Create Roles for Volunteers
In addition to paying attention to potential volunteers' issues, interests, and values, you should have learned two other things about them: their capacity and their commitment.
Capacity speaks to what we are able to do. Consider the different resources (or lack of resources) that potential volunteers have at their disposal. Are they retired, and have a lot of time? Are they a parent that cannot volunteer after their children get home from school?
Commitment speaks to what we are willing to do. How invested is the volunteer in the campaign? Commitment might be higher if they have a personal connection to the issue or candidate. Be sure not to make assumptions about who will have a high level of commitment.
Commitment and capacity can often be aligned (people who have many resources to offer also are very committed to the cause), but often they are not. It is your job as an organizer to find a way for people to plug into your campaign, whereever they fall on the scale of capacity and commitment. Understanding this balance is key to making a successful, respectful ask for volunteer participation.
People will want to do different kinds of things, so be sure roles are clear and that there are enough of them. Some volunteers may feel that the most valuable use of their time is to provide a key skill that they have - cooking for large groups, for example, or designing a website. Others may not know what they can offer but enjoy talking to people. Still others may have limitations that make certain volunteer activities difficult, such as an elderly person spending 3 hours doorknocking.
Also create "points of entry" - different levels of participation to accommodate different levels of capacity and commitment. For an example of how to create a varied volunteer infrastructure, read the case study by clicking here.