Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofits. Their tireless and charitable work can help your cause in many ways. Even though you are not paying them, they are kindly donating their time. And time, after all, is money.
We talk a lot about collecting data on your donors, but doing the same on your volunteers is just as important. It’s important to build relationships with them, keep them informed of your goings-on, and log the work they have done.
In the past, that probably meant starting yet another spreadsheet, or using a functionally limited database. With a solution like Salesforce, you can collect data about, and communicate with, your volunteers much more easily and with more productivity.
Let’s take a look at a vital function for any nonprofit: checking in volunteers for opportunities. This is where you really get to know the people you can count on to volunteer at future events, so it’s important to know who they are, and remember them for future initiatives..
Maybe in the past you’ve used a sign-up sheet to log in volunteers at events, or entered all the names and email addresses in a spreadsheet as they checked in. However, there’s a much more sophisticated and reliable way to do it, using a strong volunteer management and registration solution based in Salesforce.
The check-in process actually should begin long before the event. On your website, you can have a calendar view of all your events, with the ability to select events and link to a sign-up page. (It’s a good idea to promote this new calendar via email marketing and social media.) On the sign-up page, you can collect as much information as you want about the volunteer, without needing to collect it all on-site at the event. Don’t forget to include an electronic waiver or release form. All of this information is automatically uploaded to Salesforce. You’ve now “captured” that volunteer (in a data collection sense), and can interact with them via email or phone before the event — again, easily, through Salesforce.
Now the event is here! You want your donors to check in when they arrive. DonorLynk can set you up with a check-in kiosk to quickly get your pre-registered volunteers signed in to the event. What if some people show up to volunteer who didn’t pre-register? You can collect a wealth of information about these newbies on that same kiosk through a registration form!
Again, all of the information is uploaded to Salesforce. You’ll have a permanent record of who attended, who didn’t show, and any new volunteers that you first engaged on-site. Thank-you emails (which you wrote in advance) are stored, personalized, and automatically sent to all of your volunteers after the event (along with information on upcoming volunteer opportunities, we hope!).
That’s not all — your check-in tablet can also serve as a check-out tablet. This way, you can log how much time the volunteer put in, and maybe even the activities they engaged in.
All of this, and more, is possible for managing volunteers. Contact us and let’s talk about all those possibilities!