If there was ever a nonprofit group with a problem that needed a solution, it was the Friends School of Minnesota’s annual Plant Sale.
With over 600 volunteers scheduled in dozens of shifts, signing up everyone by phone had become a huge burden for the school staff. Calls could take anywhere from two to ten minutes as the staff described the different jobs available, and took down each volunteer’s name and information.
Potential volunteers had to call during school hours, rather than in the evening or on the weekends — probably not ideal for most working people’s schedules. The school wasn’t able to follow up with each volunteer to confirm what they had signed up for — mailing would add cost and staff time, and emailing would add time. And with volunteers signing up until the last minute before the sale, there was no way to keep an up-to-date list on hand at the sale, which is held at the State Fair, about a mile away from the school building.
When the Plant Sale’s organizers decided it was time to move volunteer sign-up to the web, they called on Triangle Park Creative to build a web application to handle volunteer sign-up from beginning to end.
The system needed to:
- Tell potential volunteers about each type of job and when it is needed, then offer them the chance to choose that job
- Allow volunteers to use an email that was not unique, since many folks share an email with a spouse who also volunteers, or don’t have an email at all and so piggyback onto a friend’s
- Allow volunteers to wait-list themselves for shifts that are already full
- Allow the organizers to limit some jobs to Friends School parents only
- Track the volunteers’ shifts from year to year, so that if volunteers want to do the same shift as last year, they can easily look up their past selection
- Allow the sale’s organizers to create reports that list all the volunteers by last name or by shift and date, including the ability to generate mailing lists
- Provide a way for volunteers to check in for the shifts so that the organizers can figure out who didn’t show up
- Send email confirmations immediately after sign-up and again two weeks before the shift as a reminder
With a launch in late January, in time for sign-ups before the May 2008 sale, Friends School now has the tools it needs to manage its volunteer and get everyone the information they need on a timely basis.
If you’d like to learn more about how the system works, or the process of developing it, contact Pat Thompson.