (my target market for you)
often have huge debts from their education, and work in companies that expect
them to be on call and available at all times. They will probably marry someone
who is also employed full time, and when they have kids, well, there goes
whatever extra hours they thought they had. How do you recruit and retain
them? It's a marketing problem, and I'll give you some suggestions in that
section of this newsletter. It's also a management issue, one that calls for
goal setting, and a consistent looking for the target market group by staff and
existing board members, and then an orientation process that meets this very
special markets' needs.
If you want younger volunteers, staff and
donors, you have to go get them. You need their ideas, energy, and perspective
to keep your organization current, and just as important, relevant. This is a
good thing for your organization, and the people it serves.
If you found this hint helpful, there are
lots more management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas"
section at www.missionbased.com.
Check them out--they're free.
And, remember to take a look at the
Mission-Based Management
Blog.
Back to
Top
Print Resources
Sadly, there are no books specifically on this
issue, at least not that I can find. I do really like the books below on board
and volunteer recruitment, however. While they do not specifically deal with
recruiting younger people, the ideas included can be used for such efforts.
If you want more information on these
recommendations, click on the cover image. You will go the page about the book
on Amazon.com. There, you can look at more info about the book, and read some
reviews before you decide whether or not to purchase or look for this book at
your local library.
Note: If you want more
recommendations on publications in a wide variety of areas, including
management, boards, and volunteers, go to the publications section of my
website:
http://www.missionbased.com/publications.htm
Again, If you don't find enough choices there, type
"nonprofit governance " in the Amazon.com search box on the left hand
side of the page and you'll have more choices than you probably
want!
Back to
Top
Technology Ideas .
Technology and younger staff, board, and
volunteers. Like ducks to water....
My son Ben, who is now 22, used to pester me when he
was in college about why the nonprofits he wanted to volunteer with had such
poor information on their websites. He wanted to know about the how, when,
where, why of volunteering on a particular day or place. I would suggest that
he call them. His answer "At 2 AM?"
And, of course, he's right. He's the customer and
that's when he's up and interested. If you want to recruit people 30 and under,
you have to have EVERYTHING about your organization on line. How to volunteer,
what it means to be a board member, or a committee member. Your website needs
to be dynamic, and updated constantly; you need to use email as the key
communications method.
People under thirty breath online--it is
oxygen to them. If my kids (now 22, 19, and 16) want to know the time for a
movie - and the newspaper is sitting 3 feet away, they'll hop online to check.
When they look for work, look at restaurant menus, check out baseball scores,
or see where a musical group is playing, it's all online.
Why would they go anywhere else for information
about your organization? Answer: they won't, and they'll keep looking at
charities to help or be involved with until they can find information online.
There are lots of ways to address this: better
websites, more kinds of information updated every day, better use of email,
blogging and internet messaging. For lots of good info on how to use the net,
email, blogging, and internet chat to your advantage, go to the TechSoup
information section
http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articles.cfm?topicid=5&topic=Using%20the%20Internet
One more thing: Get set up to accept donations
through credit card and PayPal if you haven't already. More and more donations
are coming this way.....get ahead of the curve. If you can't accept online
funds yet, you probably have lost donations.....
If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more
management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at
www.missionbased.com. Check them
out--they're free.
Back to
Top
Training
Schedule for Peter Brinckerhoff
Below you'll see the date, location, and topics
of training I'm scheduled to do in the next three months. For more information
on a particular speaking engagement, get in touch with the contact person
listed in the right hand column, or email me.
For more information on my availability throughout
the next 12-18 months, available topics, sample agendas, and fees go to
www.missionbased.com/training.htm
| Date |
City |
Topic |
Contact |
| 10/6-7 |
Atlantic City |
Business Development |
Nils
Richardson
ACCSES-NJ
nils@accsesnj.org |
| 10/12-13/04 |
Couer d'Alane ID |
Leadership |
NISH Regional
Conference
Susan Milstein
smilstien@nish.org |
| 10/14-15 |
San Antonio |
Business Development |
NISH
Deborah Atkinson
datkinson@nish.org |
| 12/2-3/04 |
Atlanta |
Intro To Marketing |
NISH
Deborah Atkinson
datkinson@nish.org |
Marketing Tip
Marketing and recruitment....a case study
in wants management
People moan to me about not having enough
young people on their board or volunteering. I ask them the simple marketing
questions: What do you do to specifically appeal to young people? Do you know
what they want? Have you asked them?
Let me give you my guesses.....young people want to
help, but they are short on time and money. They are concerned about coming
into a group of significantly older people and being the only 30 and under in
the room. They have real skills, but don't know how to apply them. But these
are just guesses, from my personal friendships with people in that age
group.
What do you need to do? IF you want to attract this
age cohort, treat them like any other target market. Find out about what people
in that age group want through market research in general, and asking
specifically. Hold focus groups of younger adults to ask them what they would
want out of a volunteer or employment experience. Find ways to appeal to the
younger group - and to balance that appeal with not offending older employees
or volunteers.
It's not easy, but it is important. And it's a
marketing issue. As always in this space---wants rule!
If you want to see more about this in detail, take
a look at more about my book
Mission-Based Marketing; Second
Edition
If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more
management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at
www.missionbased.com. Check them
out--they're free.
Back to
Top
Future Topics in 2004
and 2005 for the Mission-Based Management
Newsletter....
| November |
Outcome
Measurement |
| December |
Life-Long
Learning |
| January |
Strategic
Planning |
| February |
Leadership |
| March |
Core
Competencies |
| April |
Expanding to New
Markets |
| May |
Endowments |
| Send me
your topic suggestions at peter@missionbased.com |
Back to Top
You asked, so here they are:
Past Single-Topic Issues of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter...
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Copyright 2006,
Corporate Alternatives, inc. |
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