Tutor Recruitment:

Free and easy ways to find volunteers

VolunteerMatch -

VolunteerMatch helps people find volunteer opportunities posted by local nonprofit and public sector organizations. It is free to create an account. Their search engine is also featured on other volunteer portals, which gives the volunteer opportunities posted there more visibility.

Idealist –

Idealist is a global network of non-profit volunteer opportunities and job postings. It’s free to post volunteer opportunities and internships, but there is a fee to post jobs.

Craigslist –

There is a section specifically for volunteers. Listings expire every 45 days, but it is beneficial to repost often as postings are listed by date.

Facebook –

Create a page for your program, or for yourself, where you can post information, pictures and volunteer opportunities. Ask your current tutors to “like” your page and share it with their friends.

University of Minnesota Gold Pass -

Gold Pass is statewide. Only people with U of M logins can search the GoldPass database since the site is aimed at students. Organizations can easily set up their own accounts to log in.

United We Serve -

This US government website is designed to promote community service across the nation. Its database of volunteer opportunities is culled from HandsOn Network and VolunteerMatch, among others. When you post your opportunities on they’ll be automatically uploaded to this website.

Minnesota Literacy Council – Post an Opportunity (for adult literacy programs)

Members of the literacy council's Network of Volunteer Literacy Programs may post their adult volunteer opportunities to the website. Postings are searchable by potential volunteers in our database of Current Opportunities.

Local Community Newspapers –

If your local paper has an announcements section, contact the editor to ask about including a short paragraph about volunteering along with your contact information.

Coffee Shops, Libraries and Community Centers –

These places often have bulletin boards and people who are interested in helping. Ask if you can post a flyer, or if there’s a resource area where you can leave recruitment cards.

Word of Mouth –

Ask your current tutors to tell their friends or family about the opportunity. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find new volunteers.

A few additional tips on recruiting volunteers…

  • Three points to include when writing a recruitment message:

1.Statement of need (the students’ need, not the program’s need)

2.How the volunteer can help and the impact the volunteer will have

3.The benefit to the volunteer

(Adapted from MAVA, Minnesota Association of Volunteer Administration)

  • Use energetic, active words when describing your volunteer opportunities.
  • Keep it brief and catchy. Potential volunteers may be looking through a long list of opportunities online. A summary of the position is usually more effective than including a lot of details. You can send them the full position description and discuss the detailsonce they contact you.
  • Be sure to include how volunteers can contact you or where they can go for more information. When they inquire, do your best to respond to them as soon as possible and give them the position description. If they don’t hear back from you within a few days, they may think their help isn’t needed and look elsewhere.
  • Be honest in your expectations. If you want a volunteer who will be able to commit for six months or if you want someone with experience assessing students for example, make that clear up front. It may take longer to find an appropriate volunteer, but it will be worth the wait.