Ready to Mobilize and Motivate Your Volunteers? Use a Self-Servce Portal and Get Results!
Do you do volunteer management for a non-profit or other organization? Is it your job to build a volunteer base that support your most important missions and events? Are you tired of flip-flopping through emails and struggling to communicate effectively with hundreds or thousands of volunteers with questions? If you are resonating with any of these questions, you’re not alone. Volunteer management personnel struggle with mobilizing and motivating — let alone organizing — their volunteer base without a little help. That’s why in the new year 60% of company’s plan to implement a self-service portal in the next 12–18 months. Online self-service portals not only help keep you organized, but they empower the user to find exactly what they need in nearly real-time. Read on to learn our top three benefits of implementing a self-service portal for volunteer management at your organization:
Tip #1: Communication Quickly and Effectively
One of the advantages of a self-service portal is that you can communicate with your volunteer base quickly and effectively. You can upload their email addresses into the portal and send them customized messages based upon the event they are volunteering for in the future. You can set up automated responses for when they email you a question. This is great customer service because it lets them know you care about responding to their question. Pro tip: It’s always a good idea to let them know the timeframe for responding — such as within 24 hours. You don’t want to keep your Millennial volunteers waiting especially! They are eager to volunteer, and you want them to know you are on top of the movement and their interest in volunteering.
Tip #2: Organizing Your Ambassadors
Research shows that people are more likely to attend an event if someone they know asks them. An online portal can help mobilize new volunteers if a team of ambassadors uses it to reach out to the people they know to ask them to participate in a future event. You can give your ambassadors access to your portal, and from there they can access the email addresses of their friends and family who are involved in the organization. This works especially well for school and community events, where the volunteer base often is closely-knit. Classmates can invite fellow classmates to a university reunion, for example. The online portal is a great way also to communicate with your ambassador team and send them quick updates or assign them tasks for communicating with the volunteer base you are trying to target.
Tip #3: Empowering Your Volunteers
One of the great benefits of implementing an online self-service portal for your volunteers is that you truly empower them to find answers on their own. Did you know that
39% of Millennials check a company’s FAQ first when they have a question — showing a clear preference for finding answers on their own. That’s good information and good news for an online self-service portal, where you can have the most important questions and answers at their fingertips. They can find the information they need quickly without having to search for it or call. Think about how this could work for orienting a new volunteer to his or her duties within your organization. You could put an orientation guide and a volunteer toolkit on your self-service portal — ensuring that the information they need is at their fingertips.
If you’re ready to change the way you do volunteer management in the new year, then it’s time to try an online self-service portal. With just a little practice, you’ll be navigating the system with ease — and freeing up a lot of your hard-earned time to do the other important tasks involved in mobilizing volunteers and helping to ensure your volunteer events run smoothly. Now is the time to experience not only freedom and productivity in your work flow but also to empower the good people who are supporting your organization through their volunteer service. Try an online self-service portal today and see if it makes a different in the life of your organization.