Volunteers not doing enough? Check 2 simple things

Small towns run on volunteer energy. In the new Idea Friendly way of volunteering, not everyone has to volunteer in the same way. Even clicking ‘like’ can count as a small but meaningful part of a project.

But how do you get people to even click ‘Like’?
That was the question in the chat at one of our recent virtual conference presentations.

First, the people have to actually like the idea. Maybe the people you’re asking don’t like the idea. And that’s OK.

Second, maybe they really aren’t online people. Like your Old Way board members and volunteers, for example. Some of them are probably not good at clicking ‘Like’ because they aren’t really comfortable online. Not all, but some of them. 

Look at it from a Fogg Behavioral Model perspective: you want to make the action you ask a person to do match that person’s level of motivation and their ability.

So make sure you’re the people you are asking to click ‘like’ are people who both have the ability and enough motivation to do it.

There you have it. Two simple things to check every volunteer ‘ask’ against: 

1. Is this person able to do what I’m asking?
2. Does the effort it will take them match their motivation level? 

Keep shaping the future of your town, 
Becky

PS – No one knows quite how holiday shopping is going to go this year. I shared a challenge and an opportunity I see for small towns in this post on LinkedIn. I’d love your thoughts on it.