Knowing exactly where to find great volunteers can be a challenge. Today’s online resources however, provide good places to attract, find, and keep the highly-skilled volunteers that want to be engaged in your organization. Many of the sites can be used for volunteer positions or paid staff positions. Here are a few to check out:

1. Idealist (http://idealist.org/): Idealist is a website that “facilitates connections between individuals and institutions that are interested in improving their communities.” Posting volunteer positions is free on this site, and Idealist receives over 50,000 unique visitors every single day. You can also post jobs on Idealist for a fee of $60. Idealist also has a volunteer management page: http://www.idealist.org/en/vmrc/index.html

2. Opportunity Knocks (http://www.opportunityknocks.org/): 81% of OK’s members have a bachelor’s degree or higher. In addition, Opportunity Knocks has many other resources to help nonprofits build a successful recruitment and retention program for both paid and non-paid positions.

3. Craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites): Craigslist generates on average, 51 replies per job or volunteer ad. Posting a position will only cost you about $25 (in some cities, it’s free!). In a study by the Wall Street Journal, users ranked Craigslist as the most effective job site above any of the other recruitment websites commonly used.

4. VolunteerMatch (http://www.volunteermatch.org/): Register your organization, choose a support level, and post a volunteer position by zip code. These simple steps will help volunteers find you by location and key word (ex: washington dc, environment). VolunteerMatch reached over six million users in 2008.

5. 1-800-Volunteer.org (http://www.1-800-volunteer.org/): Find a volunteer center in your local area. Call the volunteer centers and find out how to get the word out about your organization’s needs. Finding volunteers this way may require a little extra legwork, but will almost definitely be free and will likely yield locals who are genuinely passionate about your community.

6. Energize, Inc. (http://energizeinc.com/): Energize is designed for leaders or volunteers and offers many resources related to volunteer management, including recruitment.