A complete guide to volunteer management

 

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Volunteers generously provide labour and time to support communities, help people in need, raise much-needed funds, and generally improve society. They are the backbone of the non-profit sector and organisations should always aim to make the process of volunteering as easy and seamless as possible.

 

That’s easier said than done. Many organisations have limited time, finite resources, and ever-growing demands. Attracting, recruiting, and managing volunteers can be challenging, particularly on a limited budget. Organisations must work with what they have, often recruiting and onboarding volunteers with archaic processes and make-shift resources.

 

Many organisations manage volunteers with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, perhaps even the old-fashioned pen and paper. Sometimes Post-it notes carry the names and numbers of would-be volunteers, and scraps of paper harbour essential scheduling information.

 

Organisations are aware that they need to change, that they need to embrace the digital. But they often assume that effective digital volunteer management will be complex, difficult to install and use, or simply too expensive.

 

That may have been true in the past, but modern volunteer management systems have evolved. The market currently offers something to organisations of all shapes and sizes, regardless of their time and resource requirements.

 

There are free options, low-cost options, pay-per-volunteer options, bespoke options, standardised options, and everything in-between. There is a system to improve every organisation, as long as the organisation is willing to do some initial research.

 

And we are here to help. In this article, we explore the basics of volunteer management and offer organisations a guide to using volunteer management systems. We then explore the top systems currently on the market and look at which system might best suit your needs.

 

 

What is volunteer management?

 

Volunteer management is an all-encompassing term for recruiting volunteers, tracking volunteers, communicating and engaging with volunteers, and much more. Volunteer management is anything that involves interaction between an organisation and volunteers.

 

Effective volunteer management has myriad benefits. It allows charities to improve their relationships with volunteers, streamline internal and external processes, improve overall return on investment, and make the full use of the skills and services that volunteers provide.

 

Volunteer management also allows charities to think long-term, building a more strategic and positive relationship with individual volunteers. Positive relationships improve retention rates, as volunteers are always more willing to return to charities they enjoy working with.

 

Effective volunteer management is essential to improving processes and operations. And volunteer management systems offer an easy route to streamlining that process.

 

 

What are volunteer management systems?

 

A volunteer management system is a tool that helps effective volunteer management. The systems support the recruitment of volunteers, communicate and co-ordinate with volunteers, work out a schedule for volunteers, and much more.

 

Volunteer management systems provide one centralised place for streamlining processes. Various organisations use the systems, including schools, hospitals, museums, and so on. But the systems are particularly used in the charity sector, where managing volunteers is vital.

 

Each volunteer management system offers different functionalities, often aimed at organisations of different sizes and usually at varying costs. But common features include:

• Communication in one centralised place
• Functions that match jobs to skills
• Calendar and schedule management
• Easy-to-access volunteer profiles
• Self-service portals for volunteers
• Features to support compliance

As you’ll see below, many of the options on the market offer much more advanced features, all of which can improve volunteer management. But every volunteer management system should offer some version of the above features, albeit in different forms.

 

 

The benefits of volunteer management systems

 

Each volunteer management system will provide different benefits to different organisations, often depending on differing objectives. But organisations can still expect some broad benefits, especially if they are currently using pen and paper. Some of the benefits include:

• Improves processes and operations
• Ensures volunteer information in one centralised place
• Ensures all communication in one centralised place
• Helps compliance with data protection and other regulations
• Improves retention rates of volunteers
• Harnesses the best skills of volunteers
• Promotes effective scheduling and calendar management

To reap the benefits, however, organisations need to ensure they are using the right system. Before exploring the myriad options, it’s important that organisations establish some goals.

 

 

The importance of volunteer management strategy

 

To pick the best volunteer management system for your charity, you should first consider strategy. Volunteer management systems can perform myriad tasks, from improving communication to better reporting, from increasing engagement to supporting recruitment.

 

It is essential, therefore, that charities first decide what they want to achieve with their volunteer management system. That means thinking about strategy.

 

For organisations with ample resources, you might consider putting together a full strategy, with research backed up by insights and analytics. But you do not need to be that in-depth. Organisations can start by simply asking themselves some questions, such as:

• What problems do you face in terms of managing volunteers?
• Are you failing to utilise the full potential of volunteers?
• Are you effectively engaging with your volunteers?
• What issues have you faced when communicating with volunteers?
• How do you currently track volunteers?
• How do you report the impact of your volunteers?

By simply answering the above questions, you can start to develop a strategy. Perhaps you have noticed some weak areas, or perhaps some blind spots have unveiled themselves. Or maybe you are doing well in a particular area and you want to double-down on your success.

 

Either way, use the answers to define your goal. Once you’ve understood your goal, you can start exploring the options on the market that can help you achieve that goal.

 

 

How volunteer management systems can help

 

The volunteer management system can help you meet your goals, regardless of its simplicity or complexity. Below we take a look at some of the areas where volunteer management systems improve the processes of organisations.

 

Recruiting volunteers

 

Recruitment is the first step in volunteer management. Organisations need to recruit the right number of volunteers that they can effectively manage and ensure that those volunteers possess the right skills for the job at hand. That’s harder than it sounds.

 

Volunteer management systems can help you create profiles that will attract the right skills and talents, create pages that can attract more volunteers, and keep all previous information in one centralised place to continually attract the right volunteers.

 

In addition to the above, the scheduling features of a volunteer management system will help to improve and streamline the selection process. That means that charities are not simply onboarding the right people, but they are onboarding the right people for the right time.

 

Communicating with volunteers

 

After recruiting volunteers, charities need to engage with them in a way that feels welcoming, informative, and meaningful. Communication is key. One issue that organisations commonly face is the sheer number of channels with which they communicate with volunteers.

 

Some volunteers e-mail, others phone, others use WhatsApp, while others use social media chats. Volunteer management systems ensure communication is centralised.

 

Systems can incorporate many of the above channels – SMS, e-mail, etc. – and transfer the information to the centralised platform. In addition, some volunteer management systems allow users to automate communications, which can free up time for employees.

 

Engaging volunteers

 

Organisations need to engage with volunteers. That means going beyond communication. That means finding out their primary skills and talents. That means ensuring the tasks they perform make the most of those talents. That also means engaging with their schedules.

 

Volunteer management systems allow charities to match skills. The system will help organisations to effectively engage with volunteers who have the necessary talents to perform the tasks at hand. Matching volunteers with appropriate tasks is mutually beneficial, allowing charities to improve productivity while ensuring the volunteer is not taken for granted.

 

In addition, volunteer management systems allow feedback from volunteers, which allows the organisation to improve internal processes and better engage with volunteers.

 

Tracking volunteers

 

Tracking numbers, hours, skills, recruitment, and attrition rates can be time-consuming when organisations do not have in-built reporting. Volunteer management systems often have tracking functionalities that help your keep abreast of all your volunteer activities.

 

That’s important for organisations, as it frees up time and resources and makes feedback much easier. But tracking is also important for the volunteer. Tracking helps volunteers understand what has been achieved and the difference that they have made.

 

Volunteer management systems track volunteer efforts in one centralised place. They can generate reports that show patterns, illustrate the time spent on various projects, show improvements, broadly demonstrate impact, and much more.

 

Reports help volunteers quantify impact, which can be a massive incentive for them to continue volunteering. Tracking and reporting encourage long-term relationships, allowing the volunteer to feel useful to the community and valued by the charity.

 

Recognising volunteers

 

Tracking and reporting are especially important in terms of recognition. Organisations need to practice acknowledgment, ensuring volunteers do not feel forgotten or underappreciated.

 

Perhaps organisations could send out a simple thank-you note to volunteers, or perhaps they want to throw an entire event dedicated to the hard work of their volunteers.

 

Either way, volunteer management systems can help. Some systems, including ones mentioned below, offer functionalities that promote volunteer recognition, such as thank you messages and online badges recognising hard work that appear on the system.