Empowerment Squared: Volunteer Recruitment, Engagement and Retention

Abstract

Empowerment Squared’s programming for newcomer youth and their families is reliant on volunteer support. Empowerment Squared aims to recruit more consistent, long-term volunteers to maintain continuity of their programs and build capacity. Empowerment Squared’s volunteer base is currently made up of largely undergraduate students, who tend to be unable to volunteer over the summer months and during their exam periods, causing a gap in available volunteers to support the programs. By better understanding what attracts volunteers to their programs and what factors engage and retain them, Empowerment Squared hopes to double their current volunteer base and better engage and retain their current volunteers. The research team conducted a review of the literature on volunteer recruitment, engagement and retention, focus groups with Empowerment Squared staff, an online survey of volunteers, and volunteer interviews. Our results indicate that volunteers are motivated to sign up to volunteer and continued to volunteer with Empowerment Squared for a variety of altruistic, social and material reasons and stop volunteering with the program due to situational factors (e.g., scheduling, time and/or location). Recommendations for Empowerment Squared include altering their word of mouth and club and group-based recruitment strategies, recruiting program alumni, providing specialized training to volunteers, considering volunteering motivation in their engagement strategies, and formalizing the volunteer feedback process.