Marketing

There is an article in Third Sector about something that came out of Volunteering England's 'summitt' on the future of volunteering:

"Charities should consider drawing up a coordinated strategy to attract more volunteers, key volunteering figures have been told. Caroline Diehl, chief executive of the Media Trust, which works to improve the relationship between the not-for-profit sector and the media, told a meeting of volunteering leaders in London this week that a more streamlined approach to communication could help groups to promote their work and recruit higher numbers of volunteers.

"Volunteering organisations are trying to do different things and give out different messages," said Diehl. "But perhaps they need to work out a unanimous strategy for communicating their work to the public and attracting more volunteers, instead of this potentially confusing, piecemeal approach."

I don't know what other members feel, but I'm a bit worried about this approach. I don't think a one size fits all approach to marketing volunteering works, because a broad campaign cannot explain the massive diversity of VIOs and volunteer roles, so it creates unrealistic expectations. Plus their have been generic campaigns before, and they didn't work. I was working in a Volunteer Centre when Timebank launched, and about 80% of the initial requests were impossible - along the 'I want to do counselling but only for one evening a year, and I've got no time to do any training' line.