When recruiting young people as volunteers, it is important to recognize their individuality rather than to view them as one homogenous group. Furthermore, we also need to recognize the fact that young people today are quite busy. They are educating themselves, and many of them also have study jobs, which means that they are already working on a 37-hour weekly basis. Therefore, volunteer organizations need to show flexibility, and place the volunteer activities so they fit with the young person’s calendar. The young people are also in a period in their lives, where they have moved from a local context with state school where they have felt relatively safe, and now they have moved to a new school, maybe in a new city, which means that everything in their lives is changing, and suddenly very few things in their lives are stable. This also means that whatever interests them today, may not be relevant tomorrow or in 6 months. Basic terms for this target group are therefore temporality, and changeability. Young people are also very focused on the future. Therefore, it is quite important to inform them about what they can get out of volunteering. Also, these young people are “shopping”, which means that they are weighing their options against each other to find out what fulfills their needs better. The good thing about this tendency is that once they have made their choice, they are very committed to this choice.
The best channels to use for reaching the young volunteer target group is through social media and by showing up on educational institutions – this is where the young people are, and they feel safe here, which means that the first step into the volunteer world is not so dangerous. Finally, young people recruiting young people is probably the most effective recruitment channel. Young people do not trust commercials and adds, and they certainly do not trust parents and teachers – but they trust their friends and their equals.
The most prominent reasons for targeting young people are that they are very able, and they know a lot about the thing that many volunteer organizations know nothing about: digitalization. Furthermore, young people today are more altruistic than previously, more serious, and more dedicated. Therefore, if you manage to get them involved in your organization, you have got some very good volunteers on your hands.