How do we get more sponsors and volunteers?

Offer full training programs, certificates of completion, based on your cause! Give .45 c a mile for travel costs... Inventives! Have parties for volunteers and turn it into a family community! - It's not about free work, it's about delivering skilled services to the sector you assist! Volunteers can then use these learned skills later -EEP

Debbie,

I am in NE GA. BNI group that meets at Hamilton Mill Country Club on Thursdays from 12-1:30 pm. There are between 20-30 business people there each week. You could come as my visitor, you would get a free lunch and you would get 60-seconds to tell what your business is and that you need volunteers. You would also have time to network before 12, then 15-minutes during our meeting and after the meeting. You can pass out your cards or flyers and you can grab business cards out of box. So that is one way to spread your mission.

Also, you could check with 12Stone Braselton campaus as they help with a lot of things in the community. Try to talk to Pastor Dan Vander Wall. They may be able to help or at least past the word along. Bo to 12Stone.com/braselton

Hardest part of the non profit job is to find sponsors, but volunteers are always available at colleges, high schools...also offering them rewards/awards like the Presidential award program, registering your organization is needed, register your organization, and then eventually you will need to register your members who gets credited with those pins, diplomas, https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/certi...

The short answer is to Network and Build Relationships. Now, how to do that. Well, I use local business networking groups - Like Masterminds of Business (MOB) - http://www.mastermindsofbiz.com/ or BNI - https://www.bni.com/ look for local chapters near you. Reach out to your local City Chambers as they probably have small networking groups that meet on a weekly basis. This is a great way to reach small businesses.

As far as Volunteers, check with your nearby Schools and Churches - usually a great source for volunteers.

In both cases, it is about building relationships - letting them know you care about them and what they have or are willing to do for you.

We are a 501(c)(3) corporation, which is at the stage of turning our responsibilities over to younger leaders and seek a relatively small amount of funds to sustain our future. We used to not compete with government agencies and school districts for grants; but goodness, how times have changed. We are successful in getting volunteers for our projects; but funding is now our primary concern.

Networking: Jan Black of The Black Brand, provides handmade pillows for children who are fleeing abuse or heading to foster homes (they have loving sayings on them to provide comfort). She also created an Abuse Recovery Work book and may have connections in the space you're targeting.

Volunteers - most schools now have Community Service requirements before graduation and then there is "Americore". Businesses also provide employees with credits for community service projects - you just get on their approved Service Menu. Some Co., like Intel, match the time an employee puts in with $$ for the 501c3 equivalent to the employees pay rate (pretty cool way to get help and money).

Local Resources: at one point during my design career, I set up a neighborhood sample making sewing circle, paying stay home moms to sew samples for a SF Company I was contracted with. the woman so appreciated work they could do from home with kids and the extra money.

One great way is to connect with local businesses and do some team building events. Figure out a way to make what you do, something a team can do in an afternoon and then reach out to businesses looking to do some sort of volunteer work combined with a team building event.

Last year we did a team building event with a company that brought in their leaders from across the US. Since then, smaller groups from the company have come to us to connect, become sponsors for events and volunteer.

Our My Comfy Kits program is similar to yours in many ways. Love to hear how and why you got it started!

To get volunteers, I use JustServe.org. It’s a free service bringing volunteers and organizations together.

I just learned Bank of America has Volunteer Programming in addition to being philanthropic Themselves

Do not overlook your local Retired Senior Volunteer Program. I have also found recruiting interns from the college to be a great place.