Has your organization’s volunteer pool grown substantially over the years? If so, you need an efficient and streamlined way to organize your volunteers’ contact details, roles, and schedules. The right volunteer management software can help you do just that!
Organizations that work with hundreds (or even thousands) of volunteers will find that sticky notes, Excel sheets, and shared calendars simply aren’t enough to keep their volunteer programs running smoothly. Software, specifically created for volunteer management, such as VolunteerHub can make registering scheduling, and engaging volunteers hassle-free.
Read on to learn how implementing volunteer management software can help you get the most productivity from your volunteers without costly miscommunications or overscheduling.
Why Use Software for Volunteer Management?
Some nonprofits have the misconception that because volunteers aren’t paid employees, they don’t need to invest in ways to manage them. Once you begin working with many volunteers, you’ll soon understand why software for managing volunteers is a must-have.
The best volunteer management software offers key features for a stress-free experience. These features can include databases that house all the volunteers’ contact details. Other components of the software may include scheduling and time-tracking capabilities.
The more your volunteer management software can do, the less your paid employees will have on their plates. Volunteer coordinators save tons of time when potential volunteers can easily see job postings online and register themselves.
Organizations That Use Software for Volunteer Management
Virtually any organization that utilizes volunteers will benefit from volunteer management software. While nonprofits like environmental or humanitarian groups may come to mind first, many traditional businesses use volunteers from time to time.
For instance, a law office may have a series of student volunteers or interns come in for a semester. Similarly, a news agency may request volunteers to assist with tasks around the office, while a school may have dozens of adult volunteers stationed in various classrooms. Political campaigns, religious groups, and hospitals frequently rely on volunteer help to keep their organizations running efficiently.
Chances are, if you’re wondering if you need to invest in volunteer management software, you probably do!
Determine Your Organization’s Volunteer Management Priorities
When choosing the best volunteer management software for your nonprofit, you’ll need to come up with a list of software essentials. For example, if you’re struggling to keep track of several volunteer schedules, there’s no point in buying a program that doesn’t have scheduling or volunteer database capabilities.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common priority areas for nonprofits:
- Registration: Your volunteer coordinator likely spends a lot of time recruiting volunteers and completing their intake paperwork. While in-person meetings work great for a handful of volunteers, registering 100+ volunteers is a different story. Effective volunteer management software will streamline this process so that volunteers can register themselves.
- Volunteer database: Some of your volunteers may only be available on weekdays, while others may only work Saturday and Sunday. Other volunteers may have very specific hours they can work each day, such as 2:00-5:00 p.m. A well-organized volunteer database can make searching for available volunteers simple. You can have each person’s availability and contact details in one convenient place.
- Time tracking: Many volunteers need to track their hours. Some might need a minimum number of volunteer hours for a college course, while others might need to fulfill community service hours or other obligations. If your organization manually tracks hours, consider switching to volunteer management software that does the tracking for you. There’s less room for error, and your employees will save time.
- Scheduling: Another priority for nonprofits is volunteer scheduling. Some groups have multiple daily, weekly, and monthly volunteer shifts that are covered by dozens of volunteers throughout the year. Implementing volunteer management software to schedule your volunteers can make the process easier than ever.
- Communication: Does your organization contact its volunteers frequently? If so, make sure the software you choose has emailing capabilities. This way, you can contact all your volunteers at once. Some programs provide the option to contact subgroups (i.e., just your Monday volunteers or your weekend volunteers).
- Reports: If your organization relies on grants, you may need to compile and submit annual reports with your organization’s total volunteer hours. Using software that can easily create volunteer program reports can make these end-of-year tasks quick and painless.
Tips for Choosing the Right Volunteer Management Software
Once you’ve identified the must-haves for your program, there are a few more considerations to keep in mind before you start vetting for volunteer management software solutions.
- Consider your budget. How much money is your organization able to spend on the software? Is subscription-based software in your budget? Do not forget to consider your ROI.
- Determine the user experience level. Who will be using the software? Do they need a bare-bones program, or are they tech-savvy enough to use software with a few more bells and whistles built-in?
- Estimate the number of volunteers you’ll be managing. Some programs may not be a good fit if you have a very small number of volunteers. Do your research on the limitations of each software option.
Recommendations for Implementing Volunteer Management Software
Once you’ve chosen a program, you’ll need to begin implementing the volunteer management platform. Spend some time creating a timeline for the process. It’s a good idea to have your new software up and running before your volunteer “busy season” begins.
If you’re transferring data from another software solution used for volunteer management, be sure to back up the data first. You’ll also want to schedule a time to train your volunteer coordinator on how to use the volunteer management solution. Additionally, you’ll want to train other staff in case they need to use the software at some point.
Assess Your Volunteer Management Software Regularly
Even the best volunteer management software only works as well as your team uses it. In other words, encourage your organization’s volunteer coordinator and other team members to use the software frequently. Once your team sees how easy recruiting and scheduling volunteers can be, you may even notice an uptick in volunteer productivity and the number of volunteers available.
Don’t forget to inform your volunteers of the new system. Send out occasional reminders to them so they can update their contact information and availability. Also, consider scheduling time on your calendar to add or remove volunteers from the database as needed. This way, your database stays up to date.
VolunteerHub Is the Leading Software for Volunteer Management
For nearly 30 years, VolunteerHub has been the go-to software for volunteer management for nonprofits just like yours. We offer all the features your nonprofit needs to better recruit, engage, and manage volunteers. VolunteerHub is cloud-based and can streamline your organizations:
Request a demo to learn more about the ways VolunteerHub can make managing volunteers easier than ever!
