The event is over – you made it! You are now left with your volunteer data: their information, the jobs that were completely filled, the shifts you couldn’t find anyone to cover, the number of families who volunteered together and so much more. How do you interpret this data and integrate the outcomes of your event into your consideration for best practices for next year?

There are so many ways to tackle this question and the important metrics will vary by organization and event. Here we’ll discuss one way to interpret data as it relates to volunteer data.

Identify Your Goals & Success Metrics

First, before you export any reports from your volunteer management system, determine what a successful event looks like for your organization. What are some things you want to be able to refer back to? It’s okay if it takes you a few events to nail down exactly what this looks like. Pro tip: collecting too much information is better than not collecting enough – you can always adjust down the road.

Save The Numbers

Okay, I get it – this might sound a little obvious, but after you identify what is important for you to know about your event results, assigning a quantitative value to each goal will allow you to compare to past and future events, create trends, and ultimately save you some guesswork before your next event. Again, these data points will vary based on your specific goals, but here are some we have found helpful:

1. Total number of event volunteers
2. Total number of volunteers per station
3. Total volunteer hours used

Track Your Volunteer Value & Return On Investment

Now that you have these data points, you can determine bigger picture value such as:

1. Monetary value of volunteer hours donated (number of volunteer hours multiplied by hourly wage of a paid employee)
2. Number of paid staff hours saved by volunteer coverage
3. Average revenue earned per volunteer hour worked

Project For The Next Event & Beyond

Event tallies can be useful on their own for trend tracking as well as big picture value. After a few events pass, you can use your tracked data points to project for future events and adjust volunteer recruitment as needed. Volunteer data not only reveals areas for growth, but also areas that are redundant or can use less emphasis in the future. Consider keeping track of 

1. Average number of volunteers per event

2. Average volunteer hours per event

3. Percent of volunteer hours over-projected or under-projected

4. Percent of event attendance growth per year

Data can seem overwhelming at first, but the beauty of data is in its versatility. The more you make it a habit of recording and reflecting on volunteer data, the easier it will get and the more useful it will be.