Volunteer engagement is the bread and butter of Trick or Vote. Well, maybe it's just the butter--all greasy and fattening and delicious. Anyhow, volunteers will make your event fat and delicious, and that's never bad.
General Thoughts on Volunteer Recruitment
- Trick or Vote is a great volunteer ask, so go BIG! Here at the Oregon Bus Project, we do lots and lots of of volunteer
recruitment. By far and away, this is our easiest ask. Almost everyone says yes. Seriously. Learn how to pitch this right, and people will say yes. It's too much fun to say no to. We're going to have 1,000 volunteers in Portland. It's gonna be sweet.
- Account for attrition. Just because people say they'll do something doesn't mean they'll do it. And since so many people will say yes to you when you ask them to volunteer, you should count on significant attrition in turnout. We'll discuss some strategies for combating this dropoff, but in general we suggest going by the rule of halves. That is, if 200 people say they'll come, expect 100. For a Halloween day event, this may even be too optimistic.
- Set Benchmarks. So, now you know to recruit twice as many people as you want to attend. How are you gonna get there? We suggest setting clear and ambitious weekly benchmarks. Don't expect to do all your recruitment at once, so do it in stages, and hit little goals along the way.
- Keep a list. Do you use a volunteer management database? Use it! If not, simple tools like MS Excel or even Word can work. Whatever you do, keep track of your people so that you can remind them to come. Need help? Just let us know.
- Include Trick or Vote in all your work. Starting now, you should integrate Trick or Vote recruitment asks into all your other work. Do you run phonebanks to recruit people to register voters or canvass? Ask them to come to Trick or Vote. They'll say yes. At the Bus Project we talk about Trick or Vote as a unifying culmination of all the other work we do. Nobody wants to miss the big finale.