How to Make the Most of Your Millennial Volunteers

Every campaign from start to finish needs volunteers of all ages, but sometimes the best volunteers that you can have are millennials. I’m a millennial and a registered voter who has worked on local, state and national campaigns in Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana, Florida, Kentucky and Arkansas. I can tell you from experience that 84% of us care about making a difference. Here’s what you need to know to make the most of your millennial volunteers:

1. We are passionate

The best thing about millennials is that nearly everyone of us wants to make a difference, and with passion comes energy. According to a study done by Millennial Impact Research 79% of millennials are cause oriented. It could be anything from human rights (including pro-life views), government spending, the war overseas, or the homeless vets in America. Use the passion that we have to get us engaged with your campaign. Even at our busiest, we will make time for a cause that we believe in.

2. We’re competitive

We like winning, so make all of the Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) efforts a competition! Create contests such as: The group that knocks on the most doors or the group that makes the most phone calls will get a prize such as mobile devices or gift cards.

3. Food

One of the best ways to motivate us is to buy food/snacks/coffee. You can never go wrong with pizza and snacks, especially after a long day of door knocking and phone banking. Having snacks (even granola bars and bags of chips) available for teams going door knocking is never a bad idea. If you caffeinate your volunteers before they start… they’ll probably be more productive!

4. Social Media

Chances are that your campaign is already on social media. If not, stop what you’re doing and GO SET UP YOUR ACCOUNTS! Millennials probably have the biggest reach on social media out of all the other different age demographics, and because of that we could potentially your biggest secret weapon.

Social media outlets are virtually endless with several different possibilities for telling your story, each in a different way. Come up with a hashtag that is specific to your campaign and tell your volunteers to use it and make sure they are tagging your accounts in their photos as they volunteer!

5. Get to Know Us

While, we might be on our mobile devices most of the time, we can still appreciate when people take time to get to know us and let us get to know them. Youth volunteers will be much more likely to be excited about you and your campaign if they know you and what you stand because they can tell everyone from a personal perspective how great you are. It’s called authenticity. If we like a candidate and support them, we can usually sway our like-minded friends if they aren’t dead set on ideals or a certain candidate. Get to know what talents we might be able to offer you and your campaign! You might have people with cars, graphic design abilities, church or school networks, or  fundraising experience.

6. Ask Our Opinions

While we don’t know everything, chances are that we know a lot about a broad range of things and unless you’re in our same generation we can tell you how our peers will probably respond to different approaches. After all, millennials make up a large percentage of your vote, or will by 2025. Use us to help you reach our peers!