Volunteer tracking can help your nonprofit to better understand your volunteer base, their motivations for giving, and the most effective strategies for retention.
One challenge that many nonprofits face today is the ability to capture and truly understand the time supporters are providing their organization. According to an IRS study, 85% of US charities have little to no internal staff. Most organizations are run by volunteers in 2018. Nonprofits that do not have a formal process for keeping track of volunteer hours, measuring the impact of volunteer time, and optimizing their program based on data are missing out on a substantial opportunity.
Tracking volunteer interaction is one of the most important strategic processes your nonprofit can take to better understand what actions your supporters are taking, what areas along the path need to be improved, and what strengths of your program should be leveraged in the future.
In today's post, we will explore a few of the key benefits of volunteer management software and the steps your organization can take to implement a strategic tracking process today.
Volunteer Tracking Increases Accountability
Most likely, your nonprofit relies on volunteers to reach its mission and goals. Making the most of your supporter’s time is critical to both your organization's success and your volunteer's overall experience. Volunteers today provide their time for a plethora of reasons. However, regardless of the motivation, volunteers want their experience and commitment to matter.
An effective tracking strategy can provide volunteers with time expectations, structure, and visibility into their commitment and personal goals.
Volunteer tracking software can help your organization provide volunteers with opportunity reminders, insights into their volunteer behavior, and areas for improvement.
Increased Efficiency Benefits
Automatically tracking volunteer hours also increases the efficiency and accuracy compared to a manual process. A manual volunteer tracking process can consume much of your nonprofit's internal staff's time, resources, and focus.
Implementing an automated tracking solution can allow your staff to focus on building relationships, training volunteers, measuring supporter impact (only 55% of nonprofits do), and increasing volunteer engagement. Your nonprofit can use the increased efficiency as a doorway to find new differentiators in the nonprofit space.
Additional Efficiency Resources
How to Measure Volunteer Impact
Volunteer Hours Log: Manual Vs Automated
Volunteer Tracking Can Increase Participation
Using a software solution to track volunteers can help your organization appeal to more potential prospects. Your nonprofit will be able to see what opportunities the community is most interested in, which opportunities are least appealing, and how often volunteers fulfill new opportunities and engage with your organization.
Volunteer tracking software, like VolunteerHub, can also integrate with Google Analytics to provide even more beneficial insights. Making the best use of this data can help your nonprofit develop new exciting opportunities, make adjustments to low-interest roles, see what is driving prospects to opportunities, and leverage successful referral sources and recruitment campaigns in the future.
Understanding Volunteer Activity Can Create Financial Donors
Most nonprofits do not realize that there is a relationship between volunteers and financial donors. According to a study, performed by Fidelity, two-thirds of volunteers donate money to the same organization that they donate their time to. Effective volunteer tracking can help your organization convert more volunteers to monetary donors and vice versa.
Here are a few ways volunteer tracking can assist in the donor conversion process:
- Volunteer tracking software provides communication features that can be used to show appreciation.
- Some volunteer tracking software, like VolunteerHub, integrates with your CRM system and donor database.
- An effective tracking process can create super supporters by keeping volunteers in the loop regarding new and exciting opportunities.
Additional Resources
5 Best Practices for Converting Volunteers to Donors
Donor & Volunteer Management Report (Insights from 200 Nonprofits)
A Tracking Solution Can Make Volunteerism Fun
Some volunteer management solutions allow nonprofits to create a gamification process that makes volunteerism more fun and engaging for supporters. Organizations can reward volunteers for their hours served, encourage supporters to donate more time, edit and track their volunteer recognition program, and promote friendly competition.
Ready to Start Tracking Volunteers?
VolunteerHub can provide your nonprofit with the volunteer management solution your organization needs to better understand, communicate with, engage, recruit, and retain supporters. Our volunteer management solution provides a slew of features.
