2020 In Review: Looking Back & Looking Ahead

So that’s it, that’s a wrap on 2020.

This year was unexpected to say the least. The world was met with challenges and turbulence that tested our strength, perseverance, and community bonds. Looking back on this year with reflection, we’d like to shed one small light on things that went well and moments that gave us spirit.

You Rose to the Challenge

In 2020, we watched organizations extend their budgets, services, and/or of-the-moment missions to take care of their communities. Even while events were cancelled and volunteers were temporarily asked to stay home, organization leaders continued working toward the health and safety of their communities.

Facilities turned into food delivery pick up points and screening centers. Virtual volunteering opportunities quickly scaled to a “new normal”, as we all found ways to put ourselves and our resources to good use.

It was an honor to work with you all this year.

Strides Forward Together

Just a few months into the year, the team at VolunteerLocal began following your lead. We retired our preconceived plans for the year and leaned in to honest conversations with clients like you.

As needs changed in 2020, you told us exactly how. New feature requests surged this year as events rescheduled and nonprofit programs reassessed their needs and impacts.

As a result, new features were quickly introduced to our development road map, including: postponed event settings, no-contact check in, volunteer self-reported hours, volunteer qualifications, COVID-19 notices, and more.

We’re committed to continue rising to the occasion with you, building the technology you need to do your job well.


Postponed event settings: Whether your event/program has been cancelled or rescheduled, VolunteerLocal can help you navigate those changes.

If volunteers were already registered for shifts prior to cancelling or rescheduling, head over to: Events -> Your Events -> Event Detail. Scroll to “Volunteer Profile Options”. Enter any text you like to the textbox, in order to inform and remind volunteers of the news. Finally, uncheck the box labeled “Display shift detail and demographic information on the volunteer profile page”. That way, volunteers will no longer see the shifts they had been registered for, so you do not need to remove each volunteer from each shift.

When you’re ready to launch your rescheduled event, setup will be speedy. Simply copy your old event, scheduling it for the new date. You’ll have the option to copy over as many or few details as you like: jobs, shifts, volunteers, confirmation settings, etc.

No-contact check-in: Keep volunteers busy, track their hours, and avoid contact with shared surfaces.

At the start of the year, VolunteerLocal introduced the Check-In Kiosk, which allows volunteers to quickly check themselves in and out on-site.

A few months into the year, we shared techniques to make that process contact-less. First and foremost, if you continue to use a check in kiosk on-site, we recommend disinfecting the surface after each use. As an alternative, you can share the Kiosk URL and code to allow volunteers to check in and out from their own devices. (Checking in and out is also possible by downloading the free mobile app.)

Volunteer Self-Reported Hours: With virtual volunteering on the rise, volunteers may now report their hours via their volunteer profile, anywhere with internet connection.

On the volunteer profile, volunteers may self-report the job they performed, the date, and the hours worked. These self-reported hours are available for admins to review, edit, approve, or deny.

Volunteer Qualifications: This feature ensures that only qualified volunteers are able to view and sign up for certain jobs. Volunteers without those qualifications would not be able to view or sign up for those jobs.

This feature can be used for a variety of purposes, even regardless of the pandemic. However, we began to see organizations using this feature creatively, as a way to categorize volunteers into groups based on their COVID-19 risk factors. (For example: qualifying volunteers based on their age group.) This better protected volunteers from unknowingly signing up for jobs that would put them at higher risk of infection.

COVID-19 Notices: As the months go on and COVID-19 familiarity (or fatigue) sets in, it is important to regularly remind volunteers of organization-wide safety protocols. As a result, we added a new option to the “Disclaimer” feature in VolunteerLocal.

Now, organizations can require volunteers to read and sign the COVID-19 notice every time they sign up for a shift. (Please note: we do not provide the content for this notice, as it will likely be different for each organization.)


The Year Ahead

Although there are likely more surprises in store for us in 2021, surely we will all face them with more readiness than before.

In regard to the technology you use to perform your daily jobs and duties, continue to consider VolunteerLocal as a partner in these efforts. Reach out to us anytime for support, solutioning, or even feature requests.

We’ve got exciting announcements in store for the year ahead, and we can’t wait to share them with you all. If you’d like to be one of the first to know, reach out to us anytime and we’ll add you and your colleagues to our newsletter.

Wishing a happy, healthy New Year from our team to yours. See you all in the New Year.

Warmly,

Isabel & VolunteerLocal Team

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Your Needs Unmet – How to Meet Them with VolunteerLocal

Before I started blogging for VolunteerLocal, I started using VolunteerLocal. At first, I was working at a small nonprofit that occasionally hosted little volunteer opportunities. I used the free version of the platform, and it helped me manage my little signups simply. When I moved to a role at a University became responsible for events that necessitated hundreds of volunteers, I knew exactly which platform I wanted to use to protect my sanity and make signing up a breeze for the volunteers. (Any guesses?) That’s right: I created a new VolunteerLocal account and upgraded to a paid version of the platform that I continue to build into my annual budget at work.

The VolunteerLocal platform meets my (every-evolving) needs year after year, and it will meet yours if you:  

 

 

Need an easy way for volunteers to sign up for specific shifts and jobs. Volunteers love not having to create a log-in with a password they will constantly forget. With VolunteerLocal, they can sign up using whatever e-mail address is most convenient for them, and they receive a confirmation message automatically. Volunteers (and volunteer managers) can see exactly how many spots are open for any given shift and job. 

 

 

Need a dashboard to track your progress. Customize your VolunteerLocal login so you can get a quick snapshot of how many shifts remain open, how many are filled and how many unique and overall volunteers you have participating in your event. It even gives you a countdown of days until the event, if you want! This is a great motivator or nerve-calmer, depending on how recruitment is going. 

 

 

Need to collect volunteer T-shirt sizes. No need to guess at sizes for volunteers and accidentally over-order a batch of XXLs. The ability to customize signup information eliminates the need to track down volunteers and individually request their size, mobile phone number, or any specialized info that you need, like whether they’re with a certain company or over the age of 13. You can build it all in, and keep it constant or change it up and make it unique for any event.  

 

 

Need an easy way to communicate with volunteers. Paid VolunteerLocal accounts allow you to send mass messages through the platform to your whole volunteer team, or customize instructions and follow-up per job. 

Need an easy way for volunteers to cancel their shifts. If you don’t want to deal with e-mails and voicemail excuses, you can allow volunteers to cancel or swap shifts. Or, if you’re like me, you can turn that function off. Social sharing is also an option, if you want your volunteers to be able to tweet out or post to Facebook about their shifts and help you with your marketing efforts. 

Need a simple day-of sign in. You can easily export your volunteer lists and data as a spreadsheet. Again, you can so this en masse for the whole group, or export batches for specific job sign-ins. You can also use the platform to check in volunteers electronically on the Grow Plan.  

Need a way to store your annual volunteer data. I like to archive my events in VolunteerLocal after they’ve happened, and then at the end of the year, I take them out of archive and collectively export the data to get a big picture of who has volunteered and how often/long. I’ll also pull a past event out of archive if I want to make volunteer staffing plans based on the previous year’s successes and challenges. 

 

 

Need other people to be able to manage different events. With various paid VolunteerLocal accounts, you can have multiple administrators who can access only the events and information you give them permission to control. This is great if you’re working with student clubs and want to give access to student leaders, but only for the organizations they oversee. 

 

 

Need an assistant. What volunteer coordinator wouldn’t like an assistant to help with busywork and data? VolunteerLocal is like a virtual assistant that can pull reports for you faster than you can grab yourself a cup of coffee. Plus, it never takes a vacation day! 

 

 

Need to talk to a person if you’re stuck. VolunteerLocal has amazing customer service. They have been a phone call or e-mail away when I’ve had rare issues, and give me pointers on shortcuts and tricks that make using the platform even more fun.

 

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Why Volunteer Name Tags Totally Rock

Investing in nametags is a great way for volunteer managers to build relationships and stay organized. As Dale Carnegie of How to Win Friends and Influence People fame once said,

“A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”

But creating volunteer nametags might rank near dead last of to-do list tasks that a busy coordinator wants to take on. Nametags can be drama: lanyards or sticker tags? Do the tags go into the printer face-down or up? Who has time to alphabetize, anyway?


I’ve got a blank space baby…And I’ll write your name.

First, decide what kind of nametags work best for your event. If you want volunteers at a large event to look like they have authority, lanyard nametags could be the way to go. Lanyards can be pricey, but with an effective check-in and check-out system, you may be able to re-use them. Some volunteers love to collect snazzy branded event lanyards as a souvenir, if that’s in the budget. Classic sticky label nametags are a convenient choice. Use a mail-merge feature to pre-print batches of names and logos or other information on the tags. If you’re running a home building construction site, though, sticky won’t be the way to go. Consider designing a nametag area into the volunteer T-shirt so volunteers can DIY with permanent markers, no sweat. Engraved pin or magnetic nametags are a meaningful recognition gift for super-volunteers who put in lots of hours each year.

Say my name, say my name.

You’ve invested energy designing and organizing your nametags, so make sure to put them to use and actually call volunteers by their names when you offer them direction or praise them for a job well done. If you notice Sue is amazing at event setup but Rick should never be allowed to hold a roll of tape again, it’s a lot easier to make sly notes for future assignments than to have to ask around to find out the name of the guy who put up all of the crooked signs.

Hi! My name is (what?)…My name is (who?)…

Nametags aren’t just for your convenience as a volunteer manager, though. It’s helpful for a group of volunteers who are working a long shift together to have a backup after initial introductions go in one ear and out the other. If your volunteers are facing attendees or working with participants, nametags help you get better feedback on who was helpful or who might be lacking in customer service skills.

Don’t get rickrolled by unidentifiable volunteers. Build time into your planning schedule to create and organize nametags – and rock on. [And, ahem, VolunteerLocal offers a nametag feature as part of the Conquer Plan to help you save time on this pesky but practical task.]

 

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VolunteerLocal’s Dashing New Dashboard!

There’s a saying that goes, “Your home(screen) is where your heart is.” Or something like that.

We are thrilled to announce that VolunteerLocal has a dashing new dashboard! You can now customize your homepage to your organization’s desire.

To get started, go to your dashboard and select the link to customize it. By choosing an event, you can pick what data points you would like to publish. Want a countdown for your big event? Need to see the number of filled shifts? Interested in watching your number of registered unique volunteers grow? Simply drag and drop each component into your event, and voila!

 

VolunteerLocal Dashboard

 

Keep your content customized and relevant. Got questions? Shoot Lucy an email at lucy@volunteerlocal.com. Happy dashboarding!

 

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