Celebrated author Terry Pratchett once said, “If you don’t know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are. And if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.”

This quote applies to many facets of life, including your online volunteer recruitment. Whether you’re launching your program from scratch or looking for tactics to streamline, let’s break this down.

To understand where you come from, consider asking yourself questions like, “Where do we currently recruit volunteers?,” “How often do we recruit volunteers?,” and “Why do we recruit volunteers?”

Once you have an understanding of where you’re coming from, create a list of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-oriented (SMART) goals to grasp where you’re going. You’ll revisit these goals throughout the recruitment process. Realistic goal setting is critical here, because if your goals aren’t realistic, you aren’t setting your program up for success.

After your SMART goals are in place, robust tracking and reporting features can help you determine what’s working and what isn’t, and inform you whether or not your goals should be revisited.

Tracking and reporting can enable you to respond to and implement volunteer recruitment changes quickly. And it can even come in handy when reporting on your program to your teammates, leadership, and board.

Read the full article about why tracking and reporting volunteer recruitment is so important by Basil Sadiq at Social Good News.