The best day, time, and month to recruit volunteers.

Let's say you've written the perfect volunteer vacancy. What's the next step? What's the best day and time to post it on our platform to ensure maximum reach? It would be a shame not to post your request when volunteers are actually searching!

On our matching platform NLvoorelkaar, thousands of people are searching for something that suits them every day. But when they do this varies from day to day and month to month. Perhaps you have a gut feeling about when most volunteers are looking for a new job: on weekends, during the holidays, or in the fall? Here's a sneak peek: one of these statements is true, and the others are not...

In this blog post, you'll learn how to make a data-driven decision about when to post your volunteer vacancy online. We analyzed search traffic and the connections volunteers make on our matching platform. Of course, there's no magic hour for recruiting volunteers. But the analysis presented can help you better understand the volunteers searching through our platform. And that, in turn, can help you reach that extra mile.

Following the American research that inspired this blog, we have listed three interesting insights:

• The best time
• The best day
• The best month

Best time: 10.00am – 12.00pm

Perhaps surprisingly, volunteers appear to log in primarily during office hours: 50% of volunteers log in between 09:00 and 15:00 . Website visits, not unexpectedly, show the same pattern. Around 11:00, we see a peak in both website visitors and logging-in volunteers; this is the 'peak' time. It is striking that we also see a small peak in website visits between 20:00 and 22:00, but that this peak does not result in volunteer activity (logging in).

NLvoorelkaar lists over 26.000 online requests for help. These requests are sorted by date by default. But note: it's not the date the vacancy was posted that counts, it's the date the person posting last logged in. This way, we know a vacancy is still current – ​​because nothing is more frustrating for a volunteer than finding out a vacancy has already been filled!

Additionally, the volunteer can of course apply their own search criteria: location, interest, frequency, etc. However, the list of vacancies is often long, so it is beneficial to be at the top. Therefore, ensure that your volunteer vacancy is online around 10:00 (or if it is already online: that you have logged in), so that the largest group of volunteers sees your vacancy.

Conversely, it is best not to post your volunteer vacancy after 3:00 PM and certainly not between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM. There is a good chance that by the time the largest group of volunteers goes online to search, your volunteer vacancy will have already sunk down the list and will be seen less frequently or quickly.

The best day of the week: Tuesday

Just as you start the new year with a good resolution, many people apparently also start the week with the intention of doing something good for others. These are the best days for volunteering (register and/or log in):

1. Tuesday
2. Monday
3. Wednesday
4. Thursday Friday
5. Sunday
6. Saturday

Monday and Tuesday are clearly the most popular days to look for volunteer work. Both website visits and volunteer activity show a peak on these weekdays. Tuesday appears to be slightly more action-oriented than Monday: although site visits are high on both days, the number of volunteers taking action on that day is highest on Tuesday. Over 22% of volunteers log in then, more than double the number on Saturday (9%)!

Preferably, do not post your volunteer vacancies on Saturdays . There are few site visitors and few active volunteers then. That is nice, because it allows you to enjoy the weekend yourself. Surprisingly, Thursday is not a top day either. For although site traffic is high then (highest after Monday and Tuesday) and a fair number of volunteers register, few volunteers log in on that day (comparable to Sunday: 12%).

The best month: autumn

Autumn clearly proves to be the best time of the year to recruit new volunteers. The peak is in October: this month sees the most website visits, new volunteers, and the most volunteer activity. There is more website traffic in September than in November, but there is more volunteer activity in November than in September. An interpretation: volunteers explore volunteering opportunities in September and October and subsequently commit in October and November.

After the autumn, January is also an interesting month for recruiting volunteers. Not only are volunteers being recruited, but they're also actually signing up. New Year's resolutions are being put into practice!

Holidays are clearly not a favorite time to look for or start volunteering. June, July, and August, in particular, are below average on all fronts: 33% fewer volunteers register than in October, for example. The spring break and spring break are also not peak recruitment periods, with low volunteer registration rates. However, March is a positive exception, possibly due to events like NLdoet.

Does that mean you shouldn't do anything during those months? Absolutely not, because a 33% drop in volunteers in 2018 still meant almost 800 volunteers signed up. Add to that the other 35.000+ volunteers on NLvoorelkaar, and there are practically always potential volunteers who can work for you!

We hope this data will help you with your recruitment plan to inspire more volunteers to do something wonderful for those in need. Best of luck!