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It’s simply fun and rewarding to get involved in a club or association. Of course, it can also be challenging. Everyone who volunteers in a club knows that. However, in times of countless leisure options, children, teenagers, and young adults are seemingly harder to motivate than they were just a few years ago. That’s why we’re giving you seven practical tips to help you attract more young members to your club and increase the engagement of younger people.
7 tips to get more young people involved in your club
It's simply fun and fulfilling to be involved in an organisation. Of course, it can also be challenging. Everyone who volunteers in a club knows this. However, children, teenagers and young adults are supposedly more difficult to motivate than they were a few years ago in times when there are so many different leisure activities to choose from. We therefore give you seven practical tips to help you find more young people for your club and increase the commitment of younger people.
Whats’ on this page
Why it is challenging to get young people interested in your club
Before we give you our tips for getting more young people involved in your organisation, we first need to talk about the challenges in more detail. One major challenge, for example, is that your target group of "young people" is very large and heterogeneous. The German Sports Youth categorises all people up to the age of 26 as "young". This means that you are addressing kindergarten children as well as school pupils, trainees and students. As these groups are all in different phases of life and have different requirements and interests, this is of course nothing new for you. But you should always bear this in mind.
Another challenge is that there are far more opportunities for volunteering today than there were decades ago. The world of clubs has become much more diverse. There are new sports and many new areas of involvement where you and your club are in a kind of competition for volunteers.
As we wrote in our article on new and old volunteering, the demands placed on volunteering today are very different to those of the past. Gen(eration) Z in particular has its own demands on voluntary work that go beyond the selfless and identity-forming togetherness in a club.
The older among the young, i.e. potential volunteers in their 20s, are often also looking for an activity that fits or enhances their CV. You should also keep this in mind when looking for more youth participation in your organisation. It's the modern version of volunteering, which is characterised by give and take.
Equipped with this food for thought, let's move on to the tips:
Equipped with this food for thought, let's move on to the tips:
1. Ask yourself why young people don't currently want to implement projects in your organisation?
- You can really collaborate on a project basis.
- They are taken seriously with their concerns and can get involved.
- You can use the skills you enjoy and develop them further or learn completely new skills.
- They can complete their project successfully and that is what the management and the club want.
2. Create participation formats specifically for young people
- Adapt the club statutes and set up a youth board, for example. This will allow you to work together with the boys on a possible set of rules. At the same time, the youth board has certain rights that it can also demand within the club.
- Develop junior teams. Young people involved in the club can join forces and work together to develop projects or models for the club. You can also apply for project funding for junior teams via the Sportjugend. For more information on Junior Teams, you can listen to the podcast here.
3. Set aside a budget and write it off in your head first
You should write off the budget because then you don't have to keep asking about the status of the project. This takes the pressure off the group and you show trust. This in turn increases motivation in the team.
This budget is not about large sums of money. In most cases, 500 to 1,000 euros is enough to fund an individual project over the course of a year. Projects are often turned into side projects so that the main project can be financed. For example, youth groups within the club can create more financial scope for their projects by selling cakes at home matches.
4. Make it your project, but don't be in the project yourself
It is also important to remember that every project needs clear rules. But these are set by the team members themselves.
5. Just let it happen or: Just get started
You will see that if you remain calm and trust a youth project in your club, you can achieve more in the long term than with precise plans. This is because it is usually more frustrating to keep changing existing plans than to regularly define new detailed goals in the process.
6. Make the public aware of your projects
When you communicate your idea to the outside world, emphasise that your project is open to everyone. In this way, you ensure a very low-threshold offer to which people also feel invited.
7. Meet resistance in the association openly and seek dialogue
It is best to always seek dialogue. This will also help you to put yourself in the shoes of those who have reservations and try to understand their position. This gives you the opportunity to better counter possible objections and refute them.
To give you courage: There will hardly be a project that gets by without critics in your own club. Ultimately, however, it's always about how you yourself stand behind it and to what extent you are prepared to fight for it. Sometimes, by realising a project, you can prove that there can be more than one perspective and that it is possible to achieve things that previously seemed impossible.
Tip 1: Ask yourself why young people currently don’t want to implement projects in your club or association?
This simple question will quickly lead you to further questions and considerations. For example, you should ask yourself whether young people actually benefit from the current structures and support opportunities, and whether they can identify with and navigate your club’s structures at all. Important arguments for young people would be:
- They can genuinely contribute on a project basis.
- Their concerns are taken seriously, and they are able to get involved.
- They can contribute and further develop skills they enjoy, or even learn completely new skills.
- They can successfully complete their project, and this is genuinely supported by the club’s leadership and the association itself.
To spark young people’s interest in your club or association, you should also be willing to embrace change and rethink existing structures, for example. Ideally, this openness to change should also be communicated both internally and externally.
Tip 2: Create participation formats specifically for young people
Many clubs and associations have structures that have developed over decades. However, these structures mainly appeal to older members. That’s why you should think about how to create structures that also address younger people. Possible starting points include:
- Adapt the club statutes and, for example, establish a youth board. This allows you to work together with young people on potential rules and structures in the long term. At the same time, the youth board gains certain rights that it can actively exercise within the club.
- Develop junior teams. These allow young volunteers within the club to come together and jointly develop projects or new concepts for the association. In addition, junior teams may also apply for project funding through youth sports organizations. For more information about junior teams, you can also listen to the related podcast here.
If you want to inspire young people to join your club or association, you should above all remain open to new ideas. At first glance, these ideas may seem trivial or difficult to implement. The key is to allow the young group to achieve initial successes with their own projects and, most importantly, gain valuable experience. It’s not about creating perfect projects, but rather about creating a learning curve. Young people should be allowed to experiment and try things out. And that is exactly what can encourage children and teenagers to become more engaged in your club. Because only if you show young people that you trust them and believe in their abilities will they stay interested and continue to grow.
Tip 3: Provide a budget — and mentally write it off from the start
If you provide a youth group within your club or association with a budget, you should avoid imposing restrictions. The budget should be freely available for the project, and the group itself decides how the money is spent. In this way, young people learn how to handle their own budget responsibly and how to plan with it effectively. That’s why the budget should be made available again every year.
You should mentally write off the budget from the start because this prevents you from constantly asking for updates on the project’s progress. It removes pressure from the group and shows that you trust them. In turn, this significantly increases motivation within the team.
This budget doesn’t need to involve large sums of money. In most cases, €500 to €1,000 is enough to support an individual project over the course of a year. Often, additional side projects emerge to help finance the main project. For example, youth groups within the club might organize a cake sale during home games to create more financial flexibility for their own projects.
How does professional budget planning work in a club or association? Find out here how your club can benefit from solid financial planning.
Tip 4: Make it your mission — but don’t become part of the project itself
Approach the project like a mentor, but don’t actively become part of the project itself. The goals defined by the young members do not necessarily have to match your own goals. That’s why it’s better to hold back a little while still being available whenever support is needed. In psychology, this is often referred to as “helping people help themselves.” Show the young teams possible solutions without dictating the exact path they should take.
Another important point: Every project naturally needs clear rules. However, these rules should be created by the team members themselves.
Tip 5: Just let them do it — or simply: just get started
Not every project has to be planned from start to finish in every detail. The most important thing is that it actually gets started. This also includes accepting that ideas may fail at first, but could succeed on a second attempt.
You will see that if you stay relaxed and initially trust a youth project in your club, you can achieve more in the long run than with overly strict planning. In most cases, it is more frustrating to constantly adjust existing plans than to regularly define new, smaller goals during the process.
Tip 6: Raise public awareness of your projects
If you want more youth participation in your club, the world should also hear about it. That’s why you should actively seek public attention and promote your ideas. Perhaps there are multipliers within your club who can also help spread your ideas externally? These multipliers can be other young, already convinced members who help carry your club’s vision outward and authentically attract more young people.
From experience, word-of-mouth works especially well among pupils and students. In the best case, this creates a snowball effect and quickly leads to strong participation.
When communicating your idea externally, make sure to emphasize that your project is open to everyone. This creates a very low-barrier offer that makes people feel welcome and invited to join.
Tip 7: Face resistance within the club openly and seek dialogue
Especially when it comes to improving youth participation in a club, opinions often differ widely. Depending on the type of club, there may be different groups trying to assert their views with their respective arguments. When facing objections, always ask yourself where they are coming from. Are they from members who fear losing their position or influence? Or are the concerns based on something else?
The best approach is always to seek dialogue. This allows you to better understand the concerns of critics and see things from their perspective. As a result, you are better equipped to respond to objections and address them constructively.
To encourage you: There will hardly be a project that does not face critics within its own club. Ultimately, however, it always comes down to how strongly you stand behind your idea and how willing you are to fight for it. Sometimes, implementing a project can even demonstrate that there is more than one perspective — and that it is possible to achieve things that once seemed impossible.
Conclusion: create successes and talk about them
If you manage to ensure that young active people in your organisation can achieve success on their own and that you do not define success, you will create good conditions for more youth participation. If you then reach more young people with the multipliers mentioned above and talk about your ideas and projects, you will achieve a self-runner in the best case scenario and have secured the next generation of club members.
