Rotunda Software

The verdict is in: non-profit organizations love the latest update to Volunteer Scheduler Pro! Feedback from users about last month’s release is that VSP 3.6 makes it easier than ever for large organizations to build community and retain volunteers using volunteer scheduling software.

VSP 3.6 empowers non-profits with more ways to engage their volunteer base. One of the new features generating the most buzz among schedulers is Shift Leaders: a whole new way to grant special online privileges to individuals who are in charge of a job or shift. It’s never been easier for your leaders to easily connect with and engage the volunteers they oversee. Check out a video tutorial of the Shift Leaders feature, visit our website for an overview of all the major additions to VSP, or check out some of the frequently asked questions about VSP 3.6.

The new features were inspired by VSP’s mission of helping nonprofits leverage and increase volunteerism through effective scheduling. VSP 3.6 is available free to all subscribers.  Interested in learning more? Leave a comment or get in touch today!

Non-profits come in all shapes and sizes – and each has its own unique scheduling challenges. For the Mission Inn Foundation in Riverside, California, scheduling 1,365 volunteer hours over the Christmas season was an extremely daunting task.

And the Mission Inn Foundation handled it with ease thanks to scheduling software. They were so impressed with how helpful Volunteer Scheduler Pro proved during the busy holiday season that Paul Bricker of the Mission Inn Foundation awarded VSP the “Overly Efficient Award.” The Foundation gives tours of the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, California, and according to Paul, “Without VSP we would have been hard pressed to manage the scheduling of the docents and Museum Desk personnel during this hectic and dynamic period.” During the Foundation’s annual Festival of Lights this year, volunteer docents gave tours to over 8,200 people!

“I would like to add my appreciation for the help that is always cheerfully provided by the team at Rotunda Software,” said Paul. “You have been great to work with and consistently reaffirm that we made the right choice when we selected VSP for our scheduling package.” We want to thank you too, Paul, for bringing history to life for your visitors and providing a wonderful service to your community!

When it comes to volunteer scheduling, most people do it the way it has always been done. But every once in a while it’s worth stepping back and looking at what your organization needs before starting to schedule. You’ll be glad you did.

The most common approach to volunteer scheduling is the self sign-up model. The self sign-up model works well if your volunteer opportunities change frequently and you want volunteers to sign up on the fly. It’s also a popular method for event scheduling. You can streamline the process of filling shifts by letting your volunteers enroll and select shifts online.

But if your organization has ongoing volunteer opportunities that need to be filled on a monthly, weekly or daily basis, using a self sign-up model can feel like banging your head against the wall as you repeatedly struggle to fill shifts. Do you find yourself asking existing volunteers to sign up for more shifts? Do you feel like you’re on a never ending volunteer recruitment mission? If you answered yes to either of these, you’re diverting your time and energy from the real reason you got involved with the organization.

If this sounds all too familiar, consider using a rotational model. Rotational volunteer scheduling is much more effective at getting all your shifts filled with minimal begging and pleading. Rotational scheduling gets volunteers to commit to your organization. These rotational assignments can be fixed (i.e. once a month; every other week) or they can be based on each volunteer’s availability (i.e. schedule me Monday or Friday afternoon between 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm but never more than once a week).

And don’t worry about remembering any of it! Volunteer scheduling software exists to streamline all this information and let your volunteers update it themselves as it changes. By assigning volunteers on a rotational model, people volunteer more frequently, more shifts get filled without all the phone calls and you can avoid volunteer burnout by not overly relying on the same volunteers.

So before it’s time to create the next schedule, spend a few moments thinking about what your organization needs. Doing so could save you time and frustration while also getting volunteers more actively involved.

Volunteering is a thriving business. Yes, that’s right. A business. It’s estimated that 62.8 million adults volunteered more than 8.1 million hours in 2010. That’s a service valued at almost $173 billion. Here are a few tips to tap into the volunteer fund:

• Use Social Media: Publicizing your event on Facebook and Twitter gets your organization in front of volunteers who may not find you via traditional methods. Expand your social network and publicize your volunteer opportunities. It’s a powerful combination.
• Invest in Volunteer Scheduling Software: Capturing volunteer interest is critical when building your volunteer base. Scheduling software is a quick and affordable way to equip your organization with volunteer-friendly tools like online sign up, email reminders, and 24/7 access to volunteer opportunities.
• Make it Fun: Recent studies show that more people are volunteering for the social aspect. In order to keep your volunteers coming back, make sure that they know their work is appreciated and that they have fun while doing it.
• Make it a Match: Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishment. Make sure every volunteer experience is a successful one by matching volunteers with opportunities that meet their skill set. Doing so will make your job easier and will result in happier volunteers.

Have you had success in capturing and retaining volunteers? Share what’s working for you and help others tap into the volunteer fund.

By David Beck, Rotunda Software

Most people look for ministry scheduling software because they either think that they spend too much time scheduling, or because their volunteers are frustrated about scheduling conflicts. Clearly, as a church grows, scheduling the volunteers or ministers that help with services or masses gets difficult very quickly. You have to be careful to prevent conflicts, to make sure everybody gets a fair chance to serve, often to keep families serving together across ministries, along with a slew of other complicated considerations. Ministry scheduling software helps people address all those intricate scheduling needs and put together a schedule that is free of conflicts much more quickly and easily than it can be done by hand or with Excel.

But the neat part is that after a system is implemented, people discover that effective ministry scheduling not only saves time and frustration, but it also improves the experience of every single church member and helps a church achieve its fundamental goals.

First of all, effective scheduling software helps you get your overall scheduling model right. If you’re not scheduling a couple months at a time, and instead letting volunteers sign themselves up or opt-in when you call them or send them emails, then your missing out on a huge growth opportunity. All ministries require a commitment, and that commitment should be reflected in the way scheduling is done. You should be making schedules in one to three month cycles.

With cyclical scheduling, you ask your volunteers ahead of time, “Okay, we’re making the schedule for the next three months. What are your preferences? What services or masses do you want to serve at? Which ones don’t you want to serve at? Are there any dates you’ll be out of town?” Your volunteers submit all their preferences, ideally over the web, and then you make the schedule according to their needs.

And there it is! It’s going to be exactly how they set it up. They’re committed. They have their schedule, it’s what they asked for, and they are going to get reminders as the dates approach. There is commitment and accountability, and the reminders ensure there are no excuses, so no-shows go down dramatically.

And for when volunteers can’t make their dates, and this is important, because conflicts will come up, you’ve got to give them an easy way to find a sub. You’ve got to give them an easy way to say “Hey guy’s, something’s come up and I can’t make it this weekend. Could you please help me out?” If you make that easy, then you take away the fear of commitment. And as people who may not have even met before cover for each other and help each other out, you build the team mentality that is so fundamental to the success of a ministry.

All these factors work together, and at the end of they day volunteers are committed and accountable for schedule that works well for them, and they feel like they are part of a team, and as a result more people get and stay involved. And we all know that when ministry participation increases the whole church benefits and grows.

So even though people look for scheduling software as a way to save time and frustration, what they find is that their church benefits from their efforts in ways they were never expecting. That’s the best thing about effective ministry scheduling!

A friend once told me that volunteer scheduling is both a blessing and a curse.  The longer I schedule volunteers, the more I believe her.  Volunteer scheduling is an exciting opportunity because it gives you a chance to network with your organization’s most enthusiastic supporters – after all, you have to be pretty dedicated to work for free.  On the other hand, the tedious and time consuming task of sorting through people’s schedules and the organization’s needs can be draining.

The good news is that getting a schedule out that covers your organization’s needs and pleases your volunteers doesn’t have to be an agonizing experience.  Quite to the contrary.  Volunteer scheduling software exists to make sure that you avoid micromanaging your volunteer base while still effectively communicating with your volunteers.   More importantly, volunteer scheduling software can increase participation by making the volunteer process fun and free up your time to focus your energy on more productive tasks.

When looking for volunteer scheduling tools, make sure whichever tool you decide on is capable of allowing your volunteers to participate in the most efficient way possible.  Many organizations have found that by changing their scheduling model, they can increase participation and retention of their volunteers.   Many organizations start off using a self sign-up model (either online or via email).  After reflecting on what’s not working and what their goals are, they realize that a self sign-up model isn’t in their best interest.  It isn’t effective at making sure all the shifts get covered and it can lead to many inactive volunteers – since many people sign up to volunteer but never take the step of placing themselves on the scheduled (sound familiar?).  By taking a more proactive approach to volunteer scheduling, you can engage your volunteers and have them commit to participating more frequently.  Each organization will need a little different approach to volunteer scheduling.  However, by revisiting your approach to scheduling, you may find you can save time, increase participation and make volunteering fun!  Again, as you search for and implement a volunteer scheduling software, make sure it’s going to help you implement your preferred scheduling style.

Was this information helpful?  Please let us know how you go about volunteer scheduling and what works for you.