If your organization is like most others, resources are limited. In these situations, the key to efficiency is ensuring that each resource is used to its fullest potential. And, as we all know, one of the most important resources is time. This is especially true in volunteer management, since a volunteer's time is a gift and should never be taken for granted. To ensure you’re using volunteer time wisely, consider these three ideas to increase efficiency.

Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding (CATR) is supported through the tireless efforts of 150 volunteers, all of whom must be scheduled based on their availability and training levels. This monumental task motivated the CATR team to choose Volunteer Scheduler Pro to manage their volunteer scheduling.

For the people of Saint Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, observing Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament is a core part of practicing their faith. When they expanded Eucharistic Adoration, they discovered that Volunteer Scheduler Pro is ideal for Adoration scheduling, so they purchased it and never looked back.

Amid the daily task list of scheduling volunteers and running an organization, the importance of recognizing volunteers can get lost. But it’s foundational to the health of any organization to recognize their volunteers whenever possible. Foster a feeling of appreciation among your volunteers by recognizing them on these six occasions.

Volunteering has been known to improve health and increases happiness. But how happy are the volunteers at your organization? Do you know? If not, there’s no better time to find out than at the beginning of a new year. Create a volunteer satisfaction survey to learn volunteers’ happiness levels with everything from volunteer scheduling to communication with leadership at your organization.

A new year is approaching quickly! And with every new year comes an opportunity to re-evaluate organizational programs and structures to ensure you’re getting the most out of your volunteer scheduling and program. Here are 20 ideas that could become your volunteer management resolutions for 2019.

Managing the ebb and flow of work at a nonprofit theatre comes with its share of challenges, not least of which is volunteer scheduling. With over 200 volunteers and 13 annual shows — and each show with multiple performances! — Volunteer Scheduler Pro allows Bracken Davis at Theatrikos Theatre Company to manage the difficult task of scheduling and tracking volunteer hours in a fraction of the time it once took her to do it by hand.

What do you think of when you think of the nonprofit volunteer lifecycle? For many, recruitment and engagement are the first things that come to mind. However, to ensure volunteer schedules and programs are optimized and run smoothly, it’s important to consider volunteer transitions as well.

Whether you recruit, train, or schedule volunteers, anyone involved in volunteer management knows that getting new volunteers on board is difficult. So, what can you do to attract new volunteers? The answer is simple: create value. Consider some of the following ideas as you map out your recruitment efforts.

Rather than scanning through countless emails and crawling through spreadsheets, Carolee Helgesen, Volunteer Coordinator for the Eno River Association (ERA), has used Volunteer Scheduler Pro since 2012 to schedule over 500 volunteers for the Festival for the Eno in Durham, North Carolina each July.