Chapter 6: Report, Track, and Celebrate Volunteer Progress

EverTrue allows programs to easily track volunteer activity and connect the volunteer's work on behalf of the institution to the success of your organization.

You can easily track the performance (dollars raised and participation) in every pool. While volunteers can log in to see the stats themselves, it’s also good to regularly update them on progress by email. It encourages volunteers to return into the app and serves as a reminder for them to complete tasks. You can track user adoption by accessing the number of times a volunteer has logged into Volunteer by EverTrue as well as see their last login date and time in the admin view.

There is also the reality that for some volunteers, it may be hard for them to complete their responsibilities. It’s really important not just to track the volunteers that are doing their jobs, but also recognize when a volunteer isn’t doing the work needed to support your organization.

If there seems to be a lack of activity, be comfortable reaching out to the volunteer to double-check that they’re performing their tasks. If they are doing their job but not recording it, be sure to emphasize the importance of recording their work and how it helps your team.

If they aren’t completing their task, they might not be interested in volunteering or just have too much on their plate. Then it’s up to you to decide to reassign another volunteer to their prospects or find a new volunteer to take their place.

Share Information Across the Office

Volunteers aren’t only great fundraisers, they also can send important information back to campus, whether it’s job or contact changes or event contact reports about births, affinity, recent wealth events, and more.

If your volunteers use a hashtag to track a type of interaction (for a specific initiative like #evertruescholarships or to bring attention to an event like #ipo), your team can save searches that combine content and a date range so that you can stay on top of new interactions as they’re logged.

For assigned prospects, have gift officers receive notifications when anyone in their portfolio has an interaction recorded by a volunteer. If you’re targeting lead donors for your annual fund, you can do the same for volunteers who are assigned to solicit those gifts.

Celebrate Success

When you see a volunteer who’s doing a great job, let them know! The reporting features in Volunteer Management helps you track progress instantly. If appropriate, share that story with the volunteer base to motivate other volunteers to put in the same effort.

You can never thank someone enough, especially when they’re working for free!

On an annual basis, recognize top volunteers publicly with an award or a certificate of achievement. Publicly acknowledging their contribution not only stewards their investment in your organization, it also inspires others to follow their lead.