Recruiting Volunteers and New Members

Degrees for marketing are not impartial to give you information on how to market, advertise, or discover target markets – it is all about the social responsibility of assisting organizations in any number of needs. Particularly, those that will involve people, because marketing degrees are the sociology degrees of business.

Organizations need strategies for recruiting as well as marketing strategies. The following is a strategy developed for a fictitious organization – The Woodland Foundation, from CTU (Colorado Technical University, online). Reading through this will assist in providing you with more information on how to develop successful strategies for recruiting volunteers or unusual team members to your organization.

The Woodland Foundation – Recruiting Volunteers and New Members

The Woodland Foundation will develop plans to increase awareness in the community and price positioning. As a non-profit organization, we rely on the community to relieve us in creating a successful nature center, which brings value to the community and promotes tourism as well as increased profitability. In addition, local farms have donated their land to our 50-year-old foundation to succor as part of our dedication to the “protection and promotion of the Woodland Nature Center” (CTU Course Materials, 2007, para. 1). While the Woodland Nature Center is dedicated to preserving the nature that our park stands for, we are also tasked with adding value to our stakeholders – our community.

Volunteers are often the foundation for the success of any non-profit organization; however, they are assisted by other members who promote the success and continued growth. For instance, many non-profit organizations create groups called “friends” who donate time or money to the organization to assist in providing free services to the local community. In Girard, the local library offers levels of memberships for friends that bring money to the library and give “perks” to the “friends.” The Texas Parks and Wildlife site advertises “friends groups” as non-profit organizations which assist the park in a variety of ways – “These non-profit organizations, sometimes referred to as “friends groups,” work on behalf of park sites to assist with daily programs, Special events, fund raising, and public education. These groups serve as important links to local communities and park user groups as well.” (Texas Parks and Wildlife, 2006, para. 3). Our organization would abet from “friends groups,” if developed appropriately.

Developing a Solid Strategy

The primary goal of marketing communications is to bring consumers and stakeholders to an organization in a way that benefits both the business/organization and the consumers and stakeholders involved. In addition, the joining of these forces should increase the value to all parties as well as create a long lasting relationship that may be built upon. We can stare towards “Fundamental Marcom Decisions” for a path that leads to this success with “Targeting,” “Positioning”, “Setting Objectives,” “Budgeting,” and “A Concluding Mantra” (Shimp, 2007, p. 18-20). In addition, we will address the importance of say media and mass media for aiding us to meet our goals.

Fundamental Marcom Decisions

“Targeting,” “Positioning,” “Setting Objectives,” “Budgeting,” and “A Concluding Mantra” are the methods of our path (Shimp, 2007, p. 18-20). Targeting involves selecting who should gape our ads, who we should try to advance, and who would be responsive to our efforts to raise awareness of our foundation. Positioning is developed with our target market in mind and involves the organizations message, our business statement, and where we will place our public information. Setting objectives is all about knowing what goals we must meet along the way, and this is what keeps us on our path and helps us to develop our budget and enjoy it. Our budgeting is the funding we allocate towards growing the ticket name of Woodland Foundation. While many marketers will point out that, the successful brand marketing is “priceless,” it is usually wise to set a reasonable budget for any marketing goals. Finally, “A Concluding Mantra,” while not exactly a Marcom Decision, it is essential to space a summary of our goals in the minds of all members of Woodland Foundation (Shimp, 2007, p. 20). We must be on the same page, we must be working towards the same goals, and we must all know where we are and where we have left to go.

Direct and Media Marketing

Screech and media marketing are how we will approach our target market(s). “One of the easiest methods to distinguish the two is to think of direct media as personal communications, and mass media as non-personal communications.” (CTU Course Materials, 2007, PH1 Q&A). With direct media, we are working more on a one-to-one level with our consumers. We will see direct media with our volunteer and friends programs. Mass marketing reaches out to more people, within our target market, and usually reaches more people for less money. We might consider a billboard, television ad, or newspaper ad as our mass media approaches. Together these two types of marketing afford a company or organization a combined approach that can be synchronized to expose the message and goals to our community or the world.

Measuring Our Goals

No plan is complete without a scheme to measure the success or failure of the project undertaken. Some ways to measure our success will be in the volume of people who respond to our advertisements for “friends,” increased response to our volunteer programs, and of course the amount of people visiting our foundation. In addition, we will need to track our success to determine what “parts” of our project are making the most impact. One way to do this will be petite and simple surveys of respondents – “Where did you hear about this program? ” and “Have you visited the Woodland Foundation before? ” Other things may include full surveys of the visitors or local community members that ask if they have seen our marketing, if they have visited the park, and what things have “staying power” in regards to what they have heard or seen. Just as many people can remember the jingles to their favorite commercials, we need to know what parts of our mission statement stand out and are easy to remember so that we can maintain them in future marketing or maybe incorporate them into all marketing. Our mission statement will guide us, but as we determine the value and needs of the consumers, it may need to be refined.

“Friends” and Volunteers

Non-profit organizations survive on the whims of the communities they support and the government funding that they gather. Marketing is a never-ending job. First, our business must please the government officials who provide assistance; and second, we must appeal to our public to provide money and services for something they may not reap a tangible return on. In our case, the Woodland Foundation can provide a tangible return on investment, and we can show this in ways that will bring the investments into our organizations. Friends groups must be shown how providing for nature will benefit them and the community. Volunteers must be encouraged to understand their dedication serves their community, the environment, and brings inner happiness.

Most State Parks and Public Libraries advertise on their websites for volunteers and friends. The sites usually explain what each position entails: Friends of Georgia State Parks can get a family membership for $70, which gives them “two annual park passes, one annual historical status family pass, 10% off purchases…, 10% off published rates of a state campsite…,” and so on (Georgia State Parks…, 2006). Volunteers for Ohio State Parks can decide to be an Individual Volunteer and work with park staff in maintaining trails or taking care of animals, and this position is also available to children with parents or guardians; Campground Host who works on the camping grounds to assist the campers and maintain the grounds area, as well as events and other special projects for the camp grounds; finally, there are Group Volunteers who are able to do “service projects” including the “beautification projects” that maintain appeal to the park (Ohio Department.., 2005). A consumer can go to the website and to join, it is often as easy as filling out a few questions online.

Following defining the roles that friends and volunteers play in our organization, we can then advertise on our website, send out flyers, invite local businesses to participate, and address mass media for solutions. Many times local radio stations can be encouraged to attend events, which also serve as mass media promotion. Measurement of success with our community will be imperative to the mission’s success.

Recommendations

In conclusion, my recommendations are to create clear definitions of friends and volunteers, as many of our peers have done, and then advertise them through direct marketing methods – visiting local businesses and schools; as well as mass media methods – via our website and billboards/television/radio/newspaper as the budget affords. We must also look into free mass media advertising, such as when an event is Printed in the newspaper or promoted by a local television channel. It is important to make the news. These days reporters are looking for “ecstatic stories” and can be found wandering the community looking for children doing “cute” things, let’s get them busy in the park. With a clear mission statement, clear definitions of “Friends” and “Volunteers,” and synchronization between our medias, we will be able to reap clearly seen benefits from this project.

References:

CTU Course Materials. (2007). MKT460-0701A-01: Integrated Marketing Strategies.

Retrieved on January 13, 2007, from CTU Course Materials.

Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites. (2006). 2007 Friends Membership Levels.

Retrieved on January 15, 2007, from http://www.gastateparks.org/net/content/page.aspx? s=137719.0.1.5&siteid=5&wrapid=1

Ohio Department of Natural Resources. (2005). Ohio Station Parks Volunteer Program.

Retrieved on January 17, 2007, from

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/volunteer/default.htm

Shimp, T. (2007). Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing

Communication. Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education.

Texas Parks and Wildlife. (2006). Volunteer Opportunities at State Parks and Historic

Sites. Retrieved on January 15, 2007, from