Abstract

There are 76 million baby boomers who are now beginning to reach retirement age. How can volunteer agencies effectively recruit this population? At the 2002 Senior Corps Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, two networking sessions were held to get ideas from project directors about approaches they had used successfully or had heard worked. Participants were asked to look at marketing, customer service, event planning, episodic, and other volunteer roles, and agency preparedness. Responses are summarized in this effective practice submitted in July 2002 from Laura Wilson, University of Maryland, and Sylvia Hernandez, RSVP Orange County, California.

Back to top

Issue

How can volunteer agencies capture the time, talent, and skills of younger seniors between the ages of 55-65?

Back to top

Action

Effective recruitment approaches include:

1.  
   1. Marketing

       

      What have you seen, done, or participated in that attracted volunteers from the 55-65 population?
      
      
      • Monetary incentives to current volunteers to recruit new volunteers.
      • Using public safety and homeland security as an attractive framework for volunteering.
      • Volunteers want to make a differrence, so help them understand what has already occurred and how they can impact their community specifically and statistically.
      • Combine lifelong learning and volunteerism and provide not just training but a broader continuing education context for volunteer activity. For example, find university partners or Elderhostel Institutes for Learning in Retirement. Contact Elderhostel for the names of Institutes near you to help your agency realize this kind of recruitment approach and packaging of volunteerism.
      • Use team or group activities and intergenerational activities work because volunteers like to work in groups that provide guidance, information and resources.
      • Conduct an Everything Fair — have resources for this population on volunteerism, travel, adventure, spirituality, continuing education.
      • Demonstrate the monetary value of their time as a donation to the organization.
      • Provide a choice of opportunities that meet their requirements for skill, time, affordable transportation cost, uniform cost, meals.
      • Find out what kinds of cars boomers drive in your area and leave fliers about volunteer opportunities on those cars or create a recruitment partnership with those car dealers. For example, Volvos were found to be most driven by boomers in the area where this idea was created.
      • Create partnerships with local businesses and corporations to develop a packet for human resources personnel that can be used as part of a pre-retirement package.
      • Create a key informant computer network — have current members pass on good ideas for service and volunteerism opportunities to other friends.
      • Create partnerships to form boomer leadership institutes or work with current leadership programs in your city to attract boomers and let them know of volunteer opportunities.
      • Create a job fair for both paid and unpaid work.
      • Hold a Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Current volunteers bringing their children will often result in a boomer coming and getting engaged as a volunteer.
      • Develop partnerships with local corporations to accomplish particular volunteer activities with their retirees or current 55-65 year old employees.
      • Find volunteer opportunities for grandparents and grandchildren to work on together.
      • Look into where boomers currently gather and seek to advertise and recruit at these places or partner with them. Ideas include: coffee shops, clothing stores, golf courses and country clubs, biker clubs, bookstores, and gourmet grocery stores.
      • Use the Internet in addition to personal asking.
   2. Customer Service

       

      What would you say is the expectation for customer service from the 55-65 year old?
      
      
      • Effective follow up and quick turnaround from the vollunteer agency after the initial contact.
      • Paperwork that is simple and succinct.
      • Choice in the agency they serve and the location.
      • Respect for experience.
      • Neutral language that does not use the terms "senior" or "older."
      • Business atmosphere in the volunteer environment including professional approach, business cards, titles, career ladders.
      • Benefits such as Medigap insurance, frequent flyer points, education, property tax reduction, tax service credits.
   3. Event Planning/Episodic/Other Volunteer Roles

       

      What types of events have you heard of or think would maximize the contribution of time for the volunteer as well as benefit the agency?
      
      
      • Creating a program for RSVP professional placements.
      • Creating opportunities for community leadership.
      • Providing mentorship for young professionals.
      • Collaborating with other organizations such as AARP or corporations.
      • Using volunteers as a speakers' bureau on issues of community concern like Medicare or homeland security.
      • Identifying Internet and website design opportunities.
      • Looking for global connections and impact.
      • Using National Days of Service as an opportunity.
      • Creating golf-oriented fundraisers.
      • Using volunteer skills to teach or train others.
      • Finding intergenerational events.
      • Offering public safety awareness events.
   4. Agency Preparedness

       

      To make these kinds of innovative recruitment practices work, the session participants indicated that volunteer agencies would need to know and understand the following things about a 55-65 year old potential volunteer.
      
      
      • Sites where volunteers are placed must be able to think outside the box about the opportunities they provide. It is not enough to have successful recruitment methods; agencies must also have new volunteer opportunities for boomers.
      • Agencies should view the volunteers as employees without pay and create true membership by the volunteer on the team, which includes providing incentives, career ladders, and professional volunteer opportunities.
      • Sites should be provided training in Volunteer Management for the Future.
      • Ongoing education and training is needed at volunteer stations.
      • Provide perks such as supplemental insurance, mileage, and parking. Many in this age group will volunteer in order to obtain insurance coverage.
      • Be supportive of agencies as well as volunteers.
      • Provide job descriptions for professional volunteer opportunities.
      • Do not duplicate existing services.
      • Create collaborative efforts for volunteer opportunities as well as recruitment.

Back to top

Context

Project directors participated in these sessions from a wide variety of agencies and locations that use senior volunteers.

Back to top

Outcome

Those participants reporting new methods for recruitment of the 55-65 year olds reported varying degrees of success. For example, the agency that used fliers on cars popular with this age group in its community reported attracting 20 new volunteers. Agencies using Leadership Institutes reported attracting as many as 200 applicants, many in the 55-65 year old age group. Participants thought it was important to implement ideas that are new and fresh and oriented to a younger volunteer, but yet are still appropriate for the given community and context.

Back to top

Evidence

Participants reported ideas which they had used successfully as well as ideas they had heard about. In some cases, like the Leadership Institute concept, the effectiveness of both recruitment and community impact have been evaluated and published. For example, in the Journal of Volunteer Administration (see Wilson, Steele et.al, volume 20, number 2, May 2002, pp. 28-37). In other cases, the concept was one of several used by an agency as part of a package of recruitment approaches for younger populations.

Back to top

Posted On

Back to top

For More Information

Back to top

Source Documents

Related Practices

• Understanding the motivations of baby boomer volunteers
• Enlisting baby boomers as Senior Corps volunteers
• Marketing volunteer opportunities to baby boomers

Back to top

Related sites

Senior Corps

• Login or register to post comments
• 
• Print-friendly page
• Send to friend