The technology making volunteer management easier

Volunteering can be a rewarding experience. But without the right management, it can also be stressful, disorganised, and unproductive. Volunteers may find themselves chasing information about their work, duplicating work due to mismanaged shifts, or unintentionally making errors due to poor communication between teams.  

For charities, they can lose out on a committed group of supporters, vocal advocates for their cause, as they become disengaged from the work they signed up to do. Volunteers are donating their time to charities to help them achieve their mission – charities must use this time responsibly, as they would with monetary donations, in order be able to build meaningful relationships between the organisation and those that support them. 

Digital technology has been instrumental in making managing volunteers easier, improving the experience of both charities and those who have signed up to work with them. Technology such as volunteer portals and project management platforms have made it simpler to co-ordinate volunteers, ensuring that volunteers are matched with initiatives that fit their skills and time available to dedicate to them.  

Project management platform monday.com has created a specific template to help charities do just this. The template allows organisations to capture volunteer data using a dedicated form, then collate it into one place, giving managers a full overview of their volunteer base. monday.com also offers a charity discount on its services, featuring 10 free seats and 70% off any additional seats.  

In this article, we explore further how charities can use project management technology to improve the entire volunteer experience, from recruitment to deployment, right through to offboarding should the time come.  

Find out more about monday.com 

How project management tools support volunteering 

 
Recruitment 

Recruitment can be one of the most challenging stages of volunteer management – where do you advertise? What skills and expertise are you looking for? How do you stand out among the many other charities asking people for their time? 

Recruitment is not over even once you’ve attracted the attention of potential volunteers – how do you then convert them into active, joined up participants in your work? The first step is making the process as easy as possible. They’ve already made the decision to support your cause, but lengthy sign up forms, with multiple hoops to jump through, may yet turn them away.  

monday.com allows charities to develop a customised volunteer sign up form, that captures only the data they really need at the initial recruitment stage, benefiting everyone by reducing the time and effort required to join. It allows charities to meet prospective volunteers where they are, at their own convenience.  

“Volunteer recruitment becomes that much easier when you have a simple form that you can embed in your community newsletters or website, or share via social media channels to give your volunteer engagement an extra boost,” explains monday, adding that charities can also  “hone in on the qualities [they] desire the most from applicants – so [they] can focus on finding the right volunteers faster”. 

Match skills and time commitment 

A sense of purpose is a big motivator for volunteers. They want to translate their time into action that will impact a cause they care about. Therefore it is essential that charities manage that time wisely, making efficient use of it to further their mission. If volunteers consider their time wasted, it can not only lead to disillusionment but also damage the relationship between the charity and an active supporter. It can subsequently damage the reputation of the organisation as a whole and affect volunteer recruitment in the future. 

To ensure they are delivering that all-important sense of purpose for volunteers, charities must look to the data they’ve collected. monday.com advises using this data to “engage and retain volunteers more thoughtfully, by assigning them statuses based on when they volunteered or their current activity.” Charities can see salient information, such as location, availability, capacity, and special skills at a glance, allowing them to better match people with the right opportunities.  

Charities can also get a picture of who their most dedicated volunteers are by looking at how often they volunteer and complete tasks in their data. It might even form the basis of a volunteer recognition scheme, giving charities the opportunity to thank their volunteers and reward them for hard work, letting them know the difference they’ve made with their time. 

Communication  

Poor communication can be a significant barrier to providing a great volunteer experience. It can lead to volunteers feeling disconnected, unappreciated, and frustrated with an organisation they otherwise care about.  

Fortunately, centralised volunteer management platforms can vastly improve how charities communicate with their volunteers. With features like monday workdocs, important information can be located in one place for continual review, as and when needed. Charities can use this space to record meeting notes, share guidance, and assemble important forms. It means creating a one-stop-shop for volunteers where they know they access the information they need to do their work, without having to constantly ask questions of their manager.  

Charities can also use project management platforms to automate reminders to reduce the need to manually send out emails to their volunteers. monday.com says charities can “instantly send emails when due dates arrive, and receive real-time notifications when tasks are completed so you can focus on the work that matters”.  

Volunteer management is a complex, multi-faceted process. But digital technology can take the laborious tasks and improve the experience for both charities and volunteers alike, making it seamless and purposeful for everyone involved.  

To find out more about how monday.com can support with volunteer management, click below. 

Find out more about monday.com