Data is key to understanding how well any initiative is functioning—including your volunteer program. Volunteer impact data can help your organization analyze program efficiency, monitor satisfaction, and articulate impact; however, volunteer impact data can’t do anything for your nonprofit if you don’t know how to collect or analyze it.
Collecting and Tracking Volunteer Impact Data
The first step to leveraging volunteer impact data is deciding what data you need. Your nonprofit already tracks certain information for stakeholders, but you don’t have to be limited to what you currently report.
Consider the ways that volunteers support your organization’s outcomes and engage the community, as well as the information that could help you manage your program. What do you currently use volunteers for? How would you like to expand the program in the future?
Once you understand the questions you would like your data to answer, find ways to quantify the responses. Numbers are some of the most straightforward ways to measure data, such as:
- Total program volunteers
- Total active volunteers
- Hours volunteered
- Cost savings
- Money raised
- Social media followers
- Tasks completed
- Items donated
- Cost of maintaining volunteer programs
- Satisfaction scales for both volunteers and community members
In addition to tracking numbers, you can also use other methods to gain a more holistic view of your volunteer program. Multiple-choice questions make it easy to group and analyze responses, and while open-ended questions may take longer to evaluate, they often offer some of the most valuable insights.
With your target metrics in hand, it’s time to collect and track data. You can use your event reports, complemented by volunteer applications, surveys, and social media analytics, as data points. For smaller nonprofits, a spreadsheet may be sufficient for data tracking; however, the most effective approach is a data dashboard.
Reviewing data provides a way for you to see, sort, and evaluate volunteer impact. Volunteer management software like VolunteerHub can help you create customized, consistent data reports that address all of your nonprofit’s needs.
How to Analyze Volunteer Impact Data
Data is only useful if you can turn it into actionable items that improve your organization’s impact. This skill requires critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
For example, you may notice that you have 50 authorized volunteers on your roster; however, 25 of them have not volunteered in the past 6 months. At face value, there are a few different ways to interpret this data:
- Volunteers are not engaged.
- You have not created enough volunteer shifts.
- Volunteers do not feel appreciated.
- Current positions do not fit many volunteers’ skills.
- The volunteer sign-up process is too difficult.
Your other data points will help you come to the correct reading. If your data indicates that volunteers do not feel appreciated, you can implement new volunteer recognition initiatives. If volunteer surveys indicate that they are struggling with a complicated sign-up process, you can try self-scheduling solutions.
With the insights you glean from your volunteer impact data, you can promote appropriate resource allocation, improved stakeholder engagement, and organizational growth. However, analyzing volunteer impact data doesn’t only help you optimize your processes; it also helps your nonprofit tell a story. You can empower volunteers by showing them the tangible ways they made a difference, and you can clearly demonstrate your organization’s success to funders.
Make the Most of Your Volunteer Impact Data with VolunteerHub
VolunteerHub offers industry-leading software for volunteer data management. Our comprehensive volunteer database consolidates all of your information—including integrating with other nonprofit software like Blackbaud CRM and Salesforce.
With VolunteerHub, your organization can accurately collect real-time data, generate reports, and obtain actionable insights. In addition to our database, VolunteerHub also offers solutions for:
- Recruitment
- Scheduling
- Fundraising
- Recognition
- Communication
- Opportunity management
Request a demo to learn more about VolunteerHub and see why it is the industry-leading volunteer management solution.
