How to choose the right volunteer management system

Across the sector, we’re see rising costs, stretched resources, and growing demand, forcing charities to do even more with even less. Volunteers can ease the pressure. Properly onboarded and effectively deployed, volunteers can increase capacity, save on expenses and overheads, offer a diverse range of skills, provide fresh perspectives, improve your credibility, and broadly boost that most important element of charity life: impact. 

But charities need firm foundations to reap those benefits. As shown in a recent Rosterfy guide volunteer expectations are changing. They now expect quick onboarding, seamless comms, personalised updates, all of which needs to come straight through smartphones. They are digital natives who expect you to use tech. The future of volunteering, as Rosterfy explain, will be interconnected, digital, and impact driven. It is the task of charities to rise to the occasion.  

That’s why a volunteer management system (VMS) has become indispensable. In this article, we look at how you can pick the right VMS for your needs and check out some of the best options. 

READ THE GUIDE 

Build your business case for a volunteer management system 

The first step to finding the right VMS is alignment. You need to ensure your employees, teams, and the wider charity believe in the tech. That means building a business case, reaffirming the value of the tech to believers, showing sceptics why they should believe in the tech. You as an individual may understand the appeal of a VMS – to deal with demand, to help lower costs, and so on – but others might not see it so clearly. It’s vital that you show them your vision.  

You can present your business case in various ways. It might be a presentation, or even an informal meeting, but most business cases will need to be put down to paper. Ensure your business case includes an executive summary for people who need only top-level detail, enabling employees to get a snapshot of the many benefits of a VMS and a quick route to buy-in. 

Your business case should identify potential problems. Lead with positivity. If you think people might worry about cost, explain the cost savings. If concerns revolve around extra work in implementation, explain that in the long-term the VMS will give them back more time.  

Include goals in your business case and make them evidence-based, ensuring they adhere to SMART principles, and attend to the varying needs of the charity. You’ll want to ensure all goals show a projected return on investment (ROI) and expected costs. Be honest and detail the initial investment, ongoing costs, and how these might scale, but ensure you focus on the ROI as that’ll grab attention. The right VMS will lead to significant savings – a key point in your business case.

And, finally, always give a sense of the plan for implementation. Summarise the steps you’ll need to take, outlining responsibilities and timeframes, garnering a greater commitment from your team. And that will wrap up the simplest possible business case. For a more in-depth analysis, check out the Rosterfy guide, which provides more detail on much of the above.  

READ THE GUIDE 

Consider your capabilities and your needs 

Not every VMS is equal. The key for your charity is finding the best VMS to meet your needs. You should, as Rosterfy suggest, outline the size and scale of your charity, the digital training and skills that you currently have, the existing systems of tech and how they might integrate with a new VMS, the way you manage data and how much data you manage, and any other relevant information. 

In essence, you’ll want to audit relevant areas of your charity, gaining as much detail as possible. Then turn specifically to needs. Identify how much time do you currently spend on volunteer recruitment and tally that with the goals you’d like to reach. Do the same for all other areas of volunteer work, showing what you’d want to achieve and quantify with as much detail as possible.  

Continue to identify everything you’d like to achieve, then consider priorities. For some, the VMS is all about time-saving and streamlining, but for other charities it can simply be a better way to recruit and retain volunteers.

 Other charities are trying to sort out their data and others find new and unique use case for their VMS. Different VMSs offer different functionalities, and many offer a host of benefits, so you’ll want to find the one that best matches your needs and priorities. 

Find the best possible volunteer management system 

You’ve made a business case and got buy-in from across the charity. You’ve highlighted your current capabilities, your needs, and your priorities. Armed with that knowledge, you can go to market and find the best VMS for your charity. Rosterfy suggest asking your vendor questions to ascertain how they might match your needs, which will pay huge dividends in the long-term. 

Ask about platform support, from recruitment to reporting. That’s because most charities need more than simply scheduling. You’ll likely want tools that attract, engage, manage, and retain volunteers, consisting of one system, one source of truth, meeting the volunteer’s expectations. 

You’ll need to enquire about scale. If you’re needs grow, you’ll want a VMS that can meet those growing needs. Charities can experience rising demand and find themselves lumbered with tech incapable of supporting that demand. Rosterfy suggest that you should look for open APIs and integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, human resource systems, and fundraising systems to future-proof investment. 

It’s an obvious one but make sure you ask about data. Consider GDPR compliance, to start, then ask about data protection and data storage. Find out as much as you can about how the vendor manages data. And, if the answers are not forthcoming, that should be an answer.  

Finally, ask about cost. Budget transparency is vital and you’ll want to protect yourself against hidden costs in the future. As Rosterfy explain, clarify what’s included and what’s not when it comes to support, implementation,

training, and upgrades. The more information, the better.  

At that point, once the questions have been answered, you should have enough information to make an informed decision. If you need any more support, or more detail in finding the right VMS, check out the Rosterfy website or click below to explore their detailed and brilliant guide.