The Humane Society of Sarasota County has increased its volunteer program capabilities and efficiency by transitioning to VolunteerHub from another volunteer management solution.
The Humane Society of Sarasota County is on a mission to save the lives of cats and dogs while enriching the lives of humans along the way. The private, nonprofit organization was incorporated in 1952 and is Sarasota’s first nonprofit animal welfare organization. The Humane Society of Sarasota County is a no-kill shelter that provides animals with care, permanent homes, and obedience training. The nonprofit also works to strengthen the bond with pet owners by offering health & safety resources and humane education.
The commitment of volunteers at the Humane Society of Sarasota County is crucial to the organization’s success. Volunteers fill a variety of roles including helping at the shelter, providing pet therapy, assisting with teen programs, and administrative support. In 2018, The Humane Society of Sarasota County received help from 468 volunteers. As the Humane Society of Sarasota County adds new programs and grows existing ones, the need for volunteers and strategic management has become more important to the cause.
“I don’t know how to put into words how important volunteers are to our mission! Volunteers have given us around 29,000 hours of their time in the past year helping us reach our goals and provide an important service to the community,” said Hayley Harvey, Volunteer Coordinator for Humane Society of Sarasota County.
Need for Strategic Management Solution
Before looking for a volunteer management solution, the Humane Society of Sarasota County managed their volunteer database manually. Manual volunteer management involved countless spreadsheets and a process that required both time and internal resources to operate. As the organization grew, the process quickly became outdated and the need for automation became more apparent.
VolunteerHub was not the first management solution the nonprofit organization tried…
Before implementing VolunteerHub, the Humane Society of Sarasota County used another volunteer management solution to try to engage, manage, and report volunteer program data. The solution fell short and did not provide the nonprofit with the feature set they needed to reach goals. The organization found that volunteers were not using the tool to sign-up or sign-in to opportunities as intended. The Humane Society needed a solution that supporters and staff would want to use regularly and meet their volunteer recruitment, automation, and efficiency needs at the same time.
“VolunteerHub offers more strategic feature sets than other solutions when it comes to tracking and managing volunteers,” said Hayley
VolunteerHub’s volunteer management software is helping the Humane Society of Sarasota County in a variety of strategic ways. First, the organization can now track volunteers without having to input the data manually and be off-site. Volunteer coordinators have access to data showing who has signed up for each opportunity and the role that individual volunteers will play. Knowing this information is helping the nonprofit to plan accordingly and reduce the amount of time needed for coordination.
Second, the communication features of VolunteerHub are making the nonprofit’s ability to reach volunteers easier than ever. The Humane Society of Sarasota County no longer needs to contact each volunteer individually to remind them about an upcoming opportunity. Less time on the phone equates to more attention and growth in other areas of the organization's volunteer program. Automated reminders also ensure that volunteers are not missed, increasing engagement substantially.
Finally, implementing VolunteerHub has helped the Humane Society of Sarasota County better understand volunteers and their needs. The nonprofit is using the tool to understand what opportunities supporters want to fill, what areas need improvement, and what recruitment strategies yield the highest results. Less time on manual volunteer management equals more time to get to know supporters on a personal level.
“VolunteerHub is helping us automate tracking, schedule volunteers ahead of events, enhance our communication strategy, and understand volunteer data,” said Hayley
The Humane Society of Sarasota County is on a mission to help cats and dogs build strong bonds with people in their community. The right tools are helping the organization focus more on its mission and goals and less on program management tasks. With the help of VolunteerHub, the Humane Society of Sarasota County has the automated tool to handle volunteer program growth now and in the future.
