How to Engage High School Student Volunteers

When extraordinary change agent and high school student Crystal Yan reached out to us and wanted to write a guest post with tips for nonprofits about how to better engage youth volunteers – we were thrilled! Crystal is co-founder of The Social Startup Summit and a speaker and consultant on youth marketing and social media engagement. (She's also a designer and hosts a blog that makes economic education accessible for kids in grades K-12.)

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As a 17-year-old among seasoned professionals at many of the technology and entrepreneurship events I attend in the Silicon Valley, I often find myself smiling to myself in the middle of a conversation as professionals, many parents, wonder aloud: "Are youth optimistic about global issues like climate change?" "How do we reach out to youth?"

Non-profits, in particular, can use some work in engaging young volunteers. I've put together the following recruitment plan to help non-profits reach young volunteers in various venues. Take a look below, and feel free to browse the presentation from my most recent speaking engagement for more ideas.

High School Student Volunteer Recruitment Plan

Career Centers

• Put up pamphlets/brochures. Include a website. If applicable, clarify if you can sign off on volunteer hours and/or be a reference or offer a letter of recommendation.

• Ask the center coordinator if you can write up a short spiel for the morning announcements. Make sure the spiel includes your website. Also, ask the center coordinator to nominate some outstanding student leaders. Reach out to them. Write up a Twitter-sized (about 140 characters) spiel about your volunteer opportunity, include your website's volunteer page URL, and ask them to post it in their Facebook/AIM statuses. Trust me, this is how we promote events to our peers.

• If looking to host a presentation, host it at the high school during lunch in the career center. Contact the career center coordinator or if it's a high school, the PTA/PTSA (another area of interest to tap into). At the presentation, focus on having a brief, energetic presentation, and lots of time for Q&A.

 High School and College Service Club Chapters

• Email electronic copies of pamphlets/brochures and direct them to your website
• Reach out to service club chapters in your local area. If you want to get high school student volunteers in the Bay Area, this page is a great resource, just look up which cities each area includes to find your local high school service club: http://interact5170.com/nucleus/about.php?itemid=188 (Full disclosure: I am part of Interact 5170 District Council). If you're located outside the Bay Area, work on finding your local Interact/Key Club/Leos Club district and their webpage for emails and other contact information.

 
City Teen Centers

• Put up pamphlets/brochures in your city's teen centers. Again, make sure to include a website. If applicable, clarify if you can sign off on volunteer hours and/or be a reference or offer a letter of recommendation.

• Go to your city's website, usually .gov or .org (for example, the city of Fremont is http://www.fremont.gov) and look for your city's youth advisory council. Contact them!

I hope you've found this helpful. Feel free to browse the presentation from my most recent speaking engagement for more ideas on engaging young volunteers.

Good luck; I welcome your questions, comments and opportunities to speak about engaging youth via social media.

Yours in service,
Crystal Yan
Speaker and consultant on youth marketing and social media engagement.

http://crystaly.wordpress.com/

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To learn more about Crystal Yan, check out The Social Startup Summit, Torque Media Group and Economics for All.

Follow Crystal on Twitter: @crystalcy

Contact Crystal at: bit.ly/contactcy

Follow Crystal's blog: crystaly.wordpress.com

Crystal Yan  (严晨)

Trilingual Chinese-American 17-years-young Social Entrepreneur, Blogger, Graphic Designer. High School Class of 2010

VolunteerSpotlight: Michelle Krebs, Community Relations Manager, Camp Twin Lakes, Atlanta, GA

Camp Twin Lakes is a unique nonprofit organization near Atlanta providing life-changing camp experiences to thousands of children with serious illnesses, disabilities and challenges each year.Today, our Volunteer Spotlight shines on Michelle Krebs, Community Relations Manager for Camp Twin Lakes, Atlanta, GA.

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Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.

Camp Twin Lakes is a network of camps providing life-changing experiences for thousands of Georgia’s kids with serious illnesses, disabilities and other challenges.  We collaborate with over 40 special needs organizations (we call them Camp Partners), each serving a different population, in order to create customized camping programs for their kids.  In addition to providing fully-accessible campsites, specially trained staff, and camping knowledge and expertise, Camp Twin Lakes subsidizes 70% of the cost per person to attend the camp.

We have various fundraising events throughout the year to help us reach our financial goals.  Each event requires volunteer support, which translates into hundreds of volunteers each year.  We also use volunteers to help out with administrative tasks in the office as well as work projects at our campsites.


How did you get started as a volunteer leader?

As recently as five years ago, Camp Twin Lakes had a very short list of volunteers that it pulled from.  Through the efforts of various staff members, we have built a list that has grown exponentially.  When I joined the CTL team in May, 2006, we had a new event that required nearly 1,000 volunteers.  This volunteer recruitment effort grew our list in a huge way.  It also gave me the opportunity to get to know a lot of our volunteers.  I took over full responsibility for volunteer management in December, 2007 and continue to cultivate these relationships on an ongoing basis.


What’s one piece of advice you have for volunteers or their leaders out there?

Leaders: Get to know your volunteers.  They are wonderful, caring, talented people.  You never know what a strong volunteer relationship might lead to.  They may have friends who could volunteer, or have skills that you never knew about and could help your organization in new and different ways.  The more they enjoy their volunteer experience, the greater the probability that they’ll also become strong, loyal donors. Either way, you are their connection, so if they feel connected to you, they’ll feel connected to the organization (and they’ll keep coming back!). 

Make sure you are well organized and ready to put your volunteers to work right when they first arrive. Always thank your volunteers -- they are giving up their time to help you and you should always appreciate their time and dedication to your organization.

Volunteers: Get to know your organization.  There may be so much more to it than you are exposed to through your volunteer opportunities. You are an important part of an organization’s network and you can help them grow their circle of support.  Recruit your friends to come with you -- it's more fun working alongside your friends and the organization can always use extra hands.

Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?

Before discovering VolunteerSpot, every volunteer who wanted to sign up had to send me an email.  I typically had to respond with questions clarifying which shift they wanted, and then wait for a response.  Finally, I would send an email confirming that they were signed up.  Multiply this process by hundreds of volunteers each year, and I wouldn’t have time for anything else!  In the fall of 2009, for example, we had 200 volunteers between August and October.  I can’t begin to imagine the time it would have taken me to sign up each volunteer manually.  I had been looking for an online sign-up system that would automate this process, while also keeping our volunteers’ information private.  I was thrilled when one of our volunteers told me about VolunteerSpot!  VolunteerSpot has made my life so much easier, and allows me to focus on other responsibilities.

Anything else you’d like our readers to know about your organization or volunteering?

Camp Twin Lakes is immensely grateful for our volunteers.  We could not carry out our mission or reach our goals without their support, and I’m sure that we share that sentiment with other nonprofits.  So to all volunteers out there: THANK YOU!  Thank you for your selfless and generous gifts of time!  Thank you for helping to make the world a better place.

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To support or find out more about Camp Twin Lakes, visit their website here. We salute Michelle Krebbs and all the volunteer heroes out there supporting our communities!  If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at VS@volunteerspot.com