---
title: 17 Strategies to Recruit the Best Bell-Ringer Volunteers
description: The Salvation Army of Greensboro, NC shares their 17 knockout strategies to recruit and retain great bell-ringer volunteers.
---

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# [17 Strategies to Recruit the Best Bell-Ringer Volunteers](https://www.truesense.com/blog/17-strategies-to-recruit-the-best-bell-ringer-volunteers)

 Written by [TrueSense Marketing](https://www.truesense.com/blog/author/truesense-marketing) | Oct 14, 2017 4:00:00 AM

**Once the calendar page turns to August, you most likely have kettles on your mind.** Specifically, how will you fill all the shifts with bell-ringers?  Each year, thousands of people volunteer to ring bells for The Salvation Army.  Recruiting and retaining those volunteers is no easy task.

#### The Salvation Army of Greensboro, NC shared their 17 knockout strategies to fill bell-ringer timeslots:

1. **[RedKettleVolunteer.org](http://www.redkettlevolunteer.org/)** — Load all your locations/shift options, and activate online sign-up to make bell-ringing accessible and easy for the community.
2. **Launch early and remind often.**  (We kicked off our campaign in late *August*.) 
3. **Use national graphics** to keep brand consistency.
4. **Set up a website banner announcing your campaign**, and link to the virtual sign-up or to the Kettle Coordinator’s email address.
5. **Utilize daily social media posts** about bell-ringing leading up to the season.  
6. **Pay for “boosted posts” on Facebook** to improve the reach.
7. **Alert past volunteers.**  Using the national graphics (see below), we mailed 200+ postcards to bell-ringers from prior years.  All postcards had a specific campaign email address, website, and phone number to make signing up easy.
8. **Purchase a mailing list.**  We purchased a list of 300 affluent households to mail a bell-ringer promotional postcard.  Employing the same methods we used for our past volunteers, signing up was made easy.
9. **Form a Kettle Committee **with board members and volunteers.  Our Kettle Captains are charged with contacting bell-ringers from years past, and reaching out to new prospective groups.
10. **Connect the dots.**  Your volunteer message should connect bell-ringing hours directly to the impact on programs and services.  (For example, “Four hours of bell-ringing will feed a family for a week.”)
11. **Set a goal** both for net profit and volunteer hours.  Communicate this goal often!
12. **“Upsell” your volunteers.**  When communicating with volunteer groups, see if they’re willing and able to adopt their Red Kettle for one more shift than they had planned.
13. **Confirm past volunteers early.**  By mid-October, you should know how many new individuals/groups you’ll need to acquire to reach your goal.
14. **Assign an individual specifically to volunteer onboarding and communication.**  
15. **Send volunteer reminders** via email and phone 24 to 72 hours before the shift.
16. **Write thank-you notes** (electronic and via mail) to all volunteers. 
17. **Mail a post-Christmas impact report** to all volunteers, showing the value of their service.

#### * *

[View full post](https://www.truesense.com/blog/17-strategies-to-recruit-the-best-bell-ringer-volunteers)

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