We have clients who've spent years hosting events .... nearly identical events. I've worked with many this year and observed the impact of very different volunteer data collection process.
Is this Organization getting good ROI on their Volunteer database?
I ask this question often and compare best practices. The below clients and examples are real. As you read, ask "Is my organization getting a good return on investment?
Scenario A: One client consistently builds event volunteer sites tracking contact, activities and background checks. They (like many clients) have staff turnover but the focus on quality data collection is consistent for small, medium, large and extra large events. The client regularly uploads lists of large corporate and partner groups. They prompt volunteers to update their accounts when scheduling for a new event. And they update user status if a volunteer is a youth or inactive. They send notes (and texts) showing appreciation.
Outcome: Client A has built a community of volunteers. The focus on keeping information updated also means that the staff know the volunteers by name (plus work, friends, family) and are able to recognize volunteers for their complete volunteer record. As Client A reaches out to their volunteers to participate in a new event, volunteer for a partner organization or become members (or donors), it is a friendly outreach from an organization that has built trust. Client A is ready to activate a community of volunteers for every large event.
Scenario B: The "other" client is sporadic. They build sites and track only when they have large events. We work with a different volunteer manager on each event, again not uncommon. But there is no consistency in Client B's online volunteer presentation, data collection questions .... in anything they are doing. They start from scratch on every large event.
Outcome: Client B has not built a community of volunteers. They don't know their volunteers and quite frankly their volunteers don't know them ... I don't mean just the volunteer manager, I mean the entire organization ... they haven't built a relationship. Now Client B wants to reach out for donations .... they have some contacts (many out-of-date) but no relationship on which to build. And Client B has a very large event coming so now they will have to recruit a database of unproven volunteers to vet rather than building on a team of proven volunteers.
Sadly Client B represents more than one client who could be getting a much better ROI. Can we help you grow your investment?
Reach out to the myTRS team if you need guidance! We are here to help.
