How to Use Volunteer Software

Your job as a volunteer recruiter is made a lot simpler with specialized software. Volunteer software helps with tasks like donor tracking, personnel schedules and mailing lists that would normally take hours to complete. You need to balance convenience, price and daily volunteer work as you look for and learn to use volunteer software.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Check the computer operating system requirements before using volunteer software. A lack of options for your office's operating system will require costly updates.
2. Learn the level of technical support provided by a volunteer software company before purchase. The price of purchasing software must cover day-to-day operations as well as emergency service for computer and network problems.
3. Purchase enough software licenses to use volunteer software in your office legally. You will need enough licenses to run software on staff computers, as well as a public computer for volunteers.
4. Conduct a series of training sessions to teach volunteers how to use new software. Every volunteer should attend a basic software session, with team leaders and staff members learning the intricacies of software in advanced sessions.
5. Free your volunteers from the constraints of board meetings and phone calls when you use volunteer collaboration software. A software package from OpenTeams helps your staff lay out directives for the organization while allowing virtual input from volunteers (see Resources below).
6. Enforce volunteer schedules with the assistance of sign-in software. A sign-in program like Volunteer Software assigns a PIN to each volunteer which acts as an electronic time card for busy offices (see Resources below).
7. Insert donor, volunteer and media contact information into a single database for use by your volunteer corps. Your software should feature an expansive database that has an easy-to-use interface for volunteers and workers who lack technical experience.
8. Attach an access point on your organization's website for volunteers who want to use office software. Newer software packages designed for non-profit organizations allow telecommuting and virtual access for volunteers with passwords.
9. Locate volunteer software with plenty of templates and customization options for your publications. You can cut down on software costs by finding a suite that allows newsletter, web content and booklet publishing.

Tips & Warnings

• Sample dozens of volunteer software demos before you select a product for your office. You can place demos on your office's computers to allow volunteers and staff members the opportunity to test out volunteer software. Keep these demos on a master disc for reference during volunteer software updates in the future.