Written by Kasey Murphy

Volunteer Coordinator Resource Community Recap Dec 21 - Jan 4

Happy New Year! 2021 came for us, and hopefully, it will be a wonderful year for all nonprofit organizations and volunteer programs. 

With every new year, there is always a standard that there should be goals set and organizational projections for any organization. This is something that many volunteer coordinators like to do, but is it beneficial to set goals every new year? 

A Volunteer Coordinator had a question similar to this, but put a new spin on it as well. If you aren’t a fan of making specific goals for the new year, you could find something that you plan to focus on more instead of reaching a milestone! 

Volunteer Coordinator 2021 Goals 

Please comment your goals or focuses on this post, here. 

Here are some ideas! 

1. Analyze What Your Volunteers Want More Of in 2021 - You can conduct volunteer satisfaction surveys to analyze and conduct your own research specific to your program of incentives to work on in the new year. We even outline the process for you in this article!
   

2. Converting Short-Term Volunteers To Long-Term Volunteers - If you are looking for more dependable and reliable volunteers, start trying to find convertible volunteers that can be nurtured into long-term volunteers. We outline every step of this conversion in this article!
   

3. Volunteer Engagement & Incentivizing - Volunteer Engagement is a huge task and needs constant updating and attention. 2021 might be your year to step back and re-evaluate the way you engage your volunteers. Here are a few articles you can look into to support this idea!
   

4. Finding a Volunteer Management Software System - Volunteer Management Software can be quite overwhelming, but it is a great tool to use in your program. Take time to find the best volunteer software system for your organization. It will be so worth it! We have a full eBook on it here.
   

5. Converting To A Virtual Setting - If you have not fully converted your volunteer program to virtual, maybe 2021 can be about making your organization more virtual-friendly! Check out some advice on that here.
   

6. Creating an Interactive Volunteer Newsletter - When newsletters are created correctly, they can be a huge hit! Interactive Volunteer Newsletters help promote a social aspect for volunteers and increase engagement & retention. Here are some examples!
   

7. Applying For Grants - 2020 was a hard year, now more than ever your program might be needing extra financial help. Grants are the perfect solution, but the competition is tough. Use 2021 to focus on creating the best case for your volunteer program to get a grant!
   

8. Recruiting Volunteers - Volunteer recruitment is always a task that Volunteer Coordinators and Volunteer Managers focus on. 2021 might be the year that you become more creative with your recruitment methods.
   

9. Updating Your Contact List & Volunteer Lists - If you already use software to track volunteers, you might have a bit of a weird contact list right now. Some volunteers are active, some are completely gone, and others might be teetering back and forth between active and inactive status. We created an article on how to update your lists easily!
   

10. Updating Your Volunteer Handbook & Policies - It is good to update your volunteer roles & responsibilities, handbooks, and policies often. But also to make sure they are accurate completely - this takes some time. Follow this guide for assistance!

Volunteer Software & Volunteer Hour Logs 

We had two different posts about volunteer software and logging volunteer hours. We are linking these two together for this recap because there is plenty of volunteer software that include or focus on volunteer hour logs & volunteer time tracking - we are included! 

But, it is important to note that volunteer software is different for every organization and that many volunteer software programs that work well for one organization, might not work at all for others. 

We think that is exactly what this first poster had in mind, as it seems one of their 2021 goals was to not only find a volunteer software program but one that was a good fit for their organization. This is what comes from evaluating volunteer software options! 

To view all the comments on this post, click here. 

For example, some volunteer organizations might be interested in volunteer time tracking or creating hour logs for their volunteers and having a system to pull hour log data and reports from, while other organizations might want e-learning modules in their software. 

The next poster definitely was looking more for volunteer time tracking and hour logs! 

To view all of the comments, check out the full post here! 

We have a lot of resources available for those looking for volunteer management software, trying to compare volunteer software, or those specifically looking at volunteer time tracking and hour logs! 

Volunteer Management Software Resources 

• Are You Sure You Need A Volunteer Management System? Make Sure To Consider The Other Options First

Volunteer Software Comparison Resources 

• The Full 10 Steps To Comparing The Best Volunteer Management Systems - An Insider’s Perspective

• Dig Deeper When Comparing Volunteer Management Systems - We’ll Show You How

• How to choose the right type of volunteer software for your volunteer program

Volunteer Hour Log Resources 

• Can volunteer time tracking software actually get volunteers to track time?

• Track and Log Volunteer Hours via a Mobile App on iPhone or Android

• Online Tracking Systems for Volunteers and Volunteer Coordinators

• How to Create Volunteer Hour Timesheets For Efficient Volunteer Hour Logging

• Use Google Forms and Spreadsheets to Track Volunteer Time

Lastly, we received a general inquiry about volunteer programs, specifically those with mental health issues and youth! This community is a great place for questions like these, as well as the ones above. 

Answers From The Comments: 

• “Compeer- they match volunteers with children (and adults) with mental health problems. Volunteer becomes a friend to the child and they do activities together.”

• “Head Start has a behavioral health component to help Children, families and staff. It is a topic I offer training on so the volunteers have some insight on how to understand some of our students.”

• “For classes, I partner with our behavioral health department for an introduction to trauma informed care and I partner with chid protective services for a how to recognize and report child abuse. During the pandemic the classes are on zoom.”

• “We work with families. Youth and teen programs focus on communication and living with PTSD.”

• “I oversee the volunteers that work on a crisis hotline.”

If you would like to connect with any of the individuals that commented, go to the post here!