Revised July 19, 2010


 
Chart of Volunteer Management Software

 
How do I define volunteer management software? Software that actually has "volunteer" somewhere in its official description and allows an organization to, at the very least:

  • number of organizations using the software

  • age of the company producing the software

  • what operating system the software needs (including for Apple Macintosh)

  • online access for volunteers to use the software themselves/input their own data (yes or no?), and, if yes, is the online platform accessible by any browser, not just the latest browser versions?

  • accessibility (is this software something that volunteers or staff using assistive technology can access?)

  • that the user/organization can add and customize fields, input screens and reports (yes or no?)

  • how often the software is updated, the average cost of upgrades, and whether or not the company will continue to support software that is not updated

  • if the producing company provides an online users forum, so users can help each other use the software, discuss features they have developed themselves (yes or no?)

  • ability to track volunteer hours/contribution by week, month, quarter, year, and/or project (yes or no to all of these?)

  • ability to track volunteer skills

  • ability to track volunteer availability and interests

  • ability to track volunteer impact beyond just number of hours contributed (fields that allow user to type in qualitative data, such as observations, etc.)

  • whether or not the database information is stored at the organization using the software, or, remotely at the software company

  • whether or not selected data, or all of the data, could be easily exported into other types of data files (like a spreadsheet)

  • whether or not more than one staff member can access the product at the same time

    It would be great if such a comparison allowed users to rate the software as well, in terms of ease of use, if it meets their needs, and if they would recommend it to others.

    DO NOT SEND ME THE ABOVE INFORMATION FOR YOUR SOFTWARE. I am NOT compiling this comparison information! I am just offering a list of what I hope someone else will do for the benefit of the nonprofit/mission-based community.

    Below I've listed all of the volunteer management software geared towards nonprofit organizations (as opposed to corporate volunteering programs) that I know about, or nonprofit-related software/community relationship management software that has substantial volunteer management functions -- that means it actually uses the word volunteer somewhere on its web site in describing the product, not just "constituents" or "supporters". If you say explicitly your software can be used to manage data about donors or clients, then it should also say volunteers. A company that doesn't see volunteers as just as important as other groups, or doesn't at all use the word "volunteer" in its software description must not rank volunteer management very highly among a nonprofit's constituent management, no?

    Again, please note that while there are volunteer recruitment web sites that have some volunteer management components, I'm not including them in the list here unless they have most of the above minimum characteristics.

    I am NOT endorsing any of these software packages/platforms/products. I am only trying to offer a listing of what's out there. It's up to YOU to research the individual products yourself -- and someone else to create the comparison we all dream of. If you would like your company/software listed, email me the name of the company, the name of the software, the web address, if a free version is available, and if the software is focused on a specific area (like for health care or school settings). If you do not use the word "volunteer" somewhere in the description of your platform, I will not list it.

    There are also software programs that were not developed to manage volunteers, and do not talk about volunteer management on their web site, but there are some organizations that use these programs to manage volunteers. Often, the primary focus of such is often on managing donors, clients or other constiuencies -- and it says a lot that they will say explicitly the word "donor" or "client", but not "volunteer." I'm listing these programs below, however, remember that the aforementioned programs (the ones above) are specificlly designed or explicitly designed to support volunteer management, where as these below are not (and if you are a developer of a software listed below and want to be promoted to the aforementioned list, then please say on your home page or product description, explicitly, that your software can be used to manage and support volunteers:

    There are also software packages that can be adapted to manage volunteers (or anything else), such as:  
    Also see these database-related tip sheets:

    Also see:

     

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