Last updated by Kasey Murphy on 10/07/2021

Volunteer Requirements are an important part of some volunteer programs. Setting volunteer requirements allows a metric to analyze to track progress for each individual volunteer. You can also create volunteer motivation tactics accordingly to how far volunteers are progressing towards their volunteer requirements.

If you arent interested in setting a volunteer requirement because you feel volunteers should be motivated by external factors, you could set a volunteer goal instead! 

A volunteer requirement or volunteer goal is usually a number of volunteer hours that a volunteer coordinator or volunteer manager sets for their volunteers to complete. The amount of hours can be calculated by the amount of hours you wish volunteers complete weekly, monthly, or yearly! 

If you are setting a volunteer requirement, it should be the bare minimum that you would expect a volunteer to commit. If you are setting a volunteer goal, it might be a total that would be a bit of a stretch or a bit of something that not all of your volunteers can easily attain without some hard work.

But, if your organization is going to set a volunteer requirement or a volunteer goal - they also should be tracking them! 

Tracking Volunteer Requirements Has Multiple Benefits 

When you track volunteers, you can personalize volunteer motivation and appreciation tactics, as well as understand the value of your volunteers. 

The same is for tracking volunteer requirements! 

Tracking volunteer requirements allows for constant progress with your volunteer’s efforts to be monitored. And, if you track multiple different volunteer requirements or goals, you can see which efforts volunteers prefer to do, and even analyze more about which ones you might need to make more attractive to volunteers! 

How To Track Volunteer Requirements

Using a system like Track It Forward, tracking volunteers and volunteer requirements or goals is easy. Track It Forward calls it milestones. 

On Track It Forward, all volunteers have an account, where their volunteer hours get stored. If you have milestones set up, these volunteer hours will be counted towards their total requirement progress. 

Then, as an administrator, you can see each individual volunteer’s progress towards their volunteer requirement or goals. And, you can also see all volunteer progress towards volunteer requirements together to view your volunteer program progress towards requirements as a whole. 

If you have multiple milestones, or multiple volunteer requirements and goals you wish to set- you can do that too! For example, if you want your volunteers to do 60 volunteer hours total, but 20 of them have to be at-home and 20 of them have to be fundraising - you can set this up! 

If you are looking into setting up volunteer requirements and goals - Track It Forward is your go-to! You can track volunteer requirements and goals for volunteer hours, and for other things, too!