Text messaging is now more popular than making phone calls. A recent Pew Institute survey confirms that people from all age groups prefer to text. In fact, Americans ages 18-29 send and receive an astounding 88 text messages per day (compared to 17 phone calls).
In light of the texting revolution, how can your nonprofit take action to engage more volunteers? When it comes to volunteer management, last-minute changes can cause major headaches for both event coordinators and volunteers. If you still rely on phone calls or emails for these situations, you’re missing out on real-time volunteer management. Texting might be a better choice.
Let’s take a closer look at how text messaging can benefit your nonprofit.
Why Send Texts to Volunteers?
Simply stated, texting is better for everyone in time-sensitive situations. For example, VolunteerHub allows volunteer coordinators to instantly send important information to volunteers via text message. The texts are viewed by volunteers within mere minutes, if not seconds, of being delivered. In addition, texts help you bypass email inboxes, which may or may not be monitored real-time by volunteers.
Use Cases: Volunteer Texting
It would be impossible to list all of the potential situations in which texting could be useful. Here are some common ways our customers use VolunteerHub’s text messaging feature:
- When weather doesn’t cooperate: You’ve got everything set up for a big outdoor event, and then the skies turn dark. Some volunteers are beginning to call to see if the event is still on. You’ve got to make a decision, and you don’t want volunteers coming out just to send them back home. A quick text that cancels the event can save everyone time and energy.
- For first responders: When there’s a natural disaster, there’s obviously no time to waste. In cases such as tornadoes and floods, volunteers must be reached and organized quickly. VolunteerHub makes it easy to send out the call for help via text.
- Not enough volunteers: You had a volunteer event all set up, but now some of your registrants are cancelling at the last minute. This happens from time to time at every organization. But as a volunteer coordinator, you are in a sticky situation. You realize that you no longer have enough help. Instead of limping through the event, you have the option of quickly texting to cancel or soliciting additional volunteers.
When you’re in the business of helping others, time is often of the essence. VolunteerHub’s text message feature helps you react and respond to fluid situations and keep volunteers apprised of event changes or cancellations as they occur. This not only makes a coordinator’s job infinitely easier, but also demonstrates to volunteers that you value their time.
If you’re not doing so already, be sure to take advantage of texting as a key piece of volunteer management, leveraging the synergy of VolunteerHub and smartphones to their full potential.
