At the heart of every nonprofit’s mission lies a passionate team of volunteers who dedicate their time and skills to support their communities and the causes they believe in. Effective volunteer management is among the most important components in the successful operation of any nonprofit. However, managing this diverse force efficiently presents unique challenges that demand innovative solutions.
From recruitment to engagement, and communication to coordination, volunteer management is one of the more complex, yet vital systems of an organisation. In particular, the challenges most NGOs face come down to time-consuming administrative tasks, ensuring transparent communication, and volunteer recruitment, engagement, and retainment. For example, according to a report by the European Economic and Social Committee, there is an ongoing shift from long-term, committed volunteering to short-term, one-time activities. As a result, volunteer retainment is becoming increasingly a top concern for many organisations.
In this section, we will explore an assortment of cutting-edge tools, hand-selected to address key obstacles, with a focus on features including accessibility, ease of use, customizability, scalability, and cost. By leveraging these and other modern solutions, nonprofits can simplify volunteer management and ensure their volunteers remain informed, engaged, inspired, and motivated.
A Platform with Purpose – The ServiceNow Approach to Operational Efficiency
ServiceNow’s stated purpose is to make the world work better for everyone, from our humble beginnings in founder Fred Luddy’s home to our current role as the platform company driving global innovation. It’s one reason why the launch of ServiceNow.org in early 2023 is so meaningful to us – creating a dedicated team to bring the transformational capacity of technology to nonprofits, helping organisations maximise their impact and do the work that matters most.
With the Now Platform, we aim to help organisations work faster, simpler and more efficiently when solving the world’s greatest challenges. Comprehensive functionality, from technology excellence to employee/volunteer experience, brings opportunity to every corner of a nonprofit. For example, customised forms and workflow automation make it easy to qualify and match volunteers for suitable roles, while centralised IT workflows and helpdesk make it a strong platform for managing cases, communication, and program support. ServiceNow also fosters collaboration among volunteers and staff, facilitates feedback collection through satisfaction surveys, and promotes post-journey engagement using data gathered from volunteers’ experiences.
ServiceNow distinguishes itself by prioritising the people within organisations and its key constituents, offering employees, volunteers, donors and beneficiaries a digital experience that centers everyone around the mission. This, in addition to the platform’s overall intelligence, flexibility and integration capabilities, has made ServiceNow a solid asset for missions worldwide – discover how we’re helping to advance mission-critical work at nonprofits like the UNHCR and others at www.ServiceNow.org. For organisations looking for an accessible multifunctional solution to enhance management across operations, programs, assets, and people, ServiceNow is ready to put our platform to work for you.
David Averill – Global head of Nonprofit partnerships, ServiceNow.org
Transforming Team & Project Management – 3 No-Code Solutions Leading the Way
FlutterFlow
Effective volunteer management starts with creating an organised system to recruit, track, engage, and retain volunteers efficiently, but this can be challenging for organisations that lack the resources to hire a developer, or the expertise to develop internally. That’s where FlutterFlow comes in. FlutterFlow is a scalable, no-code app development solution built on Flutter (Google’s open-source framework) that enables users to build high-quality, interactive, mobile- and web-based applications.
Among FlutterFlow’s most beneficial attributes is its user-friendly interface, which allows users to quickly create applications using visual modelling with native features such as pre-built templates, custom codes, plugins, and drag-and-drop modules, housed within the platform’s built-in library for multifaceted functionality tailored to your specific needs.
To manage multiple languages, Flutterflow allows users to translate all the text of the application at once with Google Translate, or manually. FlutterFlow also integrates with a wide range of other tools and services such as Firebase (a mobile platform that handles backend, database, and analytics), Angolia (a search engine that allows you to add search functionality to FlutterFlow apps), Google Analytics, and more.
It’s worth noting, however, that there may be a steep learning curve to navigate the platform for users who are unfamiliar with the Flutter framework. Additionally, while the predefined structure used by FlutterFlow ensures a consistent layout throughout development, it may also limit flexibility and customisation compared to similar platforms like Bubble.io. Regarding pricing, FlutterFlow offers several options, including free and paid plans at different tiers.
Monday.com
Monday.com is an all-in-one cloud-based work management platform that enables users to streamline workflows and more effectively manage complex projects. Unlike the other recommended technologies in this section, monday.com is a more traditional project management platform that focuses primarily on visual management and collaboration.
Two key reasons for our inclusion of this tool in the Tech Radar are its flexibility and ease of use. Monday.com enables the possibility of building custom applications for any workflow and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create boards, lists, timelines, and pre-built automation templates customised by industry. This includes a number of features geared specifically toward volunteer management, such as onboarding, the ability to track volunteer hours, skills and/or certificates, and availability.
With support in 12 languages, the platform is highly accessible to a wide range of users and features security measures to ensure sensitive data remains secure and protected. The platform also offers over 50 integrations with other popular tools, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Salesforce, making it easy to connect to existing workflows.
Though the platform offers many far-reaching benefits, one potential drawback organisations should consider is its pricing model. Monday.com uses tiered, per-user pricing, with added fees charged to add additional users with complete collaboration permissions, which may deter organisations with significant budget restrictions.
Bubble.io
Bubble.io is a cloud-based, no-code development framework built on AWS that allows users to develop, host, and scale websites and applications. Similar to FlutterFlow, Bubble.io is designed with ease of use in mind and features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and ready-made templates that non-coders can use to quickly build apps without any prior programming knowledge. However, Bubble.io differentiates itself in a number of ways.
While FlutterFlow and Bubble.io are both secure, scalable, no-code tools, one way they differ is in their approach to user interface design. Where FlutterFlow offers a predefined structure for a consistent layout, Bubble.io gives users more freedom to customise their interface. Users can choose and place visual elements where needed and have the option to add additional functionality through third-party APIs, add-ons, or plugins, allowing for greater flexibility. Another key difference is that Bubble.io enables users to customise their website for better indexation on search engines (SEO) and offers a smart scaling feature that automatically increases the capacity of the web application as it grows.
Bubble.io can be used by anyone, but it’s worth noting that users with some development experience can use code to create plugins and supplement Bubble’s native functionality for greater customisation. While Bubble.io is less expensive than traditional software development, both its growth and team plan are on the pricier side as compared to the other two technologies in this section. However, when you consider the platform’s advanced features, development time, ease of integration, and customisation, it remains a strong solution for organisations looking to optimise their volunteer management system.
Hadi Hendrawan, CTO Devoteam APAC Singapore
