If you’re responsible for managing volunteers for a nonprofit organization, you know first hand just how difficult it can be to recruit and retain volunteers all while juggling responsibilities like keeping track of volunteer hours, coordinating volunteers for events, and finding ways to effectively communicate with volunteers.

Fortunately, there are volunteer management tools that can remove the hassle of volunteer management, making it easy to organize, schedule, track, and engage your volunteers. 

Nowadays, there is an app for everything, including volunteer management.

When most people think about volunteer apps, they picture consumer facing volunteering apps, like Golden or JustServe, or PointApp which match volunteers with service opportunities based on their interests and location. While these apps are great for helping volunteers connect with different organizations, they are not the only beneficial apps in the volunteer space.

There are also volunteer management apps that can help improve your management flow by making it easy to handle each and every step in the volunteer management process. Instead of using your limited time, energy, and resources to come up with tedious systems to help you coordinate your volunteers, you should consider using a mobile solution by trying a volunteer management app.

The benefits of volunteer management apps

Utilizing an app to handle your volunteer management tasks will make your job far more efficient and effective.

Here are a few of the advantages of using a mobile solution for your management needs:

  1. Instant Feedback
  2. Increased Engagement
  3. Improved Communication
  4. Increased Organization
  5. Improved Volunteer Relationships

Instant feedback

While post-event surveys are always useful, you do not want to wait until long after an event is over to realize that there were volunteer issues that could have been resolved or addressed sooner. Worse yet is having a volunteer reach out about an issue when the snag could have been caught in a quick mobile feedback form immediately following a volunteering event. 

Using an app to communicate and solicit information from your volunteers provides you with instantaneous data and feedback you can use to improve your volunteer management practices and make sure your volunteers feel safe, informed, and heard.

Increased engagement

Mobile apps can make tedious tasks like reporting volunteer hours more efficient and fun for your volunteers. From providing them with leaderboards so they can engage in friendly competition to sending reminders before and after an event, these apps provide tools that will keep you from having to chase down your volunteers to collect critical information for your volunteer reports.

Improved communication

Volunteer management apps allow you to send push notifications, emails, and other messages to your volunteers in an instant. 

These apps make it easy to segment your volunteer lists so that you are only sending relevant information, and they help ensure that your volunteers are able to receive important information at a moment’s notice.

On average, Americans check their phones 344 times a day, but they only check their email about 15 times a day.

If you want a better chance of reaching your volunteers quickly, a mobile solution is a must.

Increased organization

While even the most organized of us have misplaced an important document or two at some point in our lives, this is not a risk we want to take when organizing volunteers.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. Misplacing a background check, a signed document detailing volunteer hours, or the volunteer schedule for an upcoming event can present major problems. The risk of misplacing these critical documents decreases significantly when they are compiled and stored within a mobile app and a mobile platform. An app enables you to instantly prompt volunteers to fill out their waivers and questionnaires as they register for their shift so you can rest easy knowing they are legally qualified to come to your event and that you have all the information you need. 

Volunteer scheduling, shift creation, and event details can create a plethora of unnecessary headaches. It’s a lot of things to keep track of. A mobile volunteer management app allows you to view and edit your organization’s upcoming event schedule on the go including critical details like date, time, event name, and location. Use an app to check registrations directly from your event and check volunteers in and out ensuring accurate hour tracking. 

You can eliminate schedule confusion by organizing and editing the schedule in real time for your volunteers instead of using outdated paper systems that don’t allow for important changes and easy sharing.

Mobile apps also make it easy for volunteers to know exactly when to arrive to their shifts and when to leave their shifts, making sure that you never have any gaps at an event where there aren’t volunteers present for various roles. 

Improved volunteer relationships

One of the best ways to retain volunteers is to let them know that they are valued and appreciated. Volunteering doesn’t have to be a thankless job. In fact, the more you show your gratitude, the better your volunteers will feel about their experience working with your nonprofit. 

Volunteer management apps come in handy because they make it easy for people in volunteer management positions to push out thank you texts and emails for volunteers without any headache or hassle. Ideally, apps allow you to craft customized messages to individual volunteers about an event or shift improving both organization and volunteer relationships. 

The best volunteer management apps of 2022

As you can see, using a volunteer management app or a volunteer platform that has mobile capabilities can be transformative for your volunteer program. 

Here are a few of the top volunteer management apps you can use at your nonprofit:

Civic Champs

CivicChamps allows volunteer managers to save time and energy by seamlessly tracking volunteer hours.

Usability

This app has received a 4.7/5 on the App Store with many users lauding the app’s functionality, user interface, and positive user experience.

Strengths

This app uses the phone’s location to automatically detect when a volunteer has arrived at an event, allowing them to seamlessly track their hours with  impressive accuracy with a press of a button. There are also additional features to make volunteer check-in and hour reporting a breeze for admins. The Civic Champs mobile app allows admins to use their unique geofence technology to create volunteer opportunities that exist indefinitely and also enables Admins to view event schedules, shifts, and message volunteers directly from the app. 

Considerations 

This app is a solution for accurate hour tracking, so it is best for users who are mainly seeking a solution for volunteer hour reporting.

Learn more about CivicChamps and our volunteer management services when you visit our website.

Get Connected

Get Connected is a volunteer management software solution that offers a free volunteer management app for improved volunteer management, engagement, communication, and reporting.

Usability

This app is available for both iPhone and Android, and it has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for volunteers and volunteer managers to utilize its features.

Strengths

This app includes automatic volunteer hour tracking, volunteer scheduling reminders, easy event check in and check out for volunteers, and personalized dashboards for volunteers. There are also promotional tools that will allow you to advertise events and recruit more volunteers. 

Considerations

To get the most out of this mobile app, you will have to use the Get Connected software, so if you don’t want to integrate their solution, you may want to consider a different app.

Voluntime

Voluntime is a free volunteer hour tracking service that helps nonprofits develop accurate impact reports without having to fumble around with spreadsheets and time consuming documentation.

Usability

This app was designed for iPad users, and users report that this app is easy to use with the exception of editing hours for past events.

Strengths

This app is completely free to use, provides hour tracking, allows admin to approve or deny hour logs, and has features to export volunteer hours with ease.

Considerations

This app is only for volunteer hour tracking. If you want other volunteer management features, you might consider using a different app.

InitLive

InitLive gives volunteer managers the tools they need to make their volunteer programs a success.

Usability

This app has 4.3/5 rating on the App Store with high praise for the app’s features, but some concerns about the app’s functionality.

Strengths

This mobile app is free, and it offers mobile volunteer shift sign up, volunteer hour tracking, automated notifications for shift reminders and important messages, segmented volunteer lists, volunteer attendance rate metrics, and instantaneous master schedule editing.

Considerations

While many users appreciate the features provided by this software, this app has had issues with crashing that may affect its performance.

GiveGab (soon to become Bonterra)

GiveGab provides fundraising software solutions that will help you improve engagement and awareness while making it easier for you to solicit and receive donations.

Usability

This app is mobile friendly, and it allows for embeddable videos and social media integration. Users will have access to world-class customer support and enjoy the intuitive interface.

Strengths

GiveGab provides live statistics for your fundraising and Giving Day events, integrates SEO features, allows for social media integration and logo design customization, and includes a variety of payment options including PayPal and Venmo. These features make it easy to attract new donors and receive and track donations.

Considerations

This app is largely focused on spreading awareness and monitoring donations. If you need an app that provides volunteer management tools outside of fundraising solutions, you will want to consider other options.'

Vomo

Vomo is a mobile-friendly volunteer management app that helps connect volunteers to local volunteer opportunities, streamline the volunteer onboarding process, and improve volunteer communication.

Usability

This app has a user-friendly interface, and it has been praised for its modern features and ease of use.

Strengths

Vomo makes it easy to schedule volunteers, centralize and share messages to volunteers, share project and event details, send waivers and background check information to volunteers, and seamlessly track key metrics like volunteer hours and economic impact.

Considerations

While the Vomo app is free, full access to its features will require you to purchase one of their two platform packages, making this a more costly option than some other volunteer management apps.

Golden

Golden is a volunteer management app that has won Social Good App of the Year for its ability to match people with volunteer opportunities and provide efficient services for volunteer managers.

Usability

This app is well-known for its smooth interface and abundance of features, and it is available for all mobile devices.

Strengths

Volunteer managers can use Golden for instant volunteer sign-up, global localization, volunteer raffles to reward hard work, live background checks, and automated volunteer hour tracking and verification. 

Considerations

Some users have complained about difficulties finding specific volunteer opportunities or using some of the features on the app. While the app has 4.4/5 stars on the Apple Store, reviews mentioning that the app needs further development or is best suited for those in the L.A. area should be taken into consideration.

POINT

POINT is an all-in-one volunteer management solution that provides volunteer managers with an admin dashboard, website integration, and a unique volunteer platform.

Usability

POINT has received recognition for its ease of use, and it offers free one-on-one support to help users with any questions or issues.

Strengths

The POINT app is free to use and it includes specific tools to help you recruit, manage, and engage volunteers while tracking their hours and engagement and integrating that data into useful reports. POINT app makes it easy to share your nonprofit’s impact with current and prospective donors.

Considerations

This app is largely geared toward helping volunteers find volunteer opportunities, so some of the features that need the most development are ones that would be most beneficial for nonprofits.

About the Author:
Geng Wang

As CEO of Civic Champs, I lead our team of passionate change leaders to create technology solutions to create a seamless and rewarding volunteering experience for both volunteers and service organizations.