Nonprofits: Volunteer Recruitment for Nonprofits

The Volunteer Center recruits volunteers to benefit nonprofits. Volunteers can assist your professional staff with general administrative duties or support the work of your special events. Volunteers can also help with your infrastructure in areas such as finances, public relations and technology or a Board Members to govern your organization.

Step 1: Post Your Volunteer Opportunities.
Community volunteers will be able to access your volunteer needs through this interactive website and contact you directly. Here's how to get started:

• Click on the "Post Your Volunteer Opportunities" link or click here.

• List your agency and volunteer opportunities (at least one opportunity listing is required at initial signup.) You create, maintain and update your information on an ongoing basis. Make sure you have the following information on hand:
  • Primary agency contact's name, title, email, phone number and address.
  • Password for your agency to later update information. (*We will not know your password.)
  • Employer Identification Number (EIN). (*optional)
  • Agency's description of services statement.
  • Volunteer coordinator's name, phone and email for each opportunity listed.
  • Title of volunteer opportunities, descriptions and dates (where applicable).

• You start reaping the benefits of recruiting online.

Step 2: Weekly Column in The News-Times.
Once you have registered your agency and posted a volunteer opportunity on our website, The Volunteer Center will approve it. We can then include it in our "Opportunities to Volunteer" column in The News-Times Neighbors section on Thursdays.

Step 3: Contact the Volunteers That Have Called or Emailed Your Agency.
Community members who have taken the steps to get in touch with you to volunteer their time and talents expect to hear from you within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It is very important that you connect with them or you may have lost a volunteer and a potential board member or donor.

Step 4: The Volunteer Center Is Here For All of Your Volunteer Needs.
Contact us at (203) 797-1154 or email our Volunteer Specialist Priscilla Behling.

"The Volunteer Center is an excellent asset to the Greater Danbury Community. The Volunteer Management Training Series that I attended was very informative and beneficial. The staff members are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, helpful and accommodating. The Volunteer Center helps my agency tremendously!"
Elyse Soifersmith, Community Action Committee of Danbury

"I had the good fortune of discovering the Volunteer Center of Danbury shortly after taking the helm as Manager of CityCenter Danbury. Their six-week course on recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers was invaluable to my assistant and me.

We put the practices we learned to immediate use with the myriad events we host downtown that require the coordination of volunteer help. The Volunteer Center was especially instrumental in the resoundingly successful return of First Night Danbury.

Additionally, in my role as vice president for the Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance, the Volunteer Center has been a great resource for us as we build our Board of Directors and move forward with a strategic plan.

Patti personally helped us in the information gathering and convening stages to put us on the right track. I look forward to continued interaction with the staff of the Volunteer Center and encourage others to utilize this accessible and invaluable community asset."
Andrea Gartner, Manager CityCenter Danbury, Vice President Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance

"ARC would like to gratefully acknowledge the Volunteer Center for great assistance on office furniture. The Association of Religious Communities (ARC) receives hundreds and hundreds of donated items each year from partners in the faith community, ranging from things as tiny as socks to as large as refrigerators. What comes in goes right back out to individuals in the community.

The Volunteer Center, however, put us in touch with a person who wanted to donate a table with four chairs and Priscilla was kind enough to broker the arrangement so that ARC could retain the set. The set now functions as our Conference Table. We are very grateful, and use 'drinking coasters' to keep the table in nice condition!"
Rev. Phyllis J. Leopold, Executive Director