Sweat equity is a cornerstone of the Habitat for Humanity model. It allows future homeowners to contribute their time and effort toward building not just a house, but a home. Yet for many chapters, tracking these hours accurately, especially when they’re donated by friends and family, can be a manual, time-consuming process.
That’s where VolunteerHub comes in.
VolunteerHub is a volunteer management solution that helps Habitat for Humanity affiliates streamline every aspect of their volunteer program, including sweat equity tracking. With a few simple configuration steps, your team can automate and simplify how you capture, report on, and manage sweat equity hours within VolunteerHub.
What Is Sweat Equity, and Why Track It?
Sweat equity refers to the volunteer hours that future Habitat homeowners, their families, and their supporters contribute as part of the homeownership process. While critically important, many chapters struggle to:
- Link donated hours to the correct homeowner
- Separate sweat equity hours from general volunteer hours
- Pull reports that clearly show who donated what, and when
- Exclude or include sweat equity hours in communications and data
VolunteerHub solves all of this without spreadsheets, guesswork, or manual tracking.
How VolunteerHub Simplifies Sweat Equity Tracking for Habitats
Here’s how Habitat chapters are using VolunteerHub to manage sweat equity more effectively:
Designate Sweat Equity Participants Through User Groups
VolunteerHub allows you to create custom user groups. For sweat equity, most chapters set up:
- A Future Homeowners group (for internal use in VolunteerHub)
- A Sweat Equity Donors group (for volunteers donating hours to a homeowner)
Volunteers can easily opt into the sweat equity donor group when they create an account, using a simple checkbox.
(Creating a sweat equity user group in VolunteerHub)
(Managing affiliations in VolunteerHub)
Capture Key Information Upfront
Want to know which homeowner a volunteer is supporting? VolunteerHub can collect this info at signup using a customizable form field, such as:
“What is the name of the future homeowner you’re donating hours to?”
This field ensures all volunteer hours are properly attributed and helps simplify reporting later.
(Creating Sweat Equity question in VolunteerHub)
Run Detailed Sweat Equity Reports in Seconds
With VolunteerHub, pulling a sweat equity report is as easy as a few clicks:
- Get a list of all volunteers donating hours and to whom
- View total hours donated, per individual or collectively
- Filter by date, event type, or group
Whether you’re looking at lifetime totals or a specific year, VolunteerHub provides clear, actionable data, instantly.
Include or Exclude Sweat Equity as Needed
Because sweat equity participants are tracked in a separate group, it’s easy to:
- Isolate their hours in reporting
- Exclude them from certain communications
- Ensure they only see relevant events (like build days reserved for future homeowners)
No more digging through spreadsheets or segmenting lists manually.
A Real-World Example
Let’s say a volunteer named James is donating hours on behalf of a future homeowner named Sam. In VolunteerHub:
- James checks the box indicating he’s donating sweat equity
- He enters “Sam Walsh” as the recipient of his hours
- Every time James registers for a build event, his hours are automatically tracked and associated with Sam
When staff members run a report, they’ll see exactly how many hours James has donated and to whom, alongside total sweat equity contributions across the chapter.
Sweat Equity Tracking That Works for Habitat Affiliates
VolunteerHub is trusted by Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the country to manage every part of their volunteer programs. By incorporating sweat equity tracking directly into the platform, we help organizations:
- Save time
- Reduce errors
- Gain insights
- Report on programs
“When you're managing thousands of volunteers every year, having everything in one place to keep it organized is so highly valuable. It keeps things operating smoothly, and managing it all through one system like VolunteerHub has been worth it.” Trinity Edgar, Director of Engagement at Knoxville Habitat for Humanity
“VolunteerHub is user-friendly, support is outstanding, and the features are industry-leading. I would encourage any organization that is not using volunteer management software to do their research and consider VolunteerHub.” Mimi Mitchell, Director of Community/Volunteer Engagement at Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg
"There are so many features of VolunteerHub that stand out and are crucial components of our volunteer program. A few of the most valuable features for us have been waivers, landing pages, group and event functionality, communication capabilities, and integration with Salesforce.” Liz Salter, Director of Community and Donor Engagement at Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia
Learn more about why VolunteerHub is the best volunteer management software for Habitat for Humanity chapters and affiliates.
Ready to Simplify Hour Tracking and Volunteer Management?
If you’re a Habitat for Humanity chapter looking to streamline sweat equity tracking and simplify volunteer management across the board, we’d love to help.
