Your Go-To Volunteer Management Guide: Tips for Nonprofits

What is volunteer management?

Volunteer management is the process by which a nonprofit organization recruits, trains, engages, and retains volunteers. 

By developing a strong volunteer management strategy, a nonprofit’s team can build a positive and immersive volunteer experience that will help cultivate lasting, mutually beneficial supporter relationships. This strategy involves optimizing the volunteer management lifecycle, which encompasses the stages volunteers go through to become more involved with your organization.

Why should your organization invest in volunteer management?

Volunteers are the unsung heroes of most nonprofits’ ongoing programming efforts and fundraising events. They’re your organization’s brand and mission ambassadors in the community and directly impact your organization’s success. Volunteers offer tremendous value and thrive when given the right tools and resources.

Need more convincing? The proof is in the following numbers:

• Volunteers are committed: 72% serve only one organization or cause (Bureau of Labour Statistics).
• Volunteer work is valuable: The current value of an hour of volunteer time is over $33 (Independent Sector).
• Volunteers are integral team members: 77% of nonprofits believe that skilled volunteers could significantly improve the organization’s business practices (Deloitte Impact Survey).
• Volunteers are donors: 85% of volunteers donate to the nonprofits they volunteer for (Global Trends in Giving Report).

Essential elements of a volunteer management strategy

Your volunteer management strategy will be unique to your organization. However, the basic steps of the volunteer management process will look similar across all nonprofits.

Let’s examine how to optimize each stage for more successful volunteer management.

Recruitment

Recruiting volunteers has never been easier—there is no need to rely on a sign-up sheet on a bulletin board anymore. Digital channels offer a convenient way to find new volunteers and provide them with a simple sign-up process.

Here are the steps of the volunteer recruitment process:

• Plan and define your volunteer roles. Start by defining your volunteer roles and creating detailed descriptions for each open position. Volunteers will feel more comfortable joining a program with clear expectations for time commitments and role responsibilities.
• Create a streamlined sign-up process. Design a sign-up form and onboarding process that gathers all the information you need to assign volunteer roles and shifts. Relevant details include volunteers’ contact information, interests, availability, t-shirt sizes, and dietary needs, if applicable.
• Promote your opportunities. Advertise open roles using multiple channels, such as your website, email newsletter, and social media pages. Offer an easy-to-use online sign-up form that’s mobile-friendly and fast to fill out.

The goal of any successful volunteer recruitment plan should be to collect all the information required to place volunteers in roles where they will thrive.

Additionally, the more straightforward the sign-up process, the better. Look for a volunteer management solution that allows you to ask logic-based questions during the sign-up process, reducing the number of fields a volunteer needs to answer. For example, if you need to know if someone is first-aid certified, your form could have a yes or no response, and then if a volunteer responds yes, the form could prompt them to provide a certificate.

Qualification

The key to long-term volunteer program success for your organization and its supporters is ensuring volunteers feel fulfilled and equipped to perform their roles properly. Ensure volunteers are in the right positions by taking these steps to qualify them:

• Screen volunteers. Run background checks for new volunteers and collect necessary waivers to ensure volunteers can participate in your opportunities without legal issues.
• Use volunteer management software to match volunteers to roles that align with their preferences. For example, Bloomerang Volunteer offers Rostermode™ Best Match Engine, which automatically matches volunteers to opportunities based on their unique skills, qualifications, and availability.

The better the volunteer placement, the better the outcome for your organization and volunteers. A satisfied volunteer shows up on time and returns to volunteer more, helping you retain more volunteers in the long run.

Training

The goal of your volunteer training and orientation should be to set your volunteers up for success by equipping them with the information and tools they need to thrive in their roles.

When you process new volunteers’ registration information, send them a link to sign up for a training session. This invitation helps maintain momentum and get volunteers involved as soon as possible.

Keep these volunteer training best practices in mind:

• Allow volunteers to complete training on their own time by offering online training modules and videos.
• Offer practical training tips and advice for scenarios volunteers may encounter throughout their shift. For example, share best practices for interacting with kids or answering questions from community members.
• Acknowledge when volunteers successfully complete the training process so they can begin signing up for shifts.
• Track where each volunteer is in the training process using your volunteer database so you don’t accidentally require them to repeat any exercises.

You never want to overwhelm your volunteers by making them jump through too many hoops. Keep things as straightforward as possible and ensure you only require training specific to the role or task a volunteer is responsible for.

Scheduling

Volunteer scheduling is essential to keep your organization running like a well-oiled machine. Proper scheduling ensures that all volunteer shifts have the workforce they need to complete necessary tasks efficiently.

With the help of volunteer management software, your organization can:

• Maintain an organized volunteer schedule to avoid overlapping shifts or assignments.
• Enable volunteers to independently sign up for shifts, eliminating the need for extra work for your staff.
• Identify open shifts that need to be filled and communicate promptly with your volunteer base to gather more support.
• Send volunteer scheduling communications, including confirmations, reminders, and cancellations.

Clear, consistent communication is key to maintaining an organized schedule. Volunteers should never be left in the dark about when their shifts begin and end. Send notifications via your volunteer app, texting platform, or email marketing software to keep supporters in the loop.

Engagement

Maintaining volunteers’ loyalty over time requires continually engaging with them on a personal level. Volunteers want to be treated as the unique individuals they are and form genuine connections with staff and fellow volunteers. Make volunteers feel welcome at your organization by taking these steps:

• Create a welcome packet for new volunteers. Send volunteers a welcome email with all the logistics they need to know, such as directions to your volunteer facility, parking details, and any access codes they may need. Mail them free merchandise, such as a t-shirt, mug, or tote bag, to celebrate their involvement.
• Send personalized communications. Make volunteers feel special by acknowledging milestones, such as birthdays, with personalized emails or cards.
• Recognize volunteer milestones. Acknowledge benchmarks in the volunteer journey, such as a volunteer’s tenth event they participated in or their volunteer start date anniversary. Provide special prizes or certificates to recognize their accomplishments.

Volunteers will be much more likely to stay involved with your organization when you make an effort to make them feel included as members of a larger group working together toward a shared goal.

Reporting

Accurate, frequent reporting allows your organization to determine what’s going well with your volunteer management strategy and what needs improvement. With the help of a powerful volunteer management system, you can analyze your volunteers’ work in the following ways:

• Track volunteer engagement patterns to understand supporters’ preferences. For example, you might discover that your early weekday morning volunteer shifts are perpetually understaffed, while your weekend opportunities often see more people sign up than needed. As a result, you may add more weekend shifts to accommodate volunteers’ preferences and make the most of their availability.
• Assess the monetary value of volunteer hours. Volunteer time represents real money that your organization can save on tasks that would otherwise require paid staff members to complete. Using your volunteer management system, you can calculate the value of volunteer hours and assess volunteers’ impact on your mission.
• Create personalized volunteer impact reports. Knowing the real difference their contributions make can motivate volunteers to stay involved in your program. Use your reporting tools to develop personalized impact reports based on each volunteer’s involvement history. Once or twice a year, send a report detailing the total hours worked, total people (or animals) they helped, etc.

Accurate reporting is often essential for maintaining compliance with grant regulations, so keep your data updated and correct as possible.

Stewardship

From recruitment to training, your organization has invested a lot of effort into every volunteer, and they have invested in your organization’s success through their time and hard work. That’s why it is important to continue building relationships with volunteers through stewardship and recognition efforts.

Your volunteer recognition efforts don’t have to be complicated. Simple messages of appreciation or certificates of recognition can go a long way in making volunteers feel appreciated and helping retain them in the long run. You can also publicly recognize volunteers by sharing photos of them hard at work on your social media pages or website.

When volunteers feel appreciated for their efforts, they’ll be much more likely to stay involved with your organization.

What you need to know about volunteer management software

Keeping volunteer information organized throughout the volunteer lifecycle is no simple task. Software solutions can simplify the process, giving you access to all the tools you need to manage volunteers in one convenient place. Let’s explore the ins and outs of volunteer management software and what it can do for your nonprofit.

What is volunteer management software?

Volunteer management software offers tools and features specifically designed to help increase the administrative efficiency of managing volunteer programs and events. A comprehensive volunteer management system provides volunteer coordinators and managers with tools to recruit, screen, schedule, manage, and communicate with volunteer workforces through a single system.

Volunteer management software should also provide volunteers with a smooth user experience during the sign-up and scheduling process and communication tools that allow them to contact their volunteer manager. A volunteer management system eliminates miscommunication and no-shows, reduces administrative time, and increases volunteer retention.

Our recommended volunteer management platform: Bloomerang Volunteer

If your nonprofit needs a new volunteer management system, search for an option with comprehensive features to simplify your staff’s workload and improve the volunteer experience. Our recommended solution is Bloomerang Volunteer.

Bloomerang Volunteer offers the best of volunteer and donor management in one unified platform. Nonprofits can add donor management and fundraising features to their volunteer management software, creating a robust solution for seamlessly managing all constituents.

Bloomerang Volunteer includes the following features to simplify volunteer management:

• The ability to customize your recruitment, scheduling, and administrative settings to your program’s needs
• A streamlined recruitment workflow with questions about qualifications and availability and a simple process for processing background checks and waivers
• A robust scheduling tool that allows you to track attendance and send shift confirmations and reminders
• Self-serve volunteer options that allow supporters to apply online and use a volunteer mobile app to view and sign up for open shifts
• The ability to send personalized outreach messages, such as appreciation notes, using email or the volunteer app
• 360-reporting features that allow you to track data from all programs and events and automatically sync this information with your CRM

Bloomerang’s nonprofit software platform allows nonprofits to track both volunteers and donors in one system, giving you a holistic view of all supporters.

What are the benefits of managing volunteers and donors within one system?

An integrated volunteer and donor management platform offers the following benefits:

• Save time and resources. By managing donors and volunteers in one system, you can save time from toggling back and forth between multiple platforms. Often, you’ll have donors who also volunteer and volunteers who also donate, so it makes sense to track all of these individuals using the same system. Plus, your organization can save money by avoiding having to invest in two separate platforms.
• Discover hidden fundraising opportunities among your volunteer base. Long-time volunteers or particularly passionate volunteers are often good candidates to send fundraising requests to. Your database can identify highly engaged volunteers, enabling you to develop a personalized outreach plan.
• Increase donor engagement by offering volunteer opportunities. Inviting donors to engage with your volunteer opportunities is an effective way to build long-term relationships. With an integrated system, you can easily reach out to donors and incorporate them into your volunteer scheduling processes.

Bloomerang’s platform enabled one organization to see a 60% growth in volunteer involvement and save two hours each day through self-service volunteer management. The organization was also able to start viewing donations in real time and consolidate all donation processing, communications, and volunteer management in one app.

Learn more about this organization’s successes in this video:

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Volunteer management best practices

Here are a few final tips to ensure that your volunteer management strategy is robust and sustainable:

1. Use a multichannel recruitment strategy.

Recruiting new volunteers to your organization requires a multi-channel marketing approach, which leverages all of your existing online channels and partnerships with other organizations to spread the word. To help you implement effective communication practices, let’s walk through the primary channels that will enhance your volunteer recruitment process.

Alt: Volunteer recruitment channels (explained below)

Email

If you already have a list of volunteers who have worked at previous events you’ve organized, make them feel appreciated by giving them exclusive access to available positions. Encourage your email recipients to share volunteer opportunities with their friends and family. Consider offering a referral thank-you gift as an incentive.

Website

Keep your volunteer opportunities page updated, providing potential volunteers with an easier way to sign up for any opportunities that interest them. Ensure your volunteer web page is optimized for mobile use to give mobile visitors a streamlined, convenient experience.

Social media

Use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote your volunteer opportunities and share information about the program’s purpose and success. Share videos and photos from past volunteer opportunities to thank volunteers for their involvement and show potential volunteers how much fun they can have by getting involved.

Other nonprofits

Consider partnering with other local nonprofit organizations to help spread the word to a broader audience. The partnership should be mutually beneficial, with both organizations supporting each other’s recruitment efforts through social media posts or email messages.

Corporate partners

Plenty of businesses facilitate employee engagement in volunteer programs through corporate volunteerism. Supporting nonprofit causes enhances a business’s reputation as a responsible steward of the community.

Contact local businesses and companies in your area to see if they’d like to partner with your organization for volunteer opportunities. You can even host dedicated corporate volunteer events that facilitate team bonding while volunteering.

We recommend contacting businesses whose employees have skills relevant to your nonprofit’s needs. For example, if your organization is an animal shelter, you could partner with a local dog grooming business to ensure your shelter dogs receive proper grooming and increase their chances of adoption.

2. Get to know your volunteers.

Keeping track of your volunteers’ interests, goals, and skills ensures they have a fulfilling experience with your organization.

When volunteers register for the first time, ask a few questions about what skills they offer that are relevant to your nonprofit’s needs, such as graphic design or social media marketing experience. Note these skills in your volunteer database and use your communications to highlight opportunities that appeal to volunteers.

Volunteers will find greater long-term fulfillment from working with your organization if they can use their unique talents to make a difference.

3. Ask volunteers for feedback.

Volunteer feedback is valuable to help improve everything from operational planning to organizational culture. Receiving insight from your volunteers can help you understand their needs and wants, which ultimately helps retention.

Consider sending a simple survey to volunteers after they complete a shift or take the time to grab a coffee with a small volunteer group once a month and discuss how you could improve their experience. Document the feedback you receive in your volunteer management software, and put the insights into action as you plan your next program or initiative.

4. Empower volunteers to take on leadership roles.

Your most dedicated, long-term volunteers may be interested in growing their involvement with your organization and taking on roles with greater responsibility. Offer these passionate supporters the opportunity to apply for leadership roles.

These roles could include leading volunteer shifts, training new volunteers, or joining a volunteer committee to advise your organization’s staff on programming and project progression. Clearly outline the responsibilities and expectations of volunteer leadership roles, such as skills required, years of experience, and time commitment.

As volunteers get up and running in their new leadership roles, provide them with both positive and constructive feedback to help them develop in their positions and serve your mission more effectively.