FOR THE LOVE OF VOLUNTEERS! How do you choose the right technology to manage them?
Session: #17NTCvolunteerlove Notes: http://po.st/17NTCvolunteerlove
What we’re covering in this session
• What do you need?• Off-the-shelf options• Custom systems• Case study• Q&A
Remember!
1. What do you have now? 2. Who will need to use it? 3. Who are the stakeholders to bring into the discussion?4. What questions should you ask them?5. Customize the system or streamline your internal processes?6. Budget & timeline?
Pros
No technical debtSomeone else owns the code and it’s their responsibility, not yours
Low upfront investment (sometimes)Your initial costs are likely to be much less
Grab & GoBecause you’re not building anything, off-the-shelf solutions mean you don’t have to wait
Access to training and documentationGood volunteer management apps should include user documentation and many will also provide training. You may also have access to user communities which can be great for support.
Cons
You have to match your process to their featuresThere will always be compromise between your workflow and an off-the-shelf feature set
Ongoing costs may be higherDepending on the platform you select, your ongoing license fees may constitute significant expense
You aren’t in controlIf your needs change, your option is to change to a new platform (however, some app providers are responsive to market requests:)
Integration?Your off-the-shelf solution may offer no integration with your database/CRM (Constituent Relationship Management system).
Some off-the-shelf examples
Volunteers for Salesforce $
Cervis $$Volunteer Hub $$
Hands on Connect $$$Samaritan eRecruiter $$$
How much does it cost? It’s Free!
Will it integrate with my CRM? If you use Salesforce (comes with NPSP)
Who uses it? 9,000+ organizations
What do you get?• Customizable site.com calendaring that can be managed by volunteers
• Volunteer dashboards of historical and upcoming activities
• Volunteers can search by jobs, locations, times, and registration
• Language localization
How much does it cost? $300 - $1,800 annually
Will it integrate with my CRM? API, and also advertises integrations with common nonprofit database platforms
Who uses it? Salvation Army, Feeding America, NPR radio stations
What do you get?• Volunteer Application/Registration that integrates with your website• Create Unlimited Events & Post Events Online• Track Volunteer Interest Areas and Service Hours• Customizable Event Sign-In Rosters• Text/email messaging to volunteers
How much does it cost? $600 setup, $800 - $3,000 annually
Will it integrate with my CRM? One time setup fee for Blackbaud integration
Who uses it? Humane Society, PAWS, St. Judes, Shriners
What do you get?• Event-specific Entry Pages• Virtual kiosk for volunteer self check-in• Mobile-ready (ish)
• Text messaging to volunteers
How much does it cost? $2,500 - 10,000 annually
Will it integrate with my CRM? Salesforce
Who uses it? Habitat for Humanity, LA Works, Chicago Cares
What do you get?• Customizable calendaring with jobs and activities
• Tiered privacy for volunteer opportunities and team management
• Social media integration
• Integrated with HandsOn Network
How much does it cost? 1st Year: $2,500 - $15,000Ongoing: $2,000 - $3,000 annually Addt’l $$ for more users and add-on features
Will it integrate with my CRM? API, Custom integrations
Who uses it? USO, Smithsonian Institution, State and Local Gov’ts
What do you get? A LOT: Designed to be an all in one CRM solutionFront End: Volunteer portal, Surveys, Self-scheduling, Background checksBack End: Reporting, Emailing, Scheduling, AutomationSupport: Tiered customer support, Tiered discovery and customization
START WITH THESE QUESTIONS
REQUIREMENTS/BUDGET/FLEXIBILITY/INTEGRATION?
What are your requirements?
Are you flexible and
can you adjust the way you do things?
How important is it that your
system integrates with
your CRM?
What’s your budget?
(short-term and ongoing)?
Remember!
Ready to go shopping?• Watch demos • Ask to talk to references• Try out the systems
yourself: do a volunteer stint with an organization that uses the system you’re interested in
Pros
Complete controlFocus on what matters to your organization
The power of integrationWith a CRM, member portal, or another system
No ongoing license costsYou built it, you own it
Lower staff costsTailoring to your process increases efficiency
Cons
Significant upfront investmentCustom solutions can be expensive on the front-end
Mistakes can be expensiveBeware of bad decisions
Maintenance costsA custom system needs to be supported, tweaked, improved as you learn from using it - BUT continuous improvement of your system, your processes, your engagement strategy is a good thing
What does expensive mean?
Low end: $0 - $10,000
Midrange: $10,000 - $100,000
High end: $100,000 - $500,000 or more
Remember!
Custom systems have many advantages
Custom systems can be expensive
Control costs with:
• Good discovery
• Flexible implementation process
In 2016: + 4,700 volunteers
+ 150,000 hours
+ 240 trails
= $ 3.9 million donated labor to public lands
Why we needed something custom
● We needed to create some efficiencies (online and off)
● Our data culture matured
● We wanted to improve the volunteer experience (in really specific ways)
● We wanted to empower our volunteer leadership
Discovery
10 - 25% of project budget should go to discovery (WTA spent 16% of their total phase 1 budget on Discovery)
What you should expect to cover during discovery:
• User requirements
• Architecture
• UX and visual design
UX Design
Importance of UX designAn expert should define how things work - for this project we worked with Ethical UX
Importance of designer-developer communication Avoid surprises - have developers review wireframes and designers review user stories.
Flow diagramsChart complex functionality that goes from page to page.
Wireframes Define blocks of content and functionality on a given page, without styling.
Implementation
• 12 months, 22 iterations, 177 user stories, 903.5 story points
• 1 WTA project owner
• 2-5 person WTA testing team
• 1 strategist
• 1 project manager
• 2-4 Salesforce developers
• 3-5 Python developers
• 1 UX designer
• 1 graphic designer
Timeline
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
January 13, 2015
January 18, 2016
Launch!
22 Development iterations
UX Design Visual Design & Theming
Data Migr
TestingDiscovery