Appealing to Experience

Experience Corps | 1
Introduction
Today’s and tomorrow’s older Americans will be healthier, better educated, more active, and
more numerous than ever before. That’s potentially great news for nonprofit organizations in
search of new leaders, new advocates, and new energy. I say “potentially” because experienced
volunteers won’t simply materialize. We’ll have to ask them to serve.
Today less than half of those over 50 are being asked to volunteer despite recent research by
Independent Sector indicating that “the volunteering rate is about three times higher for those
[over 50] who were asked than for those who were not.”
So how do we make the ask? What do we know about how to craft recruitment messages that
hit home with this growing population of experienced people with more time to give?
Over the past few years, a number of organizations and researchers have been exploring these
questions and experimenting with different approaches. At Experience Corps, we’ve been
collecting what’s out there, doing focus groups of our own, and applying what we’ve learned to
recruiting more people over 55 into community work.
We still have a lot to learn, but we can report some preliminary conclusions now. We hope the
observations in the pages that follow will prompt more conversation, more experimentation,
and more learning. And, of course, we hope these tips will help other organizations begin to
find the concepts, the images, and the words to invite more older Americans to serve.
A few cautions: First, we know more about what doesn’t work than what does. It seems signifi-
cantly easier to get universally negative reactions than universally positive ones. Second, when
conclusions are preliminary, as ours are, there’s a lot of room for discussion and disagreement.
To help you see all sides, we’ve included lots of ideas, some of which may seem contradictory.
We’re counting on you to sort out the information, test it locally, and determine what works best
for you. And third, nothing will kill a program faster than not being able to deliver on promises
made during a recruitment campaign. The opportunity you’re promoting has to be high quality,
or word-of-mouth will put an end to even the most sophisticated and successful campaign.
So, if you share our belief that the aging of America presents a tremendous opportunity to
change America, let’s work together to transform lives, organizations, and communities. The
potential is huge, but time is getting short. The oldest of the 77 million Baby Boomers will turn
60 in 2006. It’s time now to ask them to serve.
John S. Gomperts
CEO, Experience Corps
P.S. Later this year, Experience Corps will publish a companion booklet summarizing what
we’ve learned about the on-the-ground tactics that work best in recruiting older adults to com-
munity service. Sign up for our free e-newsletter at www.experiencecorps.org for details about
how to get a copy.

2 | Appealing to Experience: Zeroing in on the Right Message

Table of Contents
Retirement Brings Mixed Emotions......................................................................4
Words Matter, Labels Offend...............................................................................7
Values and Emotions Matter, Too ........................................................................9
Emphasizing the Beneﬁts of Volunteer Work...................................................... 11
Targeting Messages.........................................................................................14
Sending Messages in Living Color ....................................................................17
Humor: A Double-Edged Sword .........................................................................25
Using Stories...................................................................................................27
Using Photos...................................................................................................29
Creating Messages the Experience Corps Way: Lessons Learned........................32
Lessons from Other Recruitment Campaigns ......................................................36
Professionalism Pays.......................................................................................39

Retirement Brings Mixed Emotions
The word “retirement” brings up a confusing mix of feelings for most people. Ask for
synonyms and you’re likely to hear a rousing cheer of “freedom!”—at least at first.
Scratch the surface, and many people acknowledge that retirement often brings with
it concern, loneliness, and purposelessness. Those hoping to recruit more experienced
volunteers should take both the exuberance and the negative emotions into account
when crafting messages for older adults.
Research conducted by former advertising executives Margaret Mark and Marvin
Waldman for Civic Ventures and Experience Corps over the past several years pro-
vides a glimpse into what one might call the retirement Rorschach test. Here’s what
they learned in a series of focus groups:
 People have mixed feelings about retirement, and they are reluctant to
acknowledge their most deeply felt emotions…even to themselves.
 Retirees’ first impulse is to wax on about their newfound
freedom (“I can get up when I want to!”) and their increased
leisure time (“Now I can take the grandkids swimming.” ).
Retirees are generally less forthcoming about the negative
aspects of being retired but, upon reflection, they discuss
missing the type of relationships they had at work. They miss
working together to solve problems, feeling challenged, laugh-
ing at the boss, and sharing experiences throughout the day.
Perhaps most important, they miss a sense of purpose.
 Retirees miss the camaraderie and unspoken
emotional support they had at work but find hard to repli-
cate in post-retirement relationships (“It was a good bunch of
guys. When you had a problem, they would jump in and help you.”).
Retirees miss the stimulation they got sharing or passing on experience at work.
One described missing “an exchange of expertise,” while others talked about the
special gratification of “passing on experience to the younger guys” or “pass-
ing on knowledge that you don’t get out of books.” Since retirement, some feel
that they no longer have anything to offer and that their life experiences are no
longer relevant.

 Some retirees and, to some extent, pre-retirees, express concern about too
much time and a lack of structure, a kind of “formlessness” in retired life
(“Some days I got so sad and I wondered why I even did it [retired].”).
 After the “retirement honeymoon” phase is over, many retirees looking for
“something else” find themselves longing for a deeper sense of personal
fulfillment. They are looking for some activity that is vital as well as rewarding.
 Many of those who will begin to retire in the near future may have cut their
teeth in the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the environ-
mental movement. They may want to be part of something larger—a team, a
local organization, a national movement.
A final note here: As we look to the future, “retirees” may be in short supply. Research
by AARP shows that 80 percent of Baby Boomers expect to continue working beyond
typical retirement age. Still, it’s unclear what Boomers mean by “working.” Some, no
doubt, mean continuing in full-time careers. Large numbers of others may begin to
look for part-time work, work with more flexible hours, and work—paid or
unpaid—that directly contributes to the good of society.
Bottom Line Tips
 Take time to understand the negative emotions attached to retirement.
 Recognize new retirees’ love of well-earned freedom by allowing initial, small-time
commitments to build naturally to bigger ones.
 Appeal to retirees’ need for a new sense of purpose.
 Whenever possible, consider retirees’ need to work on their own terms.
 Consider creating working teams of older adult volunteers to address the yearning so
many retirees have for the kind of purposeful teamwork they experienced when working
full-time.
 Validate older adults’ experience, skills, and talents in messaging, interviewing, and
job design.

Looking Forward
John Glenn made history as the ﬁrst American to orbit the earth.
After his retirement from the space program, he served in the U.S.
Senate. In 1998, Glenn, at 77, became the oldest person ever to ﬂy
in space. He now heads the John Glenn Institute for Public Service
and Public Policy at Ohio State University.
Well, when I was in space the second time, I was 77 when I went
up. When I came back though, I think I heard from every old folks’
organization in the United States. And most of them were just con-
gratulatory things, but some of them wanted advice on things. And my best advice I could
give out of my own experience is, I think you do better when you wake up every morning
with something you’re looking forward to for that day, something productive. And it can
be anything. It can be church work, it can be working with a civic organization, it can be
mentoring young people, helping them get a good start in life.
You know, older adults sometimes just sit and do nothing, and I think that’s the worst
thing they can do. They’ve had a lifetime of experience, they’ve had education, they’ve had
on-the-job training, they’ve been business executives, they’ve been farmers, they’ve been
whatever. They spend a lifetime learning how to do these things. It’s a shame that that has
to end with them. I don’t think it has to. At the least we can have people who take these
experiences and use them to help mentor young people into their own lives. Advise and
counseling them so that maybe they don’t have to make some of the same mistakes we
made in getting through our own lives.
I think a mentor gets a lot of satisfaction in a couple of ways. They’re doing something
constructive, so they feel good about that. And when they see the results of this, with the
young people they’re working with, it’s very, very rewarding. And also, they have a feeling
that their own experiences aren’t just ending because they’re old. They’re able to sort of
provide a new base through their own experience; they provide a new base for a young
person to start from themselves. And that gives you a great deal of satisfaction to do that.
—From an interview for WhoMentoredYou.com, Harvard Mentoring Project

Words Matter, Labels Offend
It’s a classic Catch-22: You want to reach adults over 55, but you don’t want to insult
them by referring to their age. You want to encourage more volunteering, but you are
afraid that the word itself is a turnoff.
Mark and Waldman’s focus group research sheds some light on word choice, but it’s
safe to say that we don’t yet have the vocabulary we need to reach older adults and
encourage them to get more involved in their communities. “No one I know has come
up with any words that are perfect,” Waldman says. “We’re not there yet.” Here’s what
we do know:
 There’s a new, extensive stage of life after midlife and full-time work and
before true old age and infirmity, which Stanford professor Laura Carstensen
calls “the unexpected years.” Beyond that accurate phrase, we don’t have
words to describe this time of life. Even if we did, carving life into
sections—with its implication of beginning, middle, and end—is offensive
and off-putting to many retirees.
 There is a great deal of resistance to being thought of as old. As a result,
most people generally reject descriptors that are connected to age, includ-
ing senior citizens, seniors, retirees, older people, and elderly people.
Most, but perhaps not all. “It’s our experience,” notes Eunice Nichols, director
of Experience Corps San Francisco, “that many volunteers over 70 are very
comfortable with—or even prefer—the term ‘senior.’” Elizabeth Fox, founder
of Experience Corps Washington, D.C., says the word ‘retirees’ worked well in
early recruitment efforts. “It was the simplest way to convey the idea that we
were looking for people who had time during the day,” she says.
 While a few older, low-income adults seemed to prefer “golden years,”
“maturity” and “senior” or “senior citizen” in focus groups, euphemisms
are probably not the best way to go in messages with broader reach. As
Waldman says, “Until the perception of aging changes, this isn’t a solvable
problem. If it’s bad to get older, then any synonyms are bad, too.”
 One bright light: “Experience” is a very powerful—and welcome—word.
Focus group participants preferred descriptors that acknowledged accumu-
lated wisdom and life experience. Words like “coaches” and “the experienced”
work well, especially when respondents assumed their own unique, individual
experience—versus the “generic” experience accrued as everyone ages—would
be put to use. “The most profound finding of the research that we did,” Mark
says, “was the discovery of this yearning to have your own personal or profes-
sional experience validated, to have somebody out there who needs and values
what you’ve done with your life.”

 As we move toward new forms of community service to accommodate Baby
Boomers, the word “volunteer” may not work as well as it once did. It isn’t
broad enough to include some forms of paid or stipended service or service
on boards and commissions. For some Boomers, volunteering may conjure up
outdated images of 1950s PTA moms. On the other hand, many over 65 today
have been brought up with the word “volunteer” and like the image it conveys
of dedicated people giving their time to serve others. Is “community service”
better? It’s hard to say. We can say with confidence that there isn’t a perfect word
or phrase out there—yet.
Bottom Line Tips
 Avoid age-based labels and euphemisms.
 Use “experienced adults” or “older adults” when you have to (at least they are
straightforward).
 When appropriate, sidestep the noun “volunteer” with “member” or “participant.”
 Instead of using the verb “volunteer,” use verbs that are specific to the activity that
you’re recruiting people to do—mentor, tutor, teach, lobby, cook or serve meals,
and so on.
 Take advantage of the positive associations people have with the word “experience”
and with the concept. Let them know that their experience is valued and valuable.
 Choose your words carefully. It may seem like a minor issue of semantics, but every
little bit contributes to the bigger effort to reverse America’s bias against aging.
The lack of good language to capture Boomers as they age has
become the source of much commentary—both serious and fun.
Here are a few excerpts:
 Washington Post columnist Abigail Trafford says the word
senior “has probably had its moment….The word is laden with
stereotypes. It conjures up dentures and discounts, decline and
dysfunction….As one person said: ‘I’m turning 60 this year,
and I don’t think I will be a senior for a long time.’ Another
said: ‘Senior definitely means older than me.’”
 In the Albany Times Union, Stephanie Earls writes, “The
term ‘retirement’ has historically conjured images of appalling
Bermuda shorts, endless shuffleboard and a morbid and moth-
ball-scented march toward the inevitable. Such impressions
don’t sit well with today’s crop of individualistic,
youthful-feeling Baby Boomers who are now approaching
retirement in record numbers.”
 In the Los Angeles Times, UC Irvine Professor Jennifer Fisher
writes, “The Baby Boomers have to rename everything to do
with age; we should throw our demographic weight behind
denial, or at least an ironic obfuscation of the facts. Let’s start
with the ersatz honorific ‘senior citizen.’ Boomers deserve a
term that really signals respect. Henceforth, we will not get old;
we’ll become ‘classic.’”
 Writing in the New York Daily News, Lenore Skenazy suggests
“some possible names for the generations that preceded X.
How about…WAWYBS (IYL!)—We Are What You’ll Be Soon
(If You’re Lucky!).”
At a Loss for Words

Values and Emotions Matter, Too
Stanford researcher Laura Carstensen and others have been studying how age affects
people’s skills, memory, and life view. What they’ve learned, while still evolving, could
have a profound affect on how to promote service to older adults. Here’s what’s been
discovered so far:
 For many, meaningful goals may become more important
with age, while expanding horizons become less so.
According to Carstensen, when people think their time
is unlimited, they tend to focus on expanding horizons,
acquiring knowledge, meeting new people, and taking
chances. When people sense that their time is finite, they
tend to focus more on what’s important in the present. They
choose to live in the moment, invest in sure things, deepen
existing relationships, and savor life.
 Given their focus on emotionally mean-
ingful goals, older adults prefer emo-
tional messages to informational ones.
Carstensen and Helene Hoi-Lam Fung
showed older and younger people two
different ads for the same products. Older
people preferred the emotional messages,
while younger people showed no prefer-
ence one way or the other. In addition,
older people remembered the slogans and
the featured products better when they
were emotionally meaningful.
 Optimism is the ultimate sell.
Researchers have found that older adults
don’t process or retain negative images
as well as younger people do. When shown positive, negative, and neutral
photo images, older adults remembered positive images far better than negative
and neutral ones. Recent brain research confirms this conclusion.
 Age sharpens interpersonal skills. With age, people lose some of their
cognitive and physical abilities, but their emotional skills improve. “As they
get older,” Carstensen writes, “humans seem to acquire advanced interpersonal
“In the entire history of the U.S.—and all
of Western civilization, for that matter—
there’s never been such a dramatic march
to maturity.”
— Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-
edge Baby Boomers (Paramount Market
Publishing, 2nd edition, 2004)

In a series of studies across diverse cultures…[Laura
Carstensen’s] team asked participants to imagine that they had
30 minutes of free time with no pressing commitments and to
choose from among three potential social partners: an immedi-
ate family member, the author of a book they had read or an
acquaintance with whom they seemed to have much in common.
In every one of the studies, older adults showed a strong prefer-
ence for spending time with family and friends. Younger study
participants did not. Yet when the time context was altered, the
results flip-flopped. Younger participants were asked to imagine
they would be moving soon to a new area; older study subjects
were asked to imagine that a recent medical advance would
ensure they would live an additional healthy 20 years. Suddenly,
the older group acted ‘young’ and desired more contact with
people they didn’t know, while the younger group acted ‘old’ and
was more likely to retreat to the familiar.
—Stanford Magazine, July/August 2004
Acting Young…or Old?
skills that make them successful negotiators. They are able to appreciate
different perspectives, assess complex interpersonal implications, and decide
which course of action is most promising.” This finding has implications both
for message and for the kind of volunteer assignments that play best to the
strengths of older adults.
Bottom Line Tips
 Stay positive.
 Don’t be afraid to use emotional appeals.
 Optimists believe they can make a difference. Show potential recruits—with statistics
and stories—how current volunteers are making a difference and how they can make a
difference, too.
 Consider potential recruits’ view of time—infinite or limited?—in crafting
messages.
 Acknowledge older adults’ advanced interpersonal skills in messages and tasks.

Emphasizing the Benefits of Volunteer Work
No one is totally selfless. Based on Mark and Waldman’s research—and everything we
know about human nature generally and Boomers specifically—successful recruit-
ment messages should reflect a balance of benefits to society and to the volunteer.
Here’s what we know:
 In focus groups sponsored by a Retired & Senior Volunteer Program in
Yonkers, New York, Mark found that “a small group of high-minded people”
will volunteer because they see it as their civic duty. “But if you want to go
further out to reach others, you need to tell them about the pleasure they’re
going to get out of this,” she says. The group ultimately decided to focus on the
emotional and spiritual benefits of service and used this recruitment slogan:
“Volunteering: Think of It as a Face-Lift for Your Spirit.”
 Mark identified other benefits of service, including the sense of new pos-
sibilities; a feeling that one’s life is expanding, not constricting; renewed energy
and vitality; camaraderie; a sense of community and connection; a feeling of
accomplishment; a recognition that one’s accumulated life experience counts for
something; and a renewed sense of purpose.
 In focus groups, the most satisfied volunteers were those who had found an
outlet for their own unique talents and abilities—a singer/musician who dis-
covered that he could really touch the lives of older people by entertaining them,
another person who found that he could read the novels he loved while making
recordings for the blind.
 People want to know that they are making an important difference.
Recruitment materials that demonstrate—through stories, endorsements, and
numbers—that an organization and its volunteers are responsible for specific,
positive changes have a big edge.
 Most people, regardless of age, want to be needed. Focus group research
shows that older adults, particularly those who live in urban areas and regularly
see the impact of educational failure, respond well to messages about children’s
unmet needs.
 Service can also be a fountain of youth. Much current research shows that
staying active and engaged promotes better physical and mental health. In
a control group study of the benefits of volunteering with Experience Corps

in Baltimore, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions found
“significant health benefits” for Corps members. One example, 44 percent of
Experience Corps participants reported feeling stronger, compared with 18 per-
cent of controls, and there was a 13 percent increase in those who reported their
strength as very good to excellent, versus a 30 percent decline among controls.
Notes lead author Dr. Linda P. Fried, “Giving back to your community may slow
the aging process in ways that lead to a higher quality of life in older adults.”
 Stipends can be a motivator for some retirees. About half of Experience
Corps members tutor children for 15 hours per week and receive a small
stipend—ranging from $150 to $250 per month—to cover their expenses. (In
many communities, funding for the stipends comes from the AmeriCorps pro-
gram.) The money can be helpful for those living on fixed incomes. More than
that, it gives volunteer commitment the status of paid work.
 Age can affect volunteer motivation. Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and
Civic Engagement, a report by the Harvard School of Public Health, states that
boomers “are less likely than older cohorts to volunteer out of a sense of duty or
obligation and more likely to volunteer as part of a social interaction.” Boomers,
the report adds, “are more likely to volunteer as a result of social, self-develop-
ment, self-esteem, or leisure-focused motivations. Episodic, familiar, commu-
nity-based opportunities are also preferred.”
 One’s history with volunteering can make a difference, too. “Nearly all of the
people we recruited for Experience Corps in Washington, D.C., said they were
motivated by a desire to give back,” notes Elizabeth Fox, the group’s founder and
now on Experience Corps’s national staff. “I think that’s common among those
who have a personal history of volunteering. Those who haven’t done commu-
nity service in their lives seem to need a much stronger appeal to self-interest.”
 Finally, a note of caution for those who plan to encourage people to give
back to their communities because it’s the right thing to do or because, as
Marian Wright Edelman says, “Service is the rent we pay for living.” That
philosophy may work for some people, but not others. Many people, regard-
less of age, resent any message that, in effect, tells them what they should do.
Researchers Mark and Waldman say that in focus groups older adults made it
clear that “they want to be seen and appreciated as empowered individuals who
make their own choices.”

Bottom Line Tips
 Appeals to civic duty may not be enough.
 Be wary of encouraging volunteerism by telling folks it’s what they should do.
 Recruit doctors and other health professionals interested in sharing information with
older patients about the health benefits of volunteering.
 Help people see that they will get as much as they give.
 Use every available method to show that your organization is an effective one—awards,
endorsements, statistics, stories, photographs, the validation of media attention, word of
mouth.
 Show potential recruits how they can and will make a difference. Be personal and
emotional.
 Stress to potential recruits that you need their specific experience, then find ways to
use it.
It’s crucial to understand older volunteers’ motivations to serve and to use that information
to inform decisions about how to appeal to them.
TOP MOTIVATIONS TO VOLUNTEER
Personal responsibility to help others 65%
Makes life more satisfying 58%
Organization has established track record 51%
Help own community 50%
Make a difference on issue 49%
Keeps you active 46%
Someone you know was affected by issue 44%
Religious beliefs 42%
Opportunity to use skills 42%
Source: AARP. “Time and Money: An In-Depth Look at 45+ Volunteers and Donors,” 2003.
0 20 40 60 80 100
What’s Behind the Impulse to Serve?

Targeting Messages
Americans over 55 are not one, big homogeneous group. Older people of different
ages, genders, religions, races, economic classes, and geographic locations will likely
react differently to different messages. The key is to tailor your materials to suit dif-
ferent audiences, whenever you can. Making different public service ads for different
cable TV channels is prohibitively expensive. But it’s
not costly to change talking points or speakers de-
pending on the audience or to write different letters
for different mailing lists.
How do you know what plays well for each audience?
Experience, as we know, is the best teacher. Beyond
that, researchers have uncovered some divides among
older adults worth knowing more about.
 There may be a difference in volunteer motiva-
tion by race and income level, Mark and Waldman
say. “Low-income people of color tend to respond
more to the urgency of the need to help solve press-
ing urban problems. Most likely, they witness and
internalize the need more acutely and are more likely
to feel an obligation to do something about it. Those who are more removed,
in spite of their best intentions, may be less empathetic toward our neediest
citizens,” Mark says.
Elizabeth Fox, founder of Experience Corps in Washington, D.C., sees it slightly
differently. “If the schools aren’t doing well by children, it’s particularly appalling
to people who started out with meager family circumstances and have achieved
a middle class life. It’s appalling that all these years later, children in similar
circumstances are having a much harder time. It’s not so much race as class.”
“A general message is like seeing information about a party on your office
bulletin board. A targeted message is like receiving a personalized invitation at
your home, asking you to please attend.”
— Valerie Graves, former senior vice president and chief creative officer at UniWorld Group,
Ad Council committee member

 According to AARP research, all major ethnic groups included
personal responsibility, a sense of satisfaction, concern for the
community, and a desire to make a difference in their top five
reasons for volunteering. But whites, African Americans and Asian
Americans were more likely to cite trust in the organization they vol-
unteered with as a key motivator. African Americans and Hispanic
Americans were more likely than other groups to cite religious con-
siderations. Hispanic Americans also cited a desire to stay active, an
opportunity to participate in volunteering with friends and family, and a sense
that they might turn to a community group for help some day.
 There is a gender gap in motivation and message. In Mark and Waldman’s
focus groups, the desire to pass on experience—and perhaps, in the process, to
validate one’s own life and work experiences—seemed to carry special meaning
for men whose identities and often strongest social ties outside the family were
integrally connected to their jobs.
 “Women just naturally gravitate toward school involvement,” Mark says. “A
lot of well-intentioned men were uncomfortable and intimidated by the school
setting. They can’t see how their work and life experience can have a role
there.” You can help them make the leap by using current male volunteers as
spokespeople and in pictures of your organization. They can speak to their own
concerns about being qualified or comfortable working with children and how
they overcame them. You can emphasize the quantity and quality of the training
you require for all volunteers. You can also deal with this potential obstacle to
men’s involvement by reaching out to groups of men—police officers, Masons,
firefighters—and bringing them into a school together. Or you can expand
volunteer options and alter “job” descriptions to appeal more to men.
 Overt appeals that include the promise of camaraderie and teamwork will
probably be met with skepticism by men. It seems logical that retirees who
miss the relationships they formed at work would respond to volunteer op-
portunities that promise teamwork. But be careful of the gender divide. Women,
Mark and Waldman find, like the idea of working as part of a group or team,
sight-unseen. Men tend to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. It may be more effec-
tive to convey the idea of teamwork implicitly, through pictures, for instance,
and as a word-of-mouth message delivered by current volunteers.
 As time passes, the gender gap may dissipate a bit. Mark and Waldman
found that recent women retirees (under 60) who had lifetime careers outside
the home have attitudes that come closer to those of men.
“If your recruitment message is
aimed at no one in particular,
don’t be surprised when no one in
particular responds to it.”
— Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

 Clever appeals may not work well with all age groups. The age of 60 seems
to be a rough dividing point, according to Mark’s research. Those under 60 are
more apt to appreciate word plays and innuendo. Those over 60 tend to favor
more concrete communication. One example: In reacting to the phrase, “retire-
ment used to mean heading out to pasture,” those over 60 strongly rejected the
use of “heading out to pasture,” even in the context of what retirement used to
mean. Younger retirees actually liked the concept.
 But, the same report cautions, be wary of lumping all Baby Boomers together.
There is “far more cultural, economic, and social diversity among the Boomers
than there was among generations of Americans who came of age in the 1940s
and 1950s,” the report notes. “Unanimity of purpose, values, needs, or attitudes
among such a diverse group of people cannot be assumed just because they hap-
pened to be born within the same 18-year span.”
Bottom Line Tips
 Don’t assume all older adults or all Boomers think alike.
 Learn as much as you can about your target audience.
 Customize your message whenever you can.
 If you are recruiting people who live in an community to serve that community,
be specific about urgent, local needs.
 Make men more comfortable with volunteering by stressing the value of their
work/life experience and recruiting them in groups or pairs—of police officers,
Masons, firefighters, and so on.
 Encourage current volunteers to recruit friends with similar interests. They’ll likely know
the best way to appeal to them.
 Be alert that clever words and phrases may not play well to all audiences.
 Be sure to include messages to Boomers about the benefits they’ll receive from
volunteering.

Sending Messages in Living Color
Color sends messages. While nonprofit budgets often only support using black-and-
white photographs and two colors of ink, the use of full color attracts attention and
can make a big impact. Color photographs can convey youth, warmth, light, even
energy in ways that sometimes black-and-white ones can’t. In the following pages,
you’ll see several photographs, along with a selection of posters, a brochure, and a
bus ad—all in full color. You can find the same images in black and white on other
pages throughout this publication. Judge for yourself: How much of a difference does
color make?
This photograph captures the seriousness of the work that Experience Corps members do,
while also conveying the meaningful connection between the generations.

This slogan and both photos convey the
joy and importance of passing along life
experience from one generation to the next.
An Invitation for Americans Over 55
Experience. Share it.

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For more on the rationale behind this poster series and the impact that it had,
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The future is usually associated with youth. This poster surprises readers by turning that
notion on its head.

SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW. BECOME A MENTOR.
It doesn’t take special skills to mentor a child—just a willingness to
listen, offer encouragement, and share what you’ve learned about life.
Mentoring programs in your community need more volunteers.
Visit WhoMentoredYou.org
Partnership for a Drug-Free America Harvard School of Public Health
JANUARY
Mentoring Month
™
The Harvard School of Public Health found an image that conveys mentoring perfectly.
(See page 36.)

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Senior Corps sends two critical messages here: Volunteer if you want to have fun, and if
you’re already volunteering, bring a friend along. (See page 37.)

The Volunteer Center of United Way in Westchester, New York, uses the word “spirit” to
reach out to people looking for purpose in later years. (See page 38.)

Humor: A Double-Edged Sword
To be or not to be funny? That is the question many organizations face in reaching out
to older adults. Humorous appeals get noticed. They startle, amuse, convey a sense
of fun, and are easily remembered. Humorous appeals can also easily offend, convey
irreverence and disrespect, and be quickly dismissed.
It’s all in the ear of the beholder, and that’s particularly true within the
ranks of older adults.
 Humor can split older adults along age lines. Margaret Mark and
Marvin Waldman found a divergent response to humorous appeals
among adults over 55, one they call “a Saturday Night Live vs. Bob
Hope sensibility.” As you can imagine, the humor that appeals to
those closest to 55, generally speaking, is often more irreverent and
spares no sacred cows. The humor that appeals to those who are
older tends to be more straightforward and respectful.
 Humor can split older adults along racial lines. Case in point:
In working with Experience Corps, Marvin Waldman suggested
several slogans designed to attract attention, including “Ready,
Wrinkled, and Able.” Younger staff members loved it. It got a very
mixed reaction, however, from older adults. Some loved it. Some
really didn’t like the focus on the negative side of aging. One
Experience Corps member said flatly that she would quit if the
organization adopted the slogan. Some volunteers of color didn’t
appreciate the joke because, they explained, their skin doesn’t
typically wrinkle the way white skin does.
 Deciding whether or not to play to older funny bones can be
a tough call, and reasonable people often agree to disagree.
Waldman also promoted two other slogans—“Large Prostate, Big
Heart” and “The Few, the Proud, the Slightly Arthritic”—but Corps leaders re-
jected these as too edgy and too likely to cause similar divides among potential
Corps members. That caution, according to Waldman, is a mistake. “If advertis-
ing is going to be finally judged by individual recruiters and volunteers, it’s not
going to be as good. You’re in danger when you let too many chefs stir the stew.”
Margaret Mark agrees that there’s risk in trying to make everyone happy.
“There’s probably never been a brochure or an ad in history that didn’t upset
someone,” she says. “You can’t refrain from doing something because
“Nobody gives their time, money or
involvement away for a joke. They
give it away because they believe
the act dignifies them.”
— Passion Marketing, Gary Wexler +
Associates
“People will say ‘how dare you?’
but so what? Others will respond.
Breaking the clutter is worth
causing controversy. It’s far
riskier to do something that has
no risk. It’s just going to get
lost in the clutter.”
— Marvin Waldman, former
advertising executive

someone will be offended. The issue is: Will most people
be offended? If you don’t want to offend anyone, you end
up with something so bland that it’ll be invisible. On the
other hand, if you’re offending a sizeable portion of your
audience, you want to rethink your approach.”
Mark adds that humor needn’t be laugh-out-loud stuff
to do the trick. “Sometimes the best route is to simply
make the viewer smile. The play-on-words nature of the
Experience Corps campaign makes people light up when
they ‘get it,’ as did the little surprise in the Yonkers RSVP
campaign, which promised a “face lift for the spirit.”
Experience Corps CEO John Gomperts is a firm believer
in the cautious route. “While I appreciate the need to
break through the hundreds of messages people are
exposed to each day, I don’t think it’s wise to use recruit-
ment messages that offend even a small percentage of the
very people we’re trying to recruit.”
Does that put all humorous appeals off limits? “I’d take
each one on its own merits and evaluate the potential
audience and medium,” Gomperts says. “It may be better
to be funny in person than in writing.”
Bottom Line Tips
 Be aware that not everyone will agree on what’s funny.
 Know your target audience. Age and race, for example, could be helpful
indicators of where to draw the line.
 Carefully calculate whether it’s worth offending some to grab the attention of many.
 Test appeals that you think may be on the edge before you invest in them.
 Lighten up! Even if you choose to avoid humor, you don’t have to be humorless and your
materials don’t have to be dull.
THE FEW
THE PROUD
THE SLIGHTLY ARTHRITIC
VOLUNTEER 2 TEACH 2 DAY
Experience Corps
1.800.455.3200
Join the Movement
Experience is the best teacher, and you have a lifetime’s worth.
Don’t let it go to waste. Share it. Experience Corps will give you the opportunity.
Just a few hours a week in a neighborhood school can make a world of difference
in a kid’s life, not to mention yours. Call us. We’ll show you how easy it is.
(000) 000-0000 www.experiencecorps.org

Using Stories
“Even if you have reams of evidence on your side, remember: numbers numb,
jargon jars, and nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart. If you
want to connect with your audience, tell them a story.”
— Andy Goodman, author of Storytelling as Best Practice
During the last presidential campaign, Alexandra Kerry told a brief story about her
dad jumping into a lake to save her pet hamster Licorice from a watery death. The
story, many communications experts and pundits agree, did as much to humanize
Senator John F. Kerry as almost anything else that happened during the campaign.
Why? Because it was authentic. It had enough details (the long wait on a short pier,
the hamster’s name, the dog who may have inadvertently kicked the cage into the
lake, the immediate reaction from the dad who didn’t want to disappoint) so that you
could see events unfolding in your mind’s eye. It had drama and a warm, everyday
heroism that isn’t out of reach for anyone who’s ever loved a child or a pet. And, of
course, it had a happy ending.
All organizations that are making a diﬀerence in their communities can tell stories
that are equally real, emotional, and memorable—and should. “Stories help us decide
which facts to accept and which to reject,” says communications consultant Andy
Goodman. “Just as hearts lead minds, stories should always precede data.”
What makes a good story? Goodman says:
 A time-tested structure, telling details, emotion, truth, and meaning are the
essential components.
 Good stories include a protagonist, an inciting incident, a goal blocked by a
series of barriers, and a resolution.
 Good stories are concise but colorful, told in the language of the audience, and
not predictable. They engage the emotions, contain truth, and are infused with
meaning.
“Used well,” Goodman says, “storytelling can give your audience experiences they will
never forget and earn your cause the attention it deserves.”

Bottom Line Tips
 Stories bring the abstract to life. Use them every chance you get—in speeches,
newsletters, meetings, talks with the media or funders, and on your web site.
 Stories don’t have to be long. In fact, shorter is often better. A good story can be told in
two or three minutes.
 Use quotes from volunteers to personalize materials and convey emotion.
 Get volunteers to tell their own stories. Start a collection.
 Put stories first, data second. People don’t think about what they don’t care about, and
stories get them caring enough to think about the facts.
 Volunteers who are great storytellers are most likely great recruiters.
 Volunteers who are featured in quotes and stories are more likely to feel good about their
experience and to become recruiters.
 Remember photos tell stories, too.
 For more information on storytelling, go to Goodman’s web site,
www.agoodmanonline.com
Alice came to Experience Corps with many experiences; as
she said, “I’ve seen it all.” A tall, thin, wispy woman with
multi-colored hair and lipstick to match, Alice grew up on
the northeast side of Minneapolis—or in “Nord-east,” as
the locals say. Alice’s family was working class—one of the
many families that contributed to Minneapolis’s mighty
milling industry. The oldest of nine children, Alice wanted
to go to become a teacher, but the family couldn’t afford to
send her to college. Instead, she worked for 35 years.
She never married.
When Alice retired, she heard about Experience Corps. “I
always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “So I figured this
was my chance.”
Alice was assigned to work with Robbie, a second grader
with big brown eyes, who was identified as having extreme
difficulty reading. He had other problems, too. His single
Mom was working two jobs; an older sibling had given up
on school.
Alice and Robbie began to meet regularly to read. Every
time Alice tried to get Robbie to read to her, Robbie had
an excuse—“I don’t have my glasses today” or “I don’t feel
well,” he said. So, everytime they met, Alice read to Robbie.
One day, Alice suggested a book on Martin Luther King,
Jr. Again, she asked Robbie to read, but got the same old
excuses. So, once again, she began to read.
Toward the end of the book, there were photos of Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s coffin. Alice’s sister had died in January
seven years before, and the photos brought back memo-
ries. “That emotion just bubbled on up out of me,” she
said. “I was getting all choked up and couldn’t see with all
those tears in my eyes.” She told Robbie, “I’m sorry, but
those pictures bring up some emotions for me and I can’t
continue.”
With that, Robbie picked up the book and began to read the
rest of the story to Alice. From that day forward, Alice and
Robbie read to each other.
—Terry Straub, Minneapolis
Alice’s Tears

Using Photos
When it comes time to create recruitment materials, start with photos. Too many
organizations consider photos as an afterthought. But the right photo at the right
time—in the right place can convey so much about your organization—your mem-
bers, your impact, even your values. And while a good photo doesn’t exactly sign
people up, it can make the task a lot easier.
Here’s what we learned:
 A photo can make people feel comfortable with your organization. Think of
it this way: A man walking into a room full of women might feel out of place. A
man thinking about working with your organization is likely to feel the same
way if all the photos in your brochure are of women.
 A photo can give potential recruits clues about what they’ll get out of the
volunteer experience—fun, the chance to meet people, satisfaction, the chance
to have a one-on-one relationship with a child.

 Be wary of the “Hallmark effect.” It’s tempting to select stock shots that show-
case perfect smiles, a pristine and non-competitive background, and the most
adorable children or best-looking adults. But go easy. Use a bunch of these shots
and your appeal begins to look like a made-for-TV Hallmark movie—so sweet
it seems fake.
 It’s better to use photos of your own members in action—the less
posed the better. “I think the photos of volunteers should definitely
not be the over 55 beautiful, marathon running, blue-haired, perfectly in
shape model who tends to intimidate potential recruits instead of inter-
esting them,” says Waldman. “Instead, I’d shoot for real, accessible,
people who look like they’re having fun in whatever they are doing,
someone your average volunteer prospect could identify with.”
 Using photos of your own members in prominent ads and posters
creates local heroes, which can generate pride, increase involve-
ment, and boost recruitment and retention. It can even generate local
media attention.
 If you can’t get people to take the time to visit your sites, photos can take
them part-way there. “The photos capture the essence of Experience Corps in
a way that text on paper does not,” says Ann Birnbaum, director of Experience
Corps Washington, DC.
 Use photos to show people the kind of work they’ll be doing and to show
specific things that are difficult to convey in words. For example, men say they
miss the colleagues they had when they were working but are also skeptical of
being part of a volunteer team. Better to show them a picture of men working
together than to just tell them they’ll be working in teams.
 Watch out for landmines. Don’t, for instance, use photographs of men hugging
kids if that’s a big issue in your school district. Don’t play into stereotypes by
using a series of photos that show that all the volunteers are white and all the
people served are of color. But don’t go overboard, either. “When we really get
the photo right, the emotion is so right, and people are so color-blind,” notes
Mark, after years of focus group research. “The most important thing is to get
the emotion right, and the rest takes care of itself.”

Alex Harris, the photographer who took it, is a
professor of the practice of public policy and
documentary studies at Duke University. He
explains:
It’s an authentic moment. These Experience
Corps members are absolutely focused on
the young people they are teaching. And the
children’s reactions are genuine as well. Peering
through an open doorway adds to the viewer’s
sense that we what we are seeing is true and not
just for the camera. And those terriﬁc children’s
drawings on the door give us a broader perspec-
tive on this moment and a hint of many other
children who may beneﬁt from this kind of
one-on-one activity with older adults.
Bottom Line Tips
 Photos make “the ask” more personal.
 Take a lot of pictures. Ask around for volunteers who are amateur photographers.
Photography and journalism majors at local universities can be a good bet. And, if you
have the funds, you may want to consider hiring professional photographers, too.
 Don’t use dark or blurry shots; your organization’s reputation is on the line.
 Show real people doing real things in real locations. Setting is important in showing
people what the experience is really like.
 Avoid posed shots. Be real. It’s not all about the smile.
 Make local heroes out of members who are featured in posters, fliers,
newsletters, and ads.
 Get the emotion right.
Why Does This Picture Work?

Creating Messages the Experience Corps
Way: Lessons Learned
Thanks to a U.S. Administration on Aging grant, Experience Corps was
able to collect information about messages that work in recruiting older
adults to service and put it together to create a national recruitment
campaign.
We hired Waldman and Mark to develop a print campaign. After
reviewing a dozen possibilities, we selected the campaign they dubbed
“Still Working.” Using relatively inexpensive digital printing, we hoped
to create a series of posters for each Experience Corps site. Each poster
would include a photo of a local Experience Corps member working
with real students in local schools, along with the Corps member’s name
and previous occupation. The headline for each poster would be speciﬁ-
cally tailored to that occupation. So, for instance, a retired dry cleaner
would be “Still Ironing Out the Wrinkles.” A retired graphics designer
would be “Still Bringing Magic to the Page.” And a retired teacher would
be “Still a Class Act.” We hoped to let potential recruits know that the
experience they gained in past jobs was still needed and still valuable.
The text reads:
“Experience is the best teacher, and you have a lifetime’s worth.
Don’t let it go to waste. Share it. Experience Corps will give you the
opportunity. Just a few hours a week in a neighborhood school can
make a world of diﬀerence in a kid’s life, not to mention yours. Over
1,000 volunteers age 55 and older in 13 cities nationwide have
already joined. We’ll show you how easy it is.”
Each poster included the Experience Corps logo, a local phone number,
a web address, and the logo of the agency that hosts Experience Corps
locally.
We selected this campaign because it:
 Validates the life experience of volunteers.
 Shows that older volunteers are still vital, still needed, and still having fun.
 Appeals to the emotions in text and photos.
 Uses real Experience Corps members in real settings, making them local
heroes in the community.

 Describes—in a simple, yet unique and arresting way—what Experience
Corps is all about.
 Demonstrates the importance of Experience Corps without sounding preachy
or too serious.
 Showcases a wide range of former occupations, convincing potential recruits
that regardless of their work history, they can do this work, too.
 Shows how people are putting their life experiences to work helping kids.
 Uses clever phrases but in such a way that they’re not lost on or insulting to
an over-60 audience.
 Highlights the benefits both to the children and to the older adults.
In addition, group photographs of Experience Corps members were used
with the headline, “Here Comes the Future.” The headline is intended to
be a bit startling, since “the future” is usually associated with youth. In
this case, it hints at the graying of America and the potential older adults
have to influence the future through service. The Corps members
assembled are often shown having fun—in one case, going down a slide
on a school playground, in another, joking in front of the blackboard.
The message associated with these ads reads:
“Having been around the block a time or two has taught us what only
a lifetime can teach. And we’re willing to share it. Experience Corps
gives older Americans like us the opportunity to take our know-
how and put it to work tackling problems in our own communities.
Right now we’re working in teams, in public schools across the
country, making a real difference in the lives of kids hungry for the
maturity and life experiences we have to offer. We’ve seen the past
and now we can look into the future. And from here, it looks good,
really good.”
In a dozen cities across the country, Experience Corps staffers hung the posters in
schools, public libraries, and shops. They bought and received donated space for the
posters on buses, in bus shelters, and in subway cars. They used the artwork to create
8½ by 11” fliers, magazine and newspaper ads, and ads that covered the sides of city
buses. They sent news releases about the Experience Corps members in the pictures
to the local media.

They also shortened the message for certain venues. “Experience. Share it.” was used
on the sides of buses, for instance, in Philadelphia. “The slogan puts a lot of focus
on the word ‘experience,’ which we know is a well-received word that conveys the
positive aspects of aging. It also echoes our name, which we hope they’ll remember,”
explains Rob Tietze, director of Experience Corps Philadelphia. “We selected the
photo because it conveys warmth and fun and the great connection between the older
adults and the children involved.”
Here’s what we learned from the experience:
 A campaign of this magnitude can make a big splash—locally and nation-
ally. We showed it to elected leaders, school principals and superintendents,
funders, members of the media, and leaders of national nonprofit organizations.
People loved the photos and the clever headlines. Overall, the campaign helped
us define ourselves and therefore create a brand identity. It helped us establish
credibility and reach out to new partners. Nationally, AARP the Magazine—the
nation’s largest circulation magazine—decided to run the ads as a public service.
The benefits were just as great locally, as Eunice Lin Nichols, director of
Experience Corps San Francisco, explains: “An unanticipated and welcome
outcome of the social marketing campaign is the number of people in our field
(or related fields) who have taken note of Experience Corps’s increased presence
and actually picked up a phone to call us! These organizations are eager to tap
into our experience running intergenerational volunteer programs and clearly
believe we are the experts. I think this is directly attributable to the credibility
gained from such a high-profile social marketing campaign.”
 Our members loved the attention the campaign brought to Experience
Corps and to the members who were featured. As Janet Triplett, director of
Experience Corps Minneapolis, says, “A number of our members have been fea-
tured in ads or quoted in various media, and they are very proud of their ‘fame.’
They have a much better sense that their service to the community is recognized
and valued. That contributes to the satisfaction they express in participating in
the program and therefore to a high retention rate.” Stephanie Lartigue-Pearson,
director of Experience Corps Southeast Texas echoed the same sentiment: “Our
existing volunteers have gained a new sense of confidence and stability in know-
ing that our program is now becoming a household name.”

 We got good local media coverage from the local heroes aspect of the cam-
paign. Focusing on real members and their stories made it easy for reporters to
get a personal feel for the program. For example, several neighborhood newspa-
pers picked up the story of Shirley Banton, a retired New York City police officer,
who appears in a campaign poster under the post-9/11 headline, “Still the Hero.”
Banton traveled hours each way to help kids learn to read—and to help keep
them out of the criminal justice system.
 The campaign did more to create a brand identity, boost general organi-
zational exposure, and increase pride and retention than it did to directly
recruit new members. Simply putting up the posters and leaving fliers in librar-
ies did not result in lots of phone calls from potential recruits. Some around
the Experience Corps network were disappointed with the numerical return on
their investments in advertising, printing, and time. Even positive news stories
didn’t result in a flood of calls. But they do make an impression. And, as
advertising executives will tell you, people need repeated exposures to something
new before they will consider buying a product, or in this case, volunteering their
time. As more people begin to recognize the Experience Corps brand, “the ask”
gets easier. People are more likely to respond positively when someone asks them
to get involved if they’re already got a positive impression of the organiztion.
Bottom Line Tips
 To help you develop a campaign, define the members of your target audience. Ask
yourself what they think and feel now…and what you want them to think and feel.
 It’s worth the investment—professionally developed materials inspire trust in your
organization.
 Use photos, fonts, and text to set a tone that feels right.
 Keep the text short. People won’t read a lot and you don’t want to create a
boring-looking page.
 Don’t expect that marketing campaign materials will recruit members on their own.
People respond best to a personal ask from someone they know.
 Create a versatile campaign—one that can be adapted easily from a local magazine ad
to a flier to something that fits the side of a bus.
 Create a lasting campaign. While you may not want to use your campaign forever, you do
want to use it for a long time.

Lessons from Other Recruitment Campaigns
Experience Corps is one of many organizations with experience when it comes to
recruitment campaigns aimed at adults over 55. Here are a few examples of other
successful recruitment messages.
Susan Moses, deputy director of the Center for
Health Communication at Harvard University,
was involved in the selection of this image for a
campaign to recruit people of all ages, but particu-
larly Baby Boomers, as mentors.
This picture is worth 1,000 words. You just get
it. What is mentoring? Essentially, it’s an older
individual helping a younger one, showing them,
this is how you spread your wings. It’s no sweat for
the adult; he or she is doing what comes naturally.
The image makes you feel good, and you don’t
need a lot of text to explain it. We just came across
the image and thought, wow, this is it!
The slogan is Share What You Know. Become a
Mentor. It focuses on the idea that at every stage
of your life, you have something of value to share
with a child. It promotes the notion getting older
is a positive thing, not a negative thing. We want
Baby Boomers to know that they have something
to share, something to pass on, and that mentor-
ing is a great experience. It’s comfortable. It’s
doable. And they have what it takes.
For a lot of people early in life, events just took
over. They had other obligations and perhaps
didn’t get a chance to do the kinds of things they
wanted to do. As they get older, they reach a time of life when they get a second
chance to do something they feel is reminiscent of their optimism about changing the
world. They get a chance to try again.
SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW. BECOME A MENTOR.
It doesn’t take special skills to mentor a child—just a willingness to
listen, offer encouragement, and share what you’ve learned about life.
Mentoring programs in your community need more volunteers.
Visit WhoMentoredYou.org
Partnership for a Drug-Free America Harvard School of Public Health
JANUARY
Mentoring Month
™
CUST: HARVARD SCHOOL OF BUS. 2444779 DATE: 11.18.04
DESC: NYT Mentoring LS: 85 Newsprint

Tess Scannell, director of Senior Corps at the Corporation for National and
Community Service, explains the reasoning behind a recent recruitment campaign
aimed at Baby Boomers.
We know that, now more than ever, people feel that their time is precious. They have
a passion to make a difference, they have some personal goals that they want to
achieve, and they want to have some fun. The social aspect of it—the camaraderie—is
a really important dimension. We also know most people volunteer when someone
they know asks them to. If you call a friend and say, “Hey, on Thursday mornings, let’s
go help out at the public library and then let’s have lunch together,” that’s an effec-
tive pitch. When you have a passion and you want to contribute, it’s really fun to get
someone to do it with you.
All of that played into the development of our
slogan: Ask a friend. Share your volunteer
spirit. The photos in the campaign were care-
fully selected to show people in their fifties
who are active and who care about how they
look. We were going for that LLBean,
CHICO’S look.
In retrospect, I wouldn’t use the word ‘volun-
teer’ again. We know from our research that
Boomers don’t actually want to ‘volunteer.’
But they are very happy to provide their
talents and experiences on a pro bono basis!
‘Volunteering’ is for the World War II genera-
tion. These days, the whole term needs to be
retired, along with the word ‘retire.’ Perhaps
our campaign should have said, ‘Ask a friend.
Share your pro bono spirit.’
I think it’s important to understand that dif-
ferent messages may net you different types
of volunteers. If you ask people to contribute
a talent pro bono—and what you want them
to do is tutor a child—you’ll get volunteers in
their fifties and sixties. If you say to people, ‘If
you’re retired and have time to give to a child, we
need you,’ you’ll still get a volunteer, but it will be
an older person.

Joanna Straub, executive director of The Volunteer Center of United Way in
Westchester County, New York. The organization’s Retired and Senior Volunteer
Program (RSVP) received funding from the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation
to launch a campaign aimed at recruiting older adults to ﬁll a wide variety of local
volunteer opportunities.
We had commissioned Margaret Mark and Marvin Waldman to come up with a
collection of ads that would make people pick up the phone and volunteer. Then we
tested the best seven or eight in focus groups.
One ad poked fun of the signs and symptoms of aging. That didn’t go over well.
Neither did one that we really loved. It said, ‘Looking for a good time?’ and it gave
the number 1-800-VOLUNTEER. It was designed to look as if it was written on a
bathroom wall. The focus group members didn’t really get the joke. People clearly
didn’t like the words ‘senior’ or ‘retired’ in any ad. The word ‘retire’ was particularly
alienating to those who were housewives and hadn’t worked outside the home.
We selected Volunteering: Think of It as a Face-
Lift for Your Spirit. People liked the friendly face
and the upbeat nature of the ad. I think it was
encouraging and motivating to people. I think
the word ‘spirit’ relates well to people’s need for
purpose in later years. Plus, it really tapped into
what’s in it for them. There are a certain percent-
age of people who will volunteer because they’re
the do-gooders in the world. We were trying to
reach the rest. We wanted them to think that their
volunteer experience would be fun and would
help them stay young and feel good.
We had a hard time translating the ad
into Spanish. The literal translation was,
‘Volunteering: Think of It as Plastic Surgery for
the Face.’ We changed that to, ‘Volunteering:
Think of It as a Renovation of Your Spirit.’ (Just a
little warning about literal translations!)
We had only one regret. If we had it to do over
again, we wouldn’t have bought stock photos that
cost a lot of money initially and require us to pay
each additional time we use the ads. In hindsight,
we would have hired our own photographer.

Professionalism Pays
“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
— John W. Gardner, former secretary of Health, Education & Welfare
and co-founder of Experience Corps
A few final words about quality.
If you’ve spent a lot of time and effort finding the right words, emotions, photos, and
stories to engage more older adults in community service, it pays to spend a little
more time and money to deliver the message in a professional manner. Let’s not
confuse terms here: By “professional,” we don’t mean expensive. We mean clear, easy-
to-read, attractive, and error-free.
Your materials and web site send a lot of quick first impressions—to potential vol-
unteers, potential partners, and potential funders, alike. If you want them to invest
time or money, you need to impress them. You need to make sure they come away
thinking that your organization is not just smart, but respectful, well managed, and
attentive to detail.
When Experience Corps produced its first national materials—the recruitment
campaign materials, plus folders, brochures, and banners—the response from project
staff and Corps members was overwhelmingly positive, both inside and outside the
organization.
Inside the organization, the materials instilled pride and sent a message to members
that Experience Corps valued their time and commitment. Outside the organization,
the materials increased visibility, credibility, and a bit more.
Joy Banish, executive director of Experience Corps’s host agency in Cleveland, says
that the professional look and message of the new materials brought “a great sense
of validity to the program.” And Eunice Nichols, director of Experience Corps San
Francisco, adds: “The images, ads and logo have helped us to gain credibility as an
established, reputable organization in San Francisco, opening up new doors for us in
the arenas of partnership and funding.”
When you show that you are willing to support your own work with high quality,
professional materials, people will respond in kind. Your materials will get prime
space on bulletin boards and will stay up longer. You’ll be more successful in getting
people to donate public service announcement space and time. You’ll get noticed and
respected. And, most important, people will want to join you and support you.

Bottom Line Tips
 Do your best to make your materials attractive. Use professional designers when you can.
Print shops (like Kinko’s and Sir Speedy) often have people on staff who can help with
design for a reasonable price.
 Make sure your products are easy to read. Don’t make type too small for older eyes or
too ornate.
 Use color, when you can. Make sure there is plenty of contrast—no yellow headlines on
white paper. Don’t print small white type on a bright-colored background.
 If you can’t afford a printing process that does justice to your photos, don’t use the
photos. No one is impressed by photos that reproduce poorly.
 Make sure the paper you select is up to the task. Ask your printer if the
paper you’ve selected will hold up if posted on bulletin boards or handed out
at meetings.
 Before printing, ask several people, including at least one with a good command of
grammar, to proofread. Then ask a few more!

Appealing to Experience

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