How to Write a Good Vacancy

When you post a vacancy on our vacancy bank, you naturally want suitable candidates to respond. How do you make sure a volunteer clicks on your vacancy? Here are five tips for writing a good vacancy text.
Are you (also) looking for English-speaking volunteers? We offer a free translation service – see the bottom of this page

Tip 1 – Come up with a catchy title

The title is what people see first. You want to grab attention immediately, so come up with a cool, catchy, original title that makes people curious for more. Don’t use the word ‘volunteer’ or ‘volunteer work’. Ask a question, come up with a fun job title, or turn it into a provocative statement.

E.g.

• Would you like to hand out food packages?
• Walking with obstacles
• Experienced handyman
• Creative genius for the craft afternoon with children
• Bringing fairy tales to life

Tip 2 – Write an appealing short description

In our online vacancy bank, the list of vacancies shows the title as well as the short task description of the volunteer position. If a potential volunteer finds it interesting, they click through for more information. SO: It is very important that the short task description (one or two sentences) also makes people curious for more. Describe what you are asking someone to do and why this is so important.

E.g.:

• Will you help us hand out food packages so that families living in poverty get healthy food?
• Would you like to go for a walk once a week with an elderly lady in a wheelchair? You would make her very happy!

Tip 3 – The rest of the vacancy text: short and concrete

Once the potential volunteer has become curious and clicked on your vacancy, it is important to specify the volunteer position in more detail. We recommend using this Vacancy Format. First fill in the text here and then paste it into the text field of the vacancy. Important considerations:

• Write short sentences and keep it concise. Large blocks of text don’t get read.
• Be specific and explain in more detail what the task or activity involves.
• Don’t include too much background information about your organization in the vacancy text — this information is already shown on your organization page.
• Try to get the reader excited!
• Pay attention to spelling, capitalization, punctuation: a text full of errors looks unprofessional.
• Don’t use jargon.

Tip 4 – Fill in everything!

It seems obvious…. But still: people searching for a volunteer position through our vacancy bank can choose from over 1,000 vacancies. They make a selection by using one or more search filters. It is therefore important that you properly fill in all the questions asked when posting a vacancy (theme, activity, target group, district, etc.).

Tip 5 – Add a photo

You can add your own photo to each vacancy. This is visible in the vacancy list and at the top of the vacancy text when you click through. If you don’t add a photo, a standard VCA photo will be shown. Your own photo immediately gives an impression of what it’s like at your organization, and that helps a potential volunteer make a choice. Show the joy of volunteer work!

Tip 6 – Don’t post direct contact details

It is very important for VCA that volunteers respond directly through the vacancy bank and are not referred to an organization’s own address. This is related to reporting to the municipality. Therefore, always indicate in a vacancy that candidates should send a motivation via the application form. Responses that come in through the vacancy bank are also always sent by email to the vacancy’s contact person.

Tip 7 – Translate your vacancy into English? > Translation service

You can (also) write a vacancy in English. The vacancy will then be easily found in the English section of our vacancy bank and via our English page. If you need help translating a vacancy into English, please contact us. We can translate the vacancy for you and put it online right away. Contact amsterdam@vca.nu or call 020-5301220.