Volunteer Management Best Practices – Guest Post by VounteerMark.

People are constantly volunteering to make a difference in the world.  Make sure your volunteer management program is up-to-date so your volunteers have a great experience and your organization is retaining volunteers.  This is what volunteers want:

  1. To be clear on dates and times.  It’s easy to forget when you’re supposed to volunteer, so make sure that you clearly and effectively communicate when they are supposed to be at a certain place.
  2. To be guided.  Volunteers want to know that they are being efficient.  If they aren’t trained for a task, they might feel unprepared and unguided.  Walk them through the process of how to do their job before you let them loose.
  3. To do important work.  Volunteers want to make an impact.  If volunteers feel needed, they will keep coming back to help out.
  4. To work in a friendly atmosphere.  Volunteers are donating their time and want it to be well spent.  A friendly and welcoming environment will help make their time worthwhile.
  5. To easily get their hours approved.  Many people who volunteer have to have their hours approved for an organization, school, corporate volunteer programs, etc.   It’s a hassle for them if they have to wait a long time for nonprofit’s to sign a piece of paper for them.
  6. To have open communication.  Volunteers want communication to be effortless and frequent.  If you regularly communicate with your volunteers, they will feel satisfied.
  7. To feel appreciated.  Everyone knows how good it feels to be recognized.  There are many ways to show your volunteers appreciation, from sending a quick “Thank you” email to having lunch for them.
  8. To know their impact.  People want to feel like they are making a difference.  Volunteers are making an impact, so let them know how their work is affecting the world.

How VolunteerMark Can Help

  1. VolunteerMark’s free volunteer management software makes preparing for an event easy.  All a nonprofit has to do is log in to their dashboard and create an event with specific times and dates. Those times and dates are always accessible to the volunteer so there is no confusion.  All the volunteer has to do is log into their dashboard to find the information.
  2. VolunteerMark makes tracking hours easy for the volunteer and the nonprofit with its volunteer tracking software.  It’s all computer generated.  The volunteer can electronically send their hours to the nonprofit.  The nonprofit then clicks “approve” or “deny.”  After that, the volunteer can print off an authenticated certificate of hours.
  3. VolunteerMark makes communication flow smoothly.  When a volunteer signs up for an opportunity, they supply their phone number and email address and can be reached with the click of a button.  The volunteer can also reach your nonprofit by looking it up on their dashboard instead of having to take the time to find it online or in a phonebook.
  4. Appreciating your volunteers is easy when you can send them a quick “Thank you!” email or sending a small gift with their provided contact information on VolunteerMark.

Get it now: The volunteer management product is free for volunteers and for a limited time, VolunteerMark is offering a free 30-day trial for nonprofits.