How to Recruit and Manage Volunteers Effectively

Download Now

Event VolunteersYou may not be paying your volunteers, but you can certainly count them among your most valuable resources. After all, they’ve committed their own time and energy to help make your show successful. And with the right motivation, they’re likely to be passionate promoters of your cause before, during, and even well after the event is over.

But enthusiasm doesn’t always translate to effectiveness. To make sure your volunteers are ready to help you create an awesome experience for your attendees, you’ll need to put time and resources into recruiting, onboarding and training.

And just like every other aspect of the business of running a music event, the more efficiently you can accomplish this, the better the results will be.

With hands-on experience working with thousands of event directors and promoters across a wide range of event types, Eventbrite offers the following best practices and ideas to help you put an effective volunteer management strategy in place.

Download the report and learn how to:

  • Recruit volunteers early and win their commitment
  • Ensure seamless communication with your volunteers before, during and after the show
  • Set expectations to avoid hiccups and walk-offs
  • Match the right person to the right job
  • Conduct an effective orientation and get volunteers ready to roll the day-of
  • Stay connected after the event and build their loyalty

Complete the form to download the report.

PREVIEW

Volunteers are among your most valuable supporters for your event. After all, they’ve committed their own time and energy to help make your event successful. And with the right motivation and a great experience, they’re likely to be passionate promoters of your cause before, during, and even well after the event is over.

Set volunteers up for success

A great onboarding experience reduces no-shows and encourages volunteers to arrive at the event prepared to get to work. For this reason, it’s important to start recruiting volunteers far in advance and ensuring you have a way to get in touch with your volunteer staff quickly and easily prior to the event.

Get commitment early

One best practice we have found particularly helpful is for event organizers to set up a separate, free online registration process specifically designed for volunteers. Some event directors prefer to have all volunteers register for general support and then communicate shift assignments either closer to the actual event, or on event day.

Others with larger, single, or multi-day events, have found it more effective to let volunteers select in advance specific jobs and time commitments using unique registration types on their registration page.

Setting up volunteer registration in this manner can allow you to limit the number of people who can volunteer for a specific assignment or time, ensuring appropriate coverage across the entirety of the event.

Communication is key

No matter which method you choose for volunteer registration, having all information, including each volunteer’s email and mobile number, centralized in one place provides an advantage not only for planning, but also communication.

…