As little as five years ago, most volunteer coordinators were managing their volunteers and events with nothing more than a spreadsheet. Sadly, many nonprofits still struggle with outdated volunteer management systems. Spreadsheets are powerful tools for managing budgets, but when it comes to coordinating events, volunteer hours and information, those unwieldy cells and rows can leave even the most savvy volunteer coordinators feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.
Even online sharable documents don’t give coordinators the ability to seamlessly communicate with volunteers, post open shifts or provide important, easy-to-read analytics.
VolunteerMark is a cloud-based volunteer management system that provides nonprofits a low-cost, easy-to-use solution to this problem. Online software provides many benefits that traditional desktop software programs simply can’t provide. Here are three simple but powerful reasons to dump the spreadsheets and invest in a cloud-based volunteer management system.
- Reduced IT costs
- No tedious system installations. Traditional software requires users to have minimum system requirements and manually install the software on their computers. Cloud-based software can be accessed in a matter of seconds by signing in through your browser.
- Access to automatic and immediate upgrades. Cloud-based software allows users access to system upgrades as soon as they’re implemented, so there’s no down time, ensuring that all your staff and volunteers have the most up-to-date tools and features.
- Flexibility
- Work when and where you want. With the rise of smartphones, most volunteers and staff no longer need a wifi connection to access the internet. Since VolunteerMark is managed on a remote server, you and your volunteers can sign-in anytime, anywhere.
- Onsite sign in for volunteers VolunteerMark’s Sign-In Kiosk app allows volunteers to easily sign in at any event using a mobile tablet. Event coordinators have instant access to their up-to-date volunteer roster from any location and can quickly cover shifts using the back up bot, which sends out an email to available volunteers. This feature saves time in trying to manually coordinate and share information via text and phone calls.
- Consistency
- Get everyone on the same page. Traditional, desktop-based software requires multiple, manual software updates. Making sure everyone on your staff is up-to-date can be a challenge. VolunteerMark provides extensive, up-to-date tutorials in our online Learning Center. Here, both staff and volunteers can easily access self-guided video tutorials to help with the onboarding process. In addition, there’s a content-rich FAQ page that can quickly answer most questions 24/7. And for those who’d like additional help, we provide 24/7 chat with experienced customer service agents.
Learn more about how a cloud-based volunteer management system can benefit your nonprofit by chatting with one of our client success staff members or scheduling a demo today!
