Abstract

Men tend to volunteer for social service programs in lower numbers than women. However, male volunteers can expand an agency's donor base, offer new or different ideas, and diversify the circle of people with whom clients and volunteers interact. This 1999 report by National Service Fellow Stephanie Blackman, Recruiting Male Volunteers: A Guide Based on Exploratory Research, suggests ways to reach and recruit male volunteers based on seventy-one interviews with volunteer managers and male volunteers.

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Issue

Agencies that work directly with clients — children, homeless, elderly, immigrant and other populations — generally attract fewer male than female volunteers for various reasons. Volunteer managers can adapt their recruitment materials, volunteer job descriptions and volunteer opportunities to attract male volunteers.

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Action

National Service Fellow Stephanie Blackman interviewed forty volunteer coordinators and thirty-one male volunteers in twenty-three social service agencies about recruiting male volunteers. These suggestions are based on those interviews:

• Campaign with other organizations to recruit male volunteers. Sharing resources might allow you to reach a greater number of people than your efforts alone.
• Give men a chance to experience your program without a long-term commitment to volunteering. It may provide a "risk-free" way for men to test the waters and can help men overcome their hesitations.
• Address concerns from the outset of recruitment. You may want to emphasize to them that inexperience with the clients or not feeling comfortable with the situation does not preclude a positive volunteer experience and that you are willing to train volunteers.
• Do not underestimate male sensitivity to stereotypes. Make time to honestly examine the stereotypes you or your co-workers have about men and how volunteers might perceive those assumptions.
• Make programmatic changes to appeal to men. Think about what men might enjoy in their day-to-day lives, and try to integrate those activities into volunteer work.
• Engage volunteers friends and family in your work. Encouraging their participation may save men from choosing between devoting time to volunteering or to their friends and families.
• Alert men to the scarcity of male volunteers to at least raise awareness of your need.
• Personally invite men to volunteer. Special events or promotions may be just the excuse volunteers need to ask their brother, father, co-worker, husband, significant other, or friend to volunteer.
• Connect volunteer work to financial and social impacts. This strategy lends itself to a problem-solver mentality, offering men specific ways to "fix" social problems.
• Emphasize what will be accomplished. Shift the focus of your volunteer descriptions from relationship-oriented to action-oriented client services.

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Context

The suggestions are based on interviews in the metropolitan area of a Pacific Northwest city with forty volunteer coordinators and thirty-one male volunteers in twenty-three agencies. The agencies included religious and collegiate affiliations, and publicly and privately funded programs.

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Citation

Blackman, Stephanie T. Recruiting Male Volunteers: A Guide Based on Exploratory Research. Washington, D.C.: Corporation for National and Community Service, 1999.

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Source Documents

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