Recruiting Volunteers

Here are suggestions on how to recruit volunteers effectively:

• Include announcements about your APS partnership on your alumni club website or in the newsletter, or send them out to your email list.



• Include a human interest story or testimonial related to the partnership in the newsletter.



• Include the name of your partner school and a brief introduction to the school, including the highlights of the partnership and upcoming events with dates and times, in all emails or newsletter or website announcements.



• Send alumni a link to the APS website (www.aps-chicago.org) so they can see what the partnership is doing.



• If the Alumni Association sends out postcard mailings to new alumni to assess interest in various opportunities such as interviewing applicants, include a checkbox on about your APS partnership. For example, "I would like to receive information about X college's partnership with Y school."



• Send a regular email to alumni volunteers reminding them of upcoming events at the school and committee meetings.



• Send a regular email to alumni club members including partnership events and news (include dates, times and who to contact).



• Look for volunteers who already have an interest in education such as teachers, educational consultants, people who work for a foundation that funds education, those involved with a school partnership through their business, or people whose children attend CPS.



• Group volunteers with similar interests and allow them to organize their own project or activity at the partner school.



• Often times single, unattached alumni and retired alumni have the most flexibility with their schedules.



• Enlist non-board members from different age groups to help recruit additional volunteers.



• Form an alumni sub-committee to help recruit and organize volunteers.



• Involve current students at your alma mater who are home on vacation.



• Set up a table with APS brochures (call or email the project manager to receive some) and information about the partnership at alumni events.



• Target alumni club events that will attract a broad range of people. For example, rather than targeting a Happy Hour, set up a table or hand out flyers at a visit by the University President.



• Garner university support, interest and awareness in partnership by...
  
  
  • including a university alumni association representative or university administration representative on emails regarding partnership activities.
    
    
  • encouraging the president of the university or a representative of the alumni association to visit your partner school when visiting Chicago.
    
    
  • setting fixed dates for events and giving plenty of advanced notice to increase the likelihood that someone from the alumni association or university administration might attend.