Have these volunteer-busters happened to you?
• Reply-all-email overload?
• Showing up and not being needed?
• Wanting to volunteer and not getting a call back?
The Case Foundation interviewed Karen Bantuveris, the founder of VolunteerSpot <https://www.volunteerspot.com/>, a volunteer management platform whose basic service level is free.
You’re not alone and it doesn’t have to bring you down!
VolunteerSpot was born out of its founder’s personal frustration watching good people wanting to volunteer at her daughter’s school and for local Austin nonprofits supporting Hurricane Katrina evacuees, but opting out because small communication hassles got in the way.
“At schools, parents are called on to bridge critical funding gaps – helping in the classroom, supervising in the cafeteria and library, and supporting fundraisers like carnivals and concessions stands. VolunteerSpot gives parents and teachers a simple way to coordinate help that’s familiar to them, similar to launching an online party invitation. Because we’re so easy to use, and anyone can launch a sign up calendar, VolunteerSpot quickly spreads mom-to-mom, teacher-to-teacher, group-to-group from school, to Scouts, to soccer, etc.
It turns out the same moms who are volunteering at school are also very active in their workplace volunteer programs, in community nonprofits and faith-based service activities. In a little over a year, VolunteerSpot has powered all kinds of service: after-school mentoring programs, building projects, church-run soup kitchens, literacy programs, art festivals, public radio pledge drives, animal rescue teams, immunization clinics, and more. It has been such a rewarding year; we just reached a quarter-million volunteers served!
Karen Bantuveris: VolunteerSpot’s ‘special sauce’ is that ANYONE can launch a volunteer schedule and invite others to sign up to help – in a handful of minutes. Other volunteer management platforms require board approval, budget meetings and training to get started. They’re absolutely the right tool for many professional volunteer managers in large organizations. However, 80% of nonprofits have just two paid staff members and a tremendous amount of volunteering happens more informally with committee chairs, corporate volunteer captains, and neighbors who don’t have access to formal volunteer management software. Instead, they are left to Excel spreadsheets, email and frustrating online groups to coordinate volunteers. We don’t think it’s right that people who raise their hands as a volunteer leader get saddled with cumbersome administrative to do their jobs.
Our basic service is free and gives leaders everything they need to schedule, sign up and remind volunteers of their commitments. We’ve added additional tools for nonprofits and groups in our new premium service including volunteer hours tracking and multiple registration fields – so if you’re organizing a large charity race, for example, you can capture volunteer t-shirt size and the group a volunteer is affiliated with.
Sokunthea: What tips or advice do you have for volunteer leaders?
Karen Bantuveris:
- Make it easy for volunteers to help you, and let them!
- Post clear instructions on your website for how folks can get involved and a link to sign up to volunteer (if practical).
- Remember the ‘little things,’ details like where to park, what to wear and bring, and who will greet them when they arrive.
- If volunteers reach your voicemail, let them know on your message when to expect a call back and where else they can find commonly requested information, such as a website.
- Reach out on multiple channels where your volunteers are listening. Share information via email, Facebook, Twitter, phone calls, etc.
- Invite volunteers to share their stories and experiences through photo sharing websites, Facebook groups and other social media. Make it easy for volunteers to invite their friends to help, too.
- Ask volunteers what special skills they may bring to the table that your group could benefit from – you may find your volunteers are also artists, web developers or have accounting or marketing expertise and are willing to share.
- Of course, says Karen, use VolunteerSpot =).
Read more at https://www.casefoundation.org/blog/volunteerspot