Paul’s Place utilized VolunteerHub to create a streamlined, efficient, and optimized volunteer program, focused on building relationships.
Headquartered in Baltimore, MD, Paul’s Place has been focused on providing support to the community for over 39 years. Founded in 1982 by two volunteers from St. John’s Episcopal Church, Paul’s Place started with the vision for a soup kitchen in one of the poorest communities in Baltimore City. Since its inception, Paul’s Place has grown to provide the community with many services including hot meals, an emergency food pantry, clothing and laundry, mail and fax solutions, case management, a nurse’s clinic, and education and job readiness programs. By providing the Southwest Baltimore community access to many life-changing programs and services, Paul’s Place hopes to be a catalyst and leader for change. Between July 2019 and June 2020, Paul’s Place provided 30,961 meals and impacted the community in many other, life-impacting, ways (2020 annual report).
To reach its mission, Paul’s Place utilizes the support of thousands of volunteers per year, assisting across all programs and services. In fact, between 2019 and 2020, the organization recruited and leveraged 1,014 volunteers to provide 6,427 hours of service. The organization utilizes volunteers in a variety of ways including working in the kitchen, greeting guests, sorting donations, working in the clothing store, and supporting guests in the computer lab.
“Investing time and resources into our volunteer program is essential, we wouldn’t be able to achieve our mission to improve quality of life throughout Southwest Baltimore without the dedication of our volunteers,” said Nicole Davis, Volunteer and Youth Programs Director for Paul’s Place
VolunteerHub is the Best Volunteer Software for Paul’s Place
Before exploring volunteer management software, Paul’s Place relied on a combination of manual data entry and phone calls to manage volunteer constituents and keep track of data. This process required a large commitment of time, and volunteer resources that could be better utilized elsewhere. Paul’s Place staff explored several volunteer management solutions and found that VolunteerHub provided the most strategic feature set for their organization and volunteer program.
“The system that we used for volunteer management, before VolunteerHub, made communication with volunteers a challenge, and was not sustainable as our organization and services grew,” said Nicole
Paul’s Place is leveraging many of the strategic features found in VolunteerHub, but there are a few that stand out for the organization’s program. First, Paul’s Place relies heavily on VolunteerHub’s communication features to provide volunteers with regular updates, new opportunities to give, and post-opportunity fulfillment thank you messages.
Second, the organization finds value in VolunteerHub’s landing page feature and the ability to automate its recruitment and data-entry process, saving time and allowing the organization to reallocate resources to other critical projects. Third, Paul’s Place uses VolunteerHub’s in-depth knowledge base and resources to find solutions to any question that they encounter when navigating the software and features.
“VolunteerHub provides a polished, well-rounded solution to volunteer management. We use the features to recruit, engage, and manage our supporters and all of their activities within the organization,” said Nicole
“The support, training, and knowledge base that VolunteerHub provides has been very helpful for us when navigating the software and its feature set,” said Nicole
A Strong Focus on the Future
With the support of volunteers and donors, Paul’s Place will continue to provide life-changing services to the Southwest Baltimore community, and look for new ways to help people improve their quality of life. Through the use of VolunteerHub, the organization is confident that as its volunteer program grows, it will be able to effectively recruit, engage, and manage constituents.
Ready to transform your organization’s volunteer program?
Paul’s Place is a great example of how the right volunteer management software can make all the difference in accomplishing a mission. VolunteerHub provides the features your organization needs to transform your volunteer program.
