How-To Tips on Efficient Volunteer Hour Tracking

One way to ensure that your non-profit organization always runs smoothly and remains adequately funded is to have efficient volunteer hour tracking. Keeping track of all the hours that the volunteers worked helps streamline your process and shows donors that you are using your resources correctly.

Why should you log your volunteers' hours? There are many great reasons to do so. Proper time tracking allows you to collect data and have additional metrics to show that your organization is growing. By using such data, you can also improve your programs. You can quickly see how much time is spent on things that don't align with your goals and promptly reallocate those resources.

One way to measure the time logged by volunteers is by getting a reliable volunteer application with a time-tracking feature. The tracked hours can then help you make a case for securing larger grants. Check out some tips on how you can efficiently use your volunteer app for volunteer hour tracking:

Take Advantage of Your Volunteer App's Features

Digital tools like the volunteer app and software will help you simplify and optimize your time tracking. Choose an app or software with a digital dashboard to store volunteer hours. The software should also be able to offer you to extract data easily to view all the hours of your volunteers.

Your volunteer app should also include features that allow volunteers to self-check in. In this modern day and age, your volunteers should be able to check in for their shifts using their own devices, which they can carry during events and allow for easy check-out afterward. In addition, your app should also allow volunteers to report for their shifts at any time. These digital features will also allow you to do away with volunteer forms that are messy and challenging to encode.

Use An App That Logs Time in Blocks

One effective way to track volunteer hours is to break down assignments and projects into blocks of time. You can ask volunteers how much time they can dedicate to specific events and include that in your time-tracking app. Adding blocks of time per event will be more accessible when consolidating data and record keeping.

Encourage Volunteers to Self-Report Their Time

Look for an app that allows volunteers to keep track of their time on their own. This will help minimize paperwork and reduce your managers' workloads. Start by consistently reminding volunteers to track their hours so it becomes a habit. You can encourage your volunteers by sending regular reminders through email or newsletters before and after events or programs.

Be Transparent

Tell your volunteers honestly and truthfully why you need them to track their hours. Make them understand why volunteer hour tracking is essential for the organization. Talk to them and explain how data from these track hours impact your programs and the organization's overall growth.

Conclusion

When your organization doesn't have an efficient system for tracking hours, you will also be unable to correctly quantify your volunteers' impact on your mission. With Vome, we can help you do efficient time tracking and more. Our easy-to-use volunteer management solution helps you with recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, hour tracking, data, reporting, and communications. Call us for a demo.