How to Boost Volunteer Recruitment with These Outcome Metrics
The Top Line:
Set Smart Volunteer Metrics: Save Time, Boost Efficiency, and Focus on What Works
Read on to Discover:
The Case for Smarter Volunteer Outcome Tracking
Data is Key for Effective Volunteer Recruitment
How Outcome Metrics Can Save Time and Reduce Burnout
Outcome Metrics Help Your Whole Volunteer Program Grow
Move Beyond Surviving to Thriving with VolunteerPro Membership!
The Case for Smarter Volunteer Outcome Tracking
As joyful and rewarding as nonprofit work can be, the standard workday for many also often includes long hours, constant interruptions, and a million pressing tasks that seem to eat away at your staff’s precious time.
Too often, this is because organizations do not have effective systems in place to accurately track outcome metrics, which results in employees who spend the bulk of their time – with great intentions – reactively responding to urgent daily needs rather than focusing on long-term strategic planning.
This is especially true for volunteer-involving organizations that face the additional challenges of recruiting, retaining, managing, and measuring the impact of a dynamic, unpaid workforce whose service is vital in accomplishing the mission of your nonprofit.
Good news: It’s possible to have benchmarks for measurable volunteer outcomes. Establishing benchmarks saves staff time, allows them to work more efficiently by quickly identifying what processes work, which areas need improvement, which strategies are no longer relevant, and which ones simply waste time.
Knowing where to correctly focus valuable time helps streamline your organization’s processes and increase your capacity to serve your community’s needs. It will also impact your organization’s ability to effectively boost your volunteer recruitment and retain volunteer talent.
For more ideas on how to boost volunteer recruitment, check out these 6 Creative Ways to Recruit Volunteers HERE>>
Data is Key for Effective Volunteer Recruitment
Every year, VolunteerPro releases our state-of-the-industry Volunteer Management Progress Report to highlight current nonprofit trends. The data in the 2023 report was tabulated based on survey responses from nearly 1,400 leaders of volunteers in 36 countries.
When asked about issues surrounding volunteers, over 34% of respondents listed recruitment as their number one challenge. Many shared a sentiment similar to this one: New volunteers aren’t submitting applications…our recruitment measures just aren’t working!”
Without meaningful data to understand why current recruiting efforts fall short, it’s very easy to make the flawed assumption that “people just don’t want to volunteer anymore” (another recurring comment from survey respondents).
Not only is this assumption incorrect (as evidenced by the hundreds of vibrant, growing volunteer programs also represented in the report), it is also incredibly self-defeating. If your team believes that their volunteer recruitment efforts are doomed to fail, they almost certainly will be.
Without the data, your team really has no way to know for sure. The 2023 survey results indicate that less than 1/3 of nonprofits actively track volunteer outcome metrics, which leaves many without the vital information to correct course and improve results.
Boost Volunteer Recruitment with 4 Key Volunteer Outcome Metrics
These four metrics are key performance indicators for every volunteer-involving organization’s overall program health:
- New Volunteer Conversion Rate – % who begin service after initiating contact
- Annual Volunteer Retention Rate – % who are still active 12 months later
- Annual Event Participation Rate – % who sign up for event shifts and show up
- Monthly Churn Rate – % who become inactive each month
Data from these metrics can help your team identify pinch points in the volunteer life cycle. They allow you to more accurately identify underlying reasons why a process “just isn’t working” and make needed adjustments to boost volunteer recruitment efforts.
New conversion rate is low? Perhaps evaluate your application process for ways to simplify it and open the door wider for those interested.
If your new volunteer conversion rate is robust but your monthly churn rate is high, you can examine your training and onboarding for intimidating or confusing components.
Do your annual retention rates indicate that volunteers aren’t staying past a year? Consider investigating the volunteer experience to improve areas that hinder a sense of community, identity, and engagement.
Tracking “micro-conversions” at each step, from recruitment through onboarding, helps diagnose where your current system is failing you.
A Word of Encouragement About the Above-mentioned Metrics
You and your team can decide what terms like “first contact” (Web inquiry? Phone call?) and “inactive” (No contact? Away at school?) mean for your organization. Just make sure to apply whatever standard you set across the board.
Want more ideas on key data points to boost volunteer recruitment? Check out these Nonprofit KPIs Your Volunteer Program Should be Tracking HERE>>
How Outcome Metrics Can Save Time and Reduce Burnout
The second biggest respondent concern in the 2023 Volunteer Management Progress Report: time.
Examples include working to meet the same expectations with fewer staff, managing increased workloads, and dividing time between competing priorities. These challenges all contributed to an overall sense of not having enough time to do it all well. Additionally, both employee and volunteer burnout were emerging challenges in the results that were not mentioned by respondents in previous surveys.
Setting up systems to track key volunteer outcome metrics can greatly help in this area of concern. Burnout prevention, as well as time management in general, begins with a plan. And to create a plan that works, you need data.
Is burnout an issue in your organization? Check out these 6 Ways to Prevent Burnout in Nonprofits HERE>>
In much the same way that your medical care providers use blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and weight as quick indicators of potential issues, your volunteer program’s churn, conversion, and retention rates reveal your program’s current health and areas that need your attention.
Monitoring outcome metrics alleviates the stress of simply not knowing what’s really happening in your program. It also provides clear action steps and measurable benchmarks to track future growth.
Outcome Metrics Help Your Whole Volunteer Program Grow
In addition to more effective recruitment and reduced burnout, providing teams the necessary time to work on a volunteer program rather than in it has great benefits for organizations as a whole.
The 2023 survey results show a clear correlation between time investments in a volunteer program and increased volunteer engagement.
On average, less than half of current volunteer managers spend more than three-quarters of their time directly working on volunteer program administration, including data management. However, more time spent correlates with a larger number of volunteers engaged, averaging 26-50 volunteers for those who spend 25% or less on volunteer management, but 101-250 volunteers for those who devote all of their work time to volunteer engagement.
Additionally, the greater the percentage of time volunteer coordinators spent on volunteer management, the higher the volunteer capacity rating, or the extent to which volunteer roles were filled.
Perhaps most telling, our research shows that budget clearly matters when volunteer managers reflect on the performance of their organizations with respect to volunteer engagement.
Over one-quarter (28.2%) of those who rated their organization’s progress toward reaching volunteer goals as “it is really bad” also had no annual budget for volunteer engagement. Conversely, those in the $10,001-$50,000 annual budget range represented an increased percentage from poor performance (It’s really bad) to good performance.
Despite the obvious correlation between time/budget and reaching goals, many volunteer departments do more with less. This means less time spent exclusively on volunteer program management. Staff spend time filling roles and creating meaningful volunteer experiences. Further, there is less staff and leadership investment in nurturing a vibrant, organization-wide volunteer corps.
Post-pandemic, we must change our strategy for volunteer program management. It’s important to update our expectations. Other nonprofit departments use benchmarks, data tracking, goal setting, and outcome metrics to thrive. Volunteer programs must adopt this as a core component.
It is the forward-thinking volunteer manager’s responsibility to implement measurable benchmarks. They should always consider volunteer outcomes and commit to tracking and acting on them regularly. No need to stop there. Involve your nonprofit boards and executive staff. Implore them to give volunteer programs the needed investment of time and resources. If success is the ultimate goal, this is an easy way to move beyond merely surviving to truly thriving.
Move Beyond Surviving to Thriving with VolunteerPro Membership!
Outcome metrics. Talent retention. Increased volunteer engagement. We cover these topics and more in VolunteerPro’s Membership community. With membership, find in-depth training to build a recruitment and retention strategy that attracts and engages your supporters. You’ll also have access to monthly coaching calls to ask questions and get feedback on your campaign design.
Membership includes access to a huge digital library. Enjoy what-works-now content, live monthly seminars, workshops, and coaching calls. In addition, you become part of a vibrant community of volunteer leaders to share their knowledge.
Enrollment for new members is open NOW.
Final Thoughts on How to Boost Volunteer Recruitment with These Outcome Metrics:
Leaders of volunteers often find themselves overwhelmed by daily demands, leaving little time for strategic planning. Implement measurable volunteer outcome metrics. The result is streamlined operations, boosted efficiency, and staff who focus on what truly advances the mission.
