To celebrate the upcoming release of Turnkey’s Katrina VanHuss & Otis Fulton, Ph.D.’s new book Social Fundraising: Mining the New Peer-to-Peer Landscape, we are giving you a sneak preview of one of our favorite topics: Recruiting (and Keeping) Volunteer Leaders & Fundraisers.  

What Motivates People to Volunteer 

This chapter is about recruiting volunteer leadership (the people on the committee who do most of the management of the event) and volunteer fundraisers. We start at the same point for each: motivation.  

Motivation—to do anything—is complex. People are usually unaware of the reasons they behave as they do; their motivation is unconscious. Given this, how do we talk to people in a way that makes it more likely they will support our mission, either by fundraising or in leadership roles?  

Common wisdom says that we should tell people whom we are recruiting about us—how effective the organization is, how respected we are, how unique we are, how important the mission is.  

This time common wisdom fails. This approach puts you in competition with 1.5 million other U.S.-based nonprofits, many of whom have worthy missions just like yours. But talking about your supporter puts you in competition with—almost no one. Instead, motivating volunteerism must focus entirely on what the volunteer will get out of being in a relationship with the organization. Specifically: 

• How your work aligns with their values 

• How much of a difference they can make by volunteering 

• How important they are in making good things happen 

People can be motivated by friendship, belonging, a mission connection, and/or the desire to simply “do good.” Learning about people’s interests and why they may be motivated to get involved is a key step in engaging them.  

People Volunteer for Friendship 

The desire for human interaction is a powerful motivator. Psychologists talk about the need for “connectedness” or our desire to have deeper connections with others. How we make those connections to others takes effort. With competing technologies, the fast pace of information, and the churn of stimuli coming at us daily, it’s easy to feel disconnected.  

That’s why friendship is a significant motivator for people to volunteer. When a friend personally asks someone to volunteer, to support them, it’s hard to say no. One’s initial motivation may not be about the organization or cause. Instead, it’s based on a relationship with a friend. And that is more than okay.  

It’s important to acknowledge that volunteers don’t need to have a personal connection to the mission to be a volunteer—in fact, most organizations need “the unaffected” population to get involved. For example, let’s say your mission is overcoming a rare disease. “Rare” means it’s a numbers game. There won’t be enough affected individuals to meet your goals. Therefore, recruiting the unaffected is essential to realize new income and grow your base of support.  

People may begin getting involved to fulfill their relational needs, their need for connection. Once they’re on board even at a minimum, they will stay if they feel they’re making a real difference, that they’re genuinely important in making something of significance happen. Giving people the sense that they can “change the world,” even a little bit, is highly motivating. Combine that with being connected to people who fulfill their need for friendship, and you have a powerful recipe to keep people coming back for more.  

The tactical element here is simple—just invite them. Here are some words you can use:  

“The autism community is really important to me. Chris, I know you’re a really caring person. I wondered if you’d like to support kids with autism with me. I’d love to do it together. I think we can make a real difference for some kids.” 

Operative phrases:  

• Community  

• Caring person 

• With me 

• Together 

• Make a real difference 

Commitment Is Rooted in Belief and Sustained by Agency 

People have many attitudes—beliefs—that they never act on. Nonprofits often talk about motivating volunteers because of their belief in the mission. But what does this really mean?  

Psychologists have identified “agency” as a primary human motivation. Agency refers to a person’s ability to bring about meaningful change.  

People don’t continue to volunteer just because they believe in a nonprofit’s mission. They stay engaged because they believe in the mission, and they think that they are making a difference.  

The ability to make something happen, something that matches their values, generates belief. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle: the bigger a difference you make, the more you believe in the cause. The values of the organization become your values.  

People may volunteer to support a nonprofit’s mission for a number of reasons, but they will continue because they believe the mission and organization matches their values. When you ask committed volunteers why they support an organization, many times they will say something like, “it’s just the right thing to do, or “because people like us do things like this.” People associate themselves with groups in order to define their identity to the world. Marketing guru Seth Godin says “people like us do things like this” means the characteristics of the group are an important part of how the person sees themselves. When you hear these seven words, you’re talking to someone who has internalized the values and goals of the organization as their own.  

“People like us do things like this.” 

For these people, the organization is simply the vehicle they use to make something that they think is important happen. They don’t think of volunteering as supporting some third party; rather, it’s a way of carrying out their goals—aiding the homeless, caring for animals, curing the sick, ending racism, etc.