Volunteering in an Emergency

Have you ever noticed how the worst and most miserable situations motivate people to instantly lend a helping hand? In cases of floods and fires, earthquakes and hurricanes, even in an emergency like this one, people forget about their differences, limited time and their own everyday problems and join together to form an astounding force driven by good and changing fates.

The recent Sampson Flat bushfire near Adelaide brought similar thoughts to Bev Langley, volunteer and operator of the Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre. Seeing the hundreds of volunteers arriving to the area of the disaster from every corner of Australia, Bev commented, 'I think it has brought the best out in a lot of people.'

And here is an interesting question for every NFP organisation to think about – how can you use this particular knowledge to your advantage? Well, it is obvious that emergencies and urgent situations motivate people to volunteer. Of course, we don’t encourage you to set a school on fire and ask for help to save the children, but emergency may have many faces and forms. If you manage to convince people that your organisation needs urgent help in terms of volunteer force and donations, you will solve your problems for a long time to come.

One way to do this is, obviously, to have a very creative marketing campaign. Do not lie and do not distort the truth – just tell the facts in a really expressive, convincing and touching way. Remember why you started helping people, why you decided to help these particular people – and then tell the others why they should help. Do not show people that you will be fine without their help – instead 'We will be grateful for your help', say 'We need your help!' and instead 'As a volunteer you can make a difference' – 'You WILL make a difference!'. Using strong language will urge people to help and will make them think that you need them as soon as possible – and this is exactly the effect you want to achieve.

The most important thing you need to remember is that people need a reason to volunteer. You will get far weaker response if you tell them that you are recruiting just in case, or because it is good to volunteer in the first place. On the other hand, if you have an action that needs more people to organise, if the current levels of volunteering are really low and that may bring the end of your NFP, or if there is any other situation which requires urgent actions, you can be sure that people will respond.

To cut a long story short, you may need an emergency to recruit new volunteers and attract donors. The good news is that everything can be presented as an emergency. Actually, if you think about it, your organisation helps people, animals or the nature, and the fact that someone or something needs help is urgent enough to make people want to participate. You will just need to present it in the right way. Good luck!