How Nonprofits Schedule Volunteers with Employee Scheduling Software

How Nonprofits Schedule Volunteers

Even if you don’t have many full-time or part-time employees at your nonprofit, you actually have a lot in common with companies that do. You likely have a small army of volunteers that keep you just as busy (if not more so) as paid employees would.

Let me guess: scheduling those volunteers is one of your top headaches. See? You do have something in common with for-profit companies with staff, after all!

Most nonprofits are strapped for time and money, and while you rely on your volunteers to alleviate some of the workload, sometimes it’s more stress to juggle their constant schedule changes.

And then you waste so much time calling to confirm that they can work when you’ve scheduled them. That’s time you could be putting back into your nonprofit, raising money or planning an event.

But wait — are you still scheduling your volunteers on paper? Ah. That’s your problem. Paper schedules make it a challenge to stay on top of when Mary can come in (only Mondays 2-4), when Bob’s vacation is, and which volunteer has which skillsets.

Let Me Tell You a Secret

It doesn’t have to be this hard. Technology has taken great leaps in the employee scheduling area, and now there are tools (like ScheduleBase) that simplify this process. Even for volunteers.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re scheduling employees or volunteers. They’ve got the same constraints: you need certain shifts covered, and each volunteer can only work at certain times. Using employee scheduling software provides many benefits to your nonprofit:

– Helps you match volunteer skills with your needs during a particular shift
– Schedule volunteers at the same time each week
– Easily see who can work when
– Send volunteers their schedules via email or text

Wow! Doesn’t that sound easy? And before you say, “but my nonprofit can’t afford such fancy software,” let me tell you another secret: ScheduleBase is free for nonprofits. Yep. So there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using employee software to manage your nonprofit volunteers, now is there?