Determination of demographic and motivational characteristics of Red Cross volunteers and the development of suggested strategies for volunteer recruitment and retention for the Johnson City/Washington County, Tennessee Chapter of the American Red Cross

In this study suggested strategies for improving the volunteer recruitment and retention program for the Johnson City/Washington County Chapter of the American Red Cross were developed. Previous recruitment and retention efforts by this Red Cross Chapter were based on historical methods with limited theoretical foundation. These new strategies are based on demographic and motivational profiles of chapter volunteers, survey of the Tennessee American Red Cross management's perception of their recruitment and retention programs. The combination of these data yielded a recruitment and retention format and nine suggested strategies. The format consists of three levels, recruitment and retention communication, recruitment and retention involvement, and recruitment and retention structure. Communication of the chapter's missions, goals and objectives is the key to recruitment and retention communication. The second level, recruitment and retention involvement involves the creation of databases to allow the matching of volunteer goals and objectives with appropriate projects. Recruitment and retention structure requires the creation of a recruitment and retention committee consisting of volunteers. This committee assumes all activities of the first two levels and sponsors and/or organizes events/programs incorporating both volunteer and chapter goals. The nine suggested strategies represent such events or programs. Compared to other methods of recruitment and retention employed by Johnson City/Washington County Chapter of the American Red Cross Chapters these strategies offer methodologies based on data form their volunteers and attempt to combine the goals of the volunteers and the chapter.