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Volunteer Management Software: Features and Benefits

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Volunteer management software helps volunteer organizations recruit, train, manage, and review the duties of volunteers. Most volunteer management software come with built-in tools such as Volunteer hours tracking that can help organizations process their overall data and help to improve operations and efficiency. They also help in creating schedules and communicating with volunteers, as well as provide a database for storing and sorting volunteer information, including age, skills, location, and duties of volunteers.

Features of Volunteer Management Software

Generally, most of the best volunteer management software have built-in features that are important to the work processes of volunteer organizations. They include:

  • Volunteer Recruitment

Volunteer organizations carry out periodic recruitment cycles to get volunteers to work on their projects. Volunteer management software comes with tools used to create and recreate recruitment campaigns. Managers can use such software to advertise volunteer opportunities while stating the criteria. They can also have qualified volunteers apply and monitor the recruitment and onboarding process. In the end, appropriate data can be generated to review the entire process.

  1. Volunteer Scheduling 

Volunteer management software comes with a volunteer scheduling app that supports the adequate management of volunteer responsibilities to avoid overbooking as well as a shortage of staff. Volunteer scheduling apps ensure efficient volunteer rotation and duty distribution throughout the organization.

  1. Communication

Volunteer organizations use this software to boost communication and coordinate activities throughout the organization. The best volunteer management software comes with tools to help organizations communicate with volunteers individually or as a group through emails, chats, and text messaging.

  1. Data gathering and capturing

This volunteer management software helps in capturing volunteer data as well as storing it after it has been organized. Data can be gathered by sending forms to volunteers who will fill them out and submit their details.

Managers can then use reporting tools to get valuable insights from the data that has been gathered. This tool can also help in the measurement of volunteer performance to ensure that the processes are successful and the goals are met. Data can be presented in written reports, graphs, or charts.

Benefits of Volunteer Management Software

Although there are many benefits of volunteer management software, we will focus on the three most important.

1. Improves Convenience 

This software improves convenience in managing volunteers. This is because it serves as the main hub for all activities within the organization. From recruitment to training, communication, scheduling, and even management, everything can be done within the software. These processes can even be carried out remotely at any time and from anywhere.

2. Simple Administrative Process

Thanks to the automated features that come with these software, administrative processes can be made easier because managers can automate a lot of tasks once the data is made available.

Automation reduces stress and also eliminates human error while ensuring that all important information is centralized and secure. This software complies with data protection laws when capturing, storing, and managing data.

3. Time and Cost Saving

Volunteer management software helps organizations save time and money because it takes up the duties of the manager and makes it faster and easier. Automation of tasks like scheduling and report-making saves a lot of time that can be channeled to other chores. Recruitment processes are also streamlined, making it more seamless and less expensive. Efficiency is also boosted through data gathering and storage.