From Onboarding to Recognition: Using Salesforce for Volunteer Management
Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization, dedicating their time, skills, and passion to support important causes. Effectively managing volunteers is crucial for ensuring their engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Salesforce, with its powerful capabilities, offers a comprehensive solution for managing every aspect of the volunteer lifecycle, from onboarding to recognition. In this blog, we'll explore how nonprofits can leverage Salesforce to streamline volunteer management and maximize impact.
Onboarding Volunteers:
The onboarding process sets the tone for volunteers' experiences with an organization. With Salesforce, nonprofits can create automated workflows to streamline the onboarding process, ensuring that volunteers receive the necessary training, resources, and orientation. Customized Salesforce forms can collect essential information from volunteers, such as skills, availability, and interests, enabling organizations to match volunteers with opportunities that align with their strengths and preferences.
Example automations to consider:
Auto-create task reminders on the volunteer’s Contact record for each step of the onboarding process
Creating email templates for onboarding including welcoming language, links or attachments to paperwork, links to available various opportunities
Create automated email reminders for outstanding information needed based on the values of a specific field (ex: checkboxes when information is received and date fields with due dates listed)
Use Salesforce Topics to track volunteer interests like “data entry, mailings, events, client work,” etc.
Track the volunteer pipeline by stage (ex: interested, paperwork submitted, orientation complete, completed first assignment, etc.)
Volunteer Coordination and Scheduling:
Volunteer Job Record
Coordinating volunteers and scheduling activities can be complex, especially for organizations with large volunteer pools. Salesforce offers robust scheduling tools and calendar integrations that enable nonprofits to manage volunteer shifts, track availability, and assign tasks efficiently. By centralizing scheduling within Salesforce, organizations can avoid double-bookings, ensure adequate coverage for events and projects, and communicate seamlessly with volunteers.
List of Volunteer Shifts for the above Job
The Volunteers for Salesforce app is a FREE integration that lives natively in your Salesforce org. The app allows you to create evergreen Jobs (ex: front desk coverage, gardening, year-end appeal mailing support, etc.). Then, you can create shifts - either one at a time or recurring (ex: front desk coverage every Tuesday from 4 – 6 pm, etc.).
Once your jobs and shifts have been created, you can add the information to your website and volunteers can sign up online. With a good integration and/or automation, data can be synced from volunteers signing up on the website directly into Salesforce. This allows for real-time updates on how many spots are still available for each job/shift.
Communication and Engagement:
Effective communication is essential for keeping volunteers informed, engaged, and motivated. Salesforce provides various communication tools, including email templates, newsletters, and mobile apps, that enable nonprofits to stay connected with volunteers and provide timely updates on opportunities, events, and impact. Additionally, Salesforce Communities empower volunteers to collaborate, share resources, and participate in discussions, fostering a sense of community and belonging.
Additionally, staff can use the Salesforce mobile app to check-in volunteers when they arrive to their job/shift, if someone cancelled, and also sign up new volunteers from wherever they’re volunteering. Keeping the FREE mobile app that’s connected to your Salesforce org on hand means avoiding duplicate work when your volunteer coordinators get back to the office.
Tracking Volunteer Impact:
Measuring the impact of volunteers is critical for demonstrating value to stakeholders and optimizing volunteer programs. Salesforce offers robust reporting and analytics capabilities that enable nonprofits to track volunteer hours, activities, and outcomes. By capturing data on volunteer contributions and impact, organizations can identify trends, assess program effectiveness, and make data-driven decisions to enhance volunteer engagement and retention.
Once a volunteer is added to a Job/Shift, the volunteer coordinator can mark them as showed or cancelled. This allows for excellent reporting on number of hours donated for any gift Job/Shift, as well as throughout the entire year. Having a snapshot of how many hours one specific volunteer has donated and how many hours were donated to the organization is great for demonstrating impact and identifying those volunteers that go above and beyond.
Example of one volunteer that has been added to a Shift
Recognition and Appreciation:
Recognizing and appreciating volunteers for their contributions is essential for fostering a positive volunteer experience and building long-term relationships. Salesforce enables nonprofits to automate and personalize recognition efforts, such as sending thank-you emails, issuing certificates, or highlighting volunteers' achievements on social media. By showing gratitude and acknowledging volunteers' efforts, organizations can inspire loyalty, boost morale, and cultivate a culture of appreciation.
In conclusion, Salesforce offers a comprehensive solution for managing every aspect of the volunteer lifecycle, from onboarding to recognition. If your organization is utilizing Salesforce for other departments/functions, why not leverage the free Volunteer management tool and add one more layer to the 365-degree view of your supporters?