3 tips to set your organisation page up for success

Congratulations! You just created an organisation on the platform. Now it is time to learn how to get the most out of your reach, network, and the platform. To make sure your organisation page becomes a success among (potential) volunteers, and to your organisation members, it is necessary to keep working with the platform and optimise messages for your target group. With the tips and tools discussed in this article, you will take your organisation page to the next level!

Before

After

First, you want your organization page to be as attractive as it can be! It must be clear to your members, as well as potential volunteers, what your organisation is all about. This can be configured in the organisation settings. The settings menu consists of different tabs: Profile, Privacy, Customize, and Embed. However, this article discusses only the Profile, Customize, and Embed tab, as those make a notable difference in setting your organisation up for success. In the next sections, the tabs are shortly explained with some helpful tips and tricks! Check the video below to see how to navigate between the tabs.

Profile

In the Profile section, you find all information you filled in when creating your organisation on the platform, as well as some extra options. The sections marked with the red asterisk (*) are mandatory but try to fill in as much as possible.

One important part in the profile section is Add extra information for members. Once new members are added, they must know immediately what possibilities they can expect on your organisation page. You can, for example, welcome your members with a nice introductory text, or provide some more information about your organisation. This information can be styled with rich text, videos, URLs, and images. Make use of this feature to reward your members for joining!

Another important feature is the Cover photo. Many organisations forget to upload a cover photo, which means that a distinctive feature can sometimes be missed. This is important, as the cover photo is the standard image used when you create an opportunity, as well as the first thing visitors of your organisation page see! So spend some time on your cover photo and if you need some creative tools, we listed them at the end of the article! In this article, we show how to change your cover photo.

General tips:

• Make sure your information is up to date: if your organisation address changes, don’t forget to change this information in your profile. ✏️

• Be as complete as possible on your organisation page. Although some options are not mandatory, it is highly recommended to fill these options, as this increases your findability on the platform. It also gives more, and better exposure to your organisation! Win-win! 👊

• Take some time to find the best fitting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Causes for your organisation. These variables are used by users to find organisations and opportunities, so make sure these variables truly fit your organisation’s goals and mission. 

Customize

In the Customize tab, there are five different customizable options. These are the main ways in which you can make a difference to your organisation page!

The first option is Recommended opportunities. When this is checked on, you can recommend some opportunities to your organisation members or page visitors. These can be your own, but also from other organisations. Recommended opportunities have a prominent place in your organisation page, so get a feel of what your followers and community care about. You can, for example, use social media to get to know your followers and community to recommend the best opportunities to your members. Similarly, you can share your opportunities in your own network and social media channels! This will give you a feel of your organisation members’ preferences. Fun fact: By getting to know the community around your mission and sharing opportunities with them, you significantly increase your chances of subscribing!

This video shows how to add recommended opportunities:

The second option is Teams. Teams are a great solution for organisations if your organisation has different parts, teams, or goals. As an organisation administrator, you allow the teams to manage their own organisation, which means they can add volunteer positions, activities, workshops and events without having to manage the entire organisation. This makes your organisation more manageable, reduces the number of people involved in managing your organisation, and at the same time gives more autonomy to the teams. Teams can also be used to create workgroups and different events. Say, for example, you want to organise a Beach Clean Up, and have a dedicated workgroup working on that. The teams functionality gives this workgroup the autonomy and opportunity to make own this project on the platform! This article describes more about the teams functionality!

The third option is Members can create opportunities. Do you want to give all members the autonomy to post opportunities on your behalf? Activate this option, and your organisation will be fully community driven! This can pose some risks to your organisation, as this could leave your organisation’s volunteering opportunities somewhat unmoderated. Therefore, we suggest you only check this option when Private opportunities (the next slider) are the only opportunities you want to use.

The fourth option is Private opportunities. This allows for private opportunities, only visible for members of the organisation. You can use this option to organise member-only events, such as drinks or gatherings, or for example for opportunities for only your own pool of members. Think for example of a new board of directors, or an opportunity for colleagues.

The last option is the Impact Goal. The impact goal refers to the number of hours that you want to volunteer as an organisation. This impact goal is shown at top of your organisation page and is a big stimulus to every member of your organisation, as you are open about what impact you want to make, and how close you are to that goal. The more, the better, but stay realistic. It is not realistic for a one-man organisation to have 10.000 impact hours, so change your impact goal along the way and work toward that goal! 🎯

Embed

Last, you can embed your opportunities on other websites outside of the platform. This can be your own website, but also in related website, by messaging the particular web admin. Embedding opportunities on other websites is very easy and a nice addition for extra visibility on other websites, or, for example, to promote your opportunities in your Intranet. This article explains how to display opportunities on other websites!

2. Invite your members/colleagues/volunteers to your organisation

We’ve just established that customizing your organisation profile can go a long way for your organisation to attract volunteers. However, how cool can it be if these volunteers become members of your organisation on the platform so they can be updated by your organisation, or be invited to participate in member-only events? Besides these functionalities, a large number of members shows that you, as an organisation, value your community, which is something volunteers generally like. This makes your organisation more trustworthy, and more attractive to join. Therefore, try to grow your organisation on the platform! Check this article to see how to achieve this!

Bonus: The more people join your organisation and volunteer, the quicker you reach your impact goal! 🚀

3. Set up your opportunities for success!

Naturally, you want as many volunteers as possible. Luckily, there are so many things that can set your opportunities apart from the others on the platform. We have an article about how to write an inspiring opportunity, which you should totally check out! Besides this article, we have some general tips!

General tips:

We know there are hundreds of online marketing tools out there nowadays and sometimes it is hard to choose. We like to make it as easy as possible with an overview.

• Find relevant Facebook & LinkedIn groups for your target audience (share opportunities, stories or fun facts)

• Share your opportunities in your own network and social media channels

• Keep the content of your opportunity relevant and up to date (regularly check the latest news & trends around your mission/goal)

• Use social media to get to know your followers & community (answer questions and respond to feedback)

• By getting to know the community around your mission and sharing volunteering opportunities with them, you significantly increase your chances of subscribing!

• Never forget to mark your applications as ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected’ ✅

• Find your niche and determine which marketing tactics work best for your mission

• Stay in touch with old volunteers and keep them coming back - use the messaging tool📨

• Find volunteers in the volunteer bank! This helps you proactively search for volunteers that fit your goals! Find out how in this article!

Our favourite websites for creatives (and non-creatives)

As promised: our favourite online tools to make your Opportunities & Organisation page look professional. Here are some (free) websites to get you started right away:

• For free stock images, Unsplash and Pexels

• For designs, Canva

• Prefer some more of your own images? Bring a good camera to your next event (or use your phone!)

• Create your own volunteering opportunity on volunteer.deedmob.com, or your local volunteer centre, to recruit creatives to give your organisation a hand (think social media experts, photographers, website builders)

• Finally, to add GIFs to your descriptions, use Giphy