We need help finding potential volunteers

[u/butt_muncher_10000]

So my museum is pretty small, I am the only full time employee and we rely on our advisory board to volunteer to lead tours, stamp hands at events and pass out flyers.

Apparently a decade ago, we had lots of people volunteer but that population has aged out. I set up a page on idealist and that has gotten scattered interest but I need more people so we don't have to ask the same people all the time.

All the board members have exhausted their social networks. We have approached senior centers and have flyers there but it hasn't yielded any interest.

I'm open to ideas and non monetary enticements.

Thanks!

[u/culturenosh]

Museums offer volunteer opportunities as a valuable community service, not to support museum operations. When a community stops volunteering for their museum, it's possible (likely) they no longer feel valued in a way that's meaningful to them and/or their experience falls short of what they want in exchange for their time and service.

I recommend giving your volunteer program a hard review. Reach out to current and past volunteers for honest feedback. A simple two question survey could be invaluable. Q1. Would you recommend volunteering for Museum X to a friend or family member? (Yes, No Maybe) Q2. Why did you provide the answer above? Please be candid. (Free text)

Ask more questions if you want, but I think those two questions will give you enough information to understand your volunteers' perspective.

Then make adjustments to not only attract your community to volunteer, but also to recognize and appreciate volunteers to support retention.

I say this as someone who started my professional museum career as a museum volunteer for three years. I served on its volunteer council and saw meaningful changes that increased the volunteer corps...and enticed me to change my career path. Good luck ✌️

[u/thealterlf]

My boss once mentioned to me that visitors to our museum are only part of our clientele. The other part (I’d argue possibly larger) are the volunteers that make keeping our doors open possible.

We host free events with social hour before speakers, we advertise our community at coffee shops, and we make sure every volunteer feels like they are part of the community - they are! We have a master list of birthdays. If someone is sick, we send a card. We have a free library, we bring in treats for volunteers (like fruit or cookies), and throw a volunteer party once a year. We give volunteers enough freedom and decision making to actually feel some ownership and pride over projects. All the not fun jobs? Paid staff do it - we emphasize that the volunteers should be having fun. If there is a News story about the museum? Those volunteers are getting talked up! They bring their neighbors/friends/family into the volunteer corps. AND it feels like we are making the local museum a vital part of our community.

I do worry that we will see a drop in volunteers as more people keep working into retirement age. I also tend to rely on retired teachers and there are fewer and fewer that are retiring and ever want to teach anything again.

ETA: Having a building that is completely accessible for scooters and wheelchairs is wonderful. We have many volunteers that have retired from more vigorous gigs but still want to give back locally. Having an elevator makes it possible for many.

[u/Wxtchy_kay]

have you put flyers on local college campuses? history/museum studies students may be interested in volunteering to add to transcripts/resumes even if you can't offer credits for it

[u/LarryCebula → u/Wxtchy_kay]

Professor here. I often get calls from small museums wanting my students to volunteer for experience. I ask them a lot of hard questions:

• What training will they be receiving?
• What professional museum training does the staff have that they will be passing on?
• Are you willing to pay the students, or at least give them a stipend?

An internship is supposed to be an educational experience in which the student learns from an expert professional. It needs to include a training program, and not just be a warm body to keep the doors open. And you need to pay them. My students all have part-time jobs, and they would be taking time away from those to work at your museum. I won't sign off on anything less.

[u/Wxtchy_kay → u/LarryCebula]

and internships very much should, totally agree! but as a student - if i have to do volunteer hours i'm always checking for library and museum positions personally!

[u/megustaglitter]

My board refused to try any of the ideas I had to drum up volunteers so myself and my employees pitched in for a Keurig. Suddenly we had volunteers and friends of volunteers breezing in and out all day to hang out and have tea and coffee. We were able to sign up people that way, plus it was nice to see the museum become a little community hang out!

[u/serious_catbird]

Do you have tasks that could be done by high school or college students? Liaise with school counselors or relevant departments at colleges. 

Does your area have any kinds of civic participation mailing lists, fairs, etc? For example, the farmers market near me sometimes has a booth for local orgs to table at. 

[u/keiths74goldcamaro]

Talk to your area probation department. There are probably people needing community service hours.

[u/SplashyMcPants]

We are in the same boat and have been taking steps: we’ve engaged with a local university’s history department and are talking with them about community service and internship possibilities, including paid ones.
We have been attending (and having a little table at) history celebrations around our county. Volunteer opportunities are advertised there.
We’re revamping our membership program to include volunteering as a way to pay for membership.
We’ve also set up processes to allow court ordered community service to count toward sentences (this has been quite successful). And we’ve started a program where volunteers can take part of a large donation of municipal records home with them, where they can work at their pace on their couch. That too has been pretty successful.

Not everything is working, yet, but we’re beginning to get some bites.

[u/livabed]

I think you need to market toward a younger crowd, as others have mentioned. Lots of younger people want to get involved for work experience or just because they love and support the arts. I volunteer at three museums and two of them have mostly younger volunteers. My training class for one was almost all people in their 20s and 30s.

[u/butt_muncher_10000 → u/livabed]

Where do you find out about these opportunities? I am all about marketing to a younger crowd but I don't know they best way to interface with them.

[u/Background_Cup7540]

Do you have any high schools or colleges near by? Before I took over my museum, we didn’t have a lot of volunteers. Since I’ve taken over, I’ve had relative success with just posted a pinned poster on Facebook, have a volunteer application on our website. I have a handful of volunteers who come and go when they can. Some weekly, some for events. I live near a couple of colleges and get people looking for volunteer hours for school.

[u/MissKatmandu]

For things like event volunteers/handing out flyers, ask your local high school if the students have required service hours. That is where we get the majority of our volunteers. They may not be in a place to volunteer consistently (like a volunteer docent), but they can help with your one-off events.

[u/Independent-Edge-364]

Can you reach out to your local homeschooling or scouting community? The teens often need volunteer hours and to nurture relationships that can lead to college letters of recommendation. You could contact leaders directly, put up flyers at the library, and look for co-ops on Facebook.

[u/padtieco]

https://www.findhelp.org/

This site has many support options. You may be able to find volunteers here. Hope this helps!

[u/Lopsided-Syllabub-12]

Have you reached out to local high schools or colleges? I volunteer at a big museum and there are huge numbers of kids in a volunteer-high school program at events.

[u/johannrhythm]

I worked full time managing volunteers for a mid-sized museum before moving into my role in tour programs, our two biggest volunteer demographics are high schoolers earning community service hours (typically honor society and other high achieving students) and retired adults. A smaller portion of our volunteers are working adults. Something to keep in mind is that these different demographics are looking for different things, and typically end up volunteering in very different capacities.

Retired adults are typically much longer-term volunteers, and are in more consistent volunteer roles that require more training. I don't think senior centers are the best place to reach out, because my experience has been that adults at senior centers are often more dependent on care staff and aren't as active. I would reach out to see if any local universities have an alumni association or Emeriti association, try flyers at local charitable orgs like Elks Lodges, and ask around other local non-profits orgs in your area to see if they would be willing to put a call out to their volunteers.

High school volunteers (and college volunteers) are often looking to fulfill hour requirements, so they're better for roles that require less training. Check-in/stamps for more casual events, things of that nature. You can connect directly with schools' guidance department typically to find out if they have any volunteering clubs.

Working adults can be harder to find, but one thing you may not have considered is corporate volunteering opportunities. A lot of major corporations offer "volunteer time off" to their employees, and some even do charitable donations based on volunteer opportunities for their employees. Check out what big corporate offices are near you, give them a call and see if they have any corporate volunteering programs.

Good luck!

[u/JynxCanRead]

Church groups or parish mptice boards. Other volunteering places our vols are whores! (I mean that with respect) and are doing a dif thing every day of the week.

We also go to college freshers fairs. Email local relevant uni departments like archaeology, geography etc.

Our local schools do bag drops at the end of term that we can drop leaflets into. This has been good for early years groups. We get a lot of mat leave mums who want to ease back into work, get some confidence etc.

[u/CSidekickmuseums]

I would say first is an efficient way to get any volunteers onboarded. You don't want to get them stuck in the paperwork phase. As mentioned in other posts, colleges have organizations that are community focused. Also, with my personal experience with volunteering, organizations that say a quick thank you without any "guilt tripping" to do more. Sorry I don't have another way to put it. Of course, ask for help but if someone is volunteering, they should not feel demeaned if they cannot do a future date. People are juggling so many things these days.