Holocaust Museum Houston needed a volunteer management solution to help them recruit, engage, and manage volunteers, following expansion. VolunteerHub provided the features the organization needed and helped increase active volunteers by 478%.
Opened in 1996, Holocaust Museum Houston has become a valuable resource for community residents and people around the world. Inspired by Holocaust survivor Siegi Izakson, and co-founded along with other survivors and community leaders, Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to its mission of educating people about the Holocaust, remembering 6 million Jews and other innocent victims, and honoring the survivors and their legacies.
In 2019, Holocaust Museum Houston reopened after a massive $34 million expansion, doubling the size of the museum to 57,000 square feet. With the expansion came a new welcome center, four permanent galleries, two changing exhibition galleries, a research library and café, a 187-seat state-of-the-art performance theater, and a 175-seat outdoor amphitheater.
Today, Holocaust Museum Houston is using their expansion and resources to educate more people than ever about the Holocaust in new interactive ways. Besides providing the community access to its museum and exhibits, Holocaust Museum Houston is also invested in outreach through its Educator in Motion (EIM) program, a program focused on promoting the development of individual and civic responsibility. From 2019 to 2020, the EIM program reached 79 schools and 29,227 participants in the greater Houston area.
To support initiatives and museum operations, Holocaust Museum Houston leverages the commitment of staff, volunteers, docents, and donors. Museum volunteers fill a variety of organizational roles including assisting with admissions, greeting guests, fulfilling administrative duties, hosting galleries, and working in the museum store.
“Our volunteers, docents, and donors are instrumental in the success of the museum and its programs,” said Madelyn Strubelt, Director of Visitor and Volunteer Services for Holocaust Museum Houston.
Expansion led to an increased need for volunteers and software
Prior to investing in VolunteerHub, Holocaust Museum Houston used Google Forms and Excel to capture and manage volunteer data. Although this process worked to manage a small pool of volunteers, it did not align with the organization’s goal to grow their volunteer pool and recruit new volunteer and docent talent to support expansion.
When exploring volunteer management software, Holocaust Museum Houston initially wanted a solution they could use to quickly run reports, and synchronize data with their CRM solution, Blackbaud Altru. The organization found those features, and many more, in VolunteerHub and decided that VolunteerHub’s volunteer management software was the best solution to support their expansion, and volunteer program goals.
Increased recruitment efforts amid COVID-19
Holocaust Museum Houston found new value in VolunteerHub and the software’s ability to support their recruitment goals during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many other organizations put recruitment on hold during the pandemic, Holocaust Museum Houston increased recruitment initiatives by taking their registration, onboarding, and training processes online.
VolunteerHub has become an instrumental tool, supporting the organization’s goal to create a virtual platform for volunteers from recruitment to training. To achieve this goal, Holocaust Museum Houston leveraged the Landing Page feature of VolunteerHub and created multiple pages that provide valuable information to volunteers, depending on where they are in their personal onboarding journey.
Each landing page provides a volunteer with information and resources that help them progress to the next step, and accompanied landing page, in the process. For example, the organization’s “New Volunteer Training” landing page provides a volunteer with essential resources, such as training videos, documentation, and PowerPoints.
Since implementing VolunteerHub and taking their recruitment, onboarding, and training processes online, Holocaust Museum Houston has grown their active volunteer pool from 14 to 81, an impressive increase of 478%.
“Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we never stopped recruiting, onboarding, and training. VolunteerHub helped us quickly go from 14 active volunteers to 81 active volunteers and over 70 docents, support that was drastically needed to assist with daily operations,” said Madelyn.
“The ability to create landing pages in VolunteerHub has been very valuable to our volunteer program and goal to increase volunteer recruitment efforts. We use landing pages for almost every step in our recruitment and training process,” said Madelyn.
Ready to transform your organization’s volunteer program?
Holocaust Museum Houston is a great example of how the right volunteer software can make all the difference in accomplishing a mission. VolunteerHub provides the features your organization needs to transform your volunteer program.
