No matter how fabulous your fair is going to be or how amazing the forthcoming music festival, it can be challenging to secure volunteers. That is, getting people to give up their free time to help man a stall, sell raffle tickets or stand at your school fair entrance with a smile.
Be organised
The key to securing volunteers is organisation. Get in early and ask for a couple of hours of people’s time, being specific about what stalls need help and what’s involved – it’s not like you’re asking them to run the whole event!
To make life quicker and easier, we’ve put together a volunteer rota template. The downloadable Excel spreadsheet is ideal for your summer or Christmas fair, with a column for the stalls you are running, the different time slots that people can volunteer for, and spaces for PTA members and parents to write in their names.
Ask for just an hour of their time
Drag out your rota whenever you can... pin it up on the PTA noticeboard, have it ready at parent’s evening, assemblies, even put out a last-minute plea at the nativity play (and have pens available). Who knows, if someone sees their friend’s name down against a stall, they might well volunteer too.
Edit the rota to fit your own event. And when parents DO help out for an hour on that cake stall, say thank you and maybe they’ll help again next time...
Further reading
- How to attract more volunteers
- How to boost volunteer support
- How to say thank you to your volunteers
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