VolunteerHub

Why you need VolunteerHub

Kommentare: For anyone considering getting a database for Volunteers, you MUST consider after purchase and after implementation, customer service. How quickly is support responding? Does support understand the issue? Does support manage accounts with the proper repair? At VolunteerHub I promise you they do! Somehow we made a mistake with our User Groups and their order of them which affected the background checks and stuff. We didn't notice but during a routine check, Support caught this and knew it wasn't right and fixed it, and notified us. We didn't realize this happened either and Support took it upon themselves to correct. No ticket was submitted, no emails were sent to support, etc. That is how good Support is. I highly recommend VolunteerHub. We were able to turn our investment into $25K+ through donations. Corporations give money to the places their employees volunteer at.

Vorteile:

Best features:Landing Pages (Use for companies so they don't have to scroll through event pages to find options)User Contact (User Groups allow for better communication and easier access to Volunteers needed for specific jobs)Waiver Forms (Digital waiver forms are great for fast and easy liability forms to be signed)VolunteerHub allowed us to be able to recruit more than 1,400 volunteers in 10 months. We were also able to leverage that into fundraising, raising more than $25K. One person was able to manage all this because of how easy this system is to use and manage.

Nachteile:

The cons to VolunteerHub are really the layouts of landing pages, main pages, etc. There is no customization to these pages and it's really because the source code is bland. Hopefully, they will update to allow widgets, more integrations, etc. so each organization can better serve their volunteers. This doesn't affect users because they don't know anything different but it does need to change and become more modern.

VolunteerHub Review

Vorteile:

Everything! Definitely the calendar view is helpful on the main page.

Nachteile:

I feel like I am not using VolunteerHub to the best of it's ability. I need to take time to learn more and grow my expertise.

Works for basic needs

Kommentare: When we first adopted the platform, it was great and again the pricing was very reasonable. However, overtime, it seems like they have stopped investing in developing the platform and adding new features and integrations, so it is now far behind many competitors. However, if you are looking for a very simple and basic platform at a very fair price, this could work for you. It’s a simple platform for volunteers and administrators to use. However, if you have more complicated needs and you are a larger organization, I would not recommend this product.

Vorteile:

VolunteerHub has a nice volunteer interface that’s easy to navigate and simple to use. For administrators as well the features require little training and are very user-friendly. We have been using this platform for a very long time so the pricing has always been very reasonable.

Nachteile:

It seems like they have not made any upgrades or investments in the platform in a long time. The platform remains relatively the same over the past five years. It seems To lack a lot of the more advanced features than many other platforms now offer.

Great platform for nonprofits

Vorteile:

ease of use, simple design, report functionality

Nachteile:

some of the most useful functions are prohibitively expensive, especially for nonprofits--but you can still use the software to great effect without those features, so this is minor.

Saves so much time with high demand, one-off or shift-based opportunities!

Kommentare: Overall I am very pleased with my VolunteerHub experience. When I joined the organization 1.5 years ago, we had been using its most basic functionality for a few years. Since then, I have learned from webinars, help docs and extremely responsive support team emails how to use nearly every feature. We've implemented each feature successfully, which has saved time and allowed us to rely on a huge pool of volunteers in new ways. Although I think the price increases have been a bit disproportionate to the increase in the number of active users we can have, VolunteerHub is meeting all of our major needs at the moment, and most of our minor ones, too.

Vorteile:

Perfect for empowering thousands of individuals and group leaders to claim space in our twice-daily, year-round meal service opportunities with minimal initial interaction from our very small staff Volunteers can join groups (skills, interests, corporate, etc.), on their own or automatically through a customized link, and we can email those groups to recruit in a way more targeted than emailing all volunteers at once Easy to record volunteer hours automatically, and print useful nametags, with minimal interaction from a staff member, for opportunities with set start and end times (regular shifts, one-off opportunities, etc.) and to report basic attendance for those opportunities Automatic confirmation, reminder and thank-you emails Modify events, reservations, user groups, etc. in large batches and pull useful general participation reports Make notes about individual volunteers in their accounts

Nachteile:

Volunteer Hub shines with scheduling volunteers for opportunities with set start and end times. Much more attention is needed for creating irregular opportunities and scheduling volunteers/recording attendance for them. For example, opportunities with flexible start and end times, just gauging interest in internships, and volunteers who don't stick to a regular schedule but are welcome any time, can be a bit complex in Volunteer Hub. Unfortunately, there is no dashboard or easy view of major trends Some of the text that administrators have no control over provides constant confusion for volunteers. For example, the sign in button(s) in the Kiosk feature say "new" and "existing users," which often causes first-time volunteers - who have created accounts at home - to create a duplicate account on-site (and we need volunteers to be able to create accounts on-site for other reasons). Very basic email generator

Volunteer Hub Didn't Work for Us

Kommentare: The person who helped me set up was nice but the program didn't work well for us. We couldn't easily copy big events that are the same each year.

Vorteile:

We didn't have any pros. This product didn't work for us. We gave it a year but in the end we needed something different.

Nachteile:

It seemed difficult to use and not end user friendly. Our users complained that it was much more difficult.

Ease of Use and Reporting!

Kommentare: VolunteerHub offers excellent customer service, and they are always open to feedback. Not only do they work directly with their clients, but they also have a fast turnaround and frequently apply client feedback to improve the site. There are also a variety of tutorials on their customer support page.

Vorteile:

User-friendly interface, easy to modify and customize, and an excellent reporting feature. Our organization opted for the eTapestry integration, which automatically replicates volunteer data into eTapestry for efficient volunteer and donor tracking. VolunteerHub has simplified event management, volunteer tracking, and makes reporting quicker and easier than calculating numbers and formulas on a spreadsheet. The new filters on the events page also make it easier to navigate between opportunities. Staff is also able to use the kiosk feature, which allows volunteers to check-in and check-out remotely and more accurately.

Nachteile:

The communication features such as the internal email system are helpful; however, it lacks the option to add attachments. A few of our less tech-savvy users and volunteers complain about ease of use. Still, our team is typically able to walk them through most areas of concern.

Great volunteer management.

Vorteile:

Easy to engage volunteers and let volunteers do things they need. Group management is a breeze.

Nachteile:

I don't make use of its fundraising capabilities at all. They're fine but I don't really see the additional value.

We went from paper and pencil to our first volunteer software (VolunteerHu after extensive research.

Vorteile:

We love how customizable it is and how we can make it match all of our other branding. We felt VolunteerHUb offered us the most options of any other available software.

Nachteile:

Having to set up the system from scratch was very time consuming. Understanding the wording and how to set up the system isn't very intuitive at first but once you understand it set up is easy and tech support is fantastic!

Easy to use

Vorteile:

It makes it very easy to stay organized for the volunteer hours I do monthly. You can join groups based on your interest, skill level, etc. Staff is able to clock in and out remotely.

Nachteile:

It needs to have more flexible hours for scheduling start and stop times. The admin said initial setup was very time consuming.

VolunteerHub is an Invaluable Resource!

Kommentare: Overall, our experience with VolunteerHub has been great. We have a level of functionality that we did not have before. We are able to recruit, onboard and train volunteers easily with the help of this software. If we ever have an issue or a suggestion for a new feature, VolunteerHub is quick to respond and very supportive.

Vorteile:

VolunteerHub has taken us from paper sign in sheets and manually recording hours to an all-automated process - saving us time and increasing overall efficiency. The reports that VolunteerHub offers is AMAZING! We are able to report on exact volunteer hours, total volunteers and compare data easily. I absolutely love the communication feature. I can send an email to all 10,000+ volunteers in our database with one click! The email/SMS feature is extremely helpful when we have last minute volunteer opportunities become available and we need them filled ASAP.

Nachteile:

This is a great software and has really transformed our volunteer program. Any concerns or suggestions we have had are attended to quickly by VolunteerHub staff. No complaints - thank you!

Stop Letting the Tail Wag the Dog and Use VolunteerHub

Kommentare: Before VolunteerHub, each call or email that came in from interested volunteers was receiving a personal response. Then I liken the next step to "pin the tail on the donkey", because you would tell them of opportunities guessing at which ones would be a good match. Time intensive, and not highly effective. Since VH, here's an actual example-
Volunteer A calls and wants to do X. We don't really have a need for X. In the past we would either have to try to accommodate, or cut the volunteer loose.
Now that we have VolunteerHub, Volunteer A calls in and is immediately directed to a list of current opportunities on the website. While X is not listed, Volunteer A found 4 other opportunities that he did like, and signed himself up to meet our actual need! Pros-
We also use Blackbaud products and like the intentional product integration.
We are a very complex organization, setting up multiple programs and sites. The software allows for this complexity all within the same database.
We like the live support vs some of the competitors that require you to just read posts or email in for help. Cons-
Lack of enough training time, and training seemed a little too flexible. "What do you need to know?" I don't know what I don't know. By the end of our given hours we hadn't covered some of the basic uses of the system. They have provided phone support, but reporting and exporting to me should certainly be covered during training.
Everything is logged as an event. If you choose to automatically credit hours to volunteers, a simple 3 day drive would credit a volunteer with 72 hours, which skews reporting. We're getting to where we can't manually go in to fix these. Or tasks that could be done anytime- short of putting that in the description, it's confusing to volunteers.
We have events with shifts of volunteers for child care. We'd like to have the ability to click on multiple groups/events and email all those volunteers one message. At this point, that is not easily done. We understand that continual product plans are underway, and any time we provide feedback on what we need, it is sent to development, so they are aware of the need for future roll outs. There may be a few cons, but we are pushing this product to the max. The freedom of posting our volunteer opportunities and allowing our volunteers to customize their experience based on what they want to do has taken our volunteer program to the next level.

VolunteerHub Review

Kommentare: VolunteerHub is a very easy, yet dynamic software to use. Although there have been minor difficulties to work through, our overall experience is fantastic.

Vorteile:

VolunteerHub is a very easy platform to use from both an administrative and user standpoint. There are several features, such as instant registration, reminders, reporting, and new user registration that is very straightforward and easy to work with.

Nachteile:

There are only a few minor difficulties with this software. Some problems arise with user log in, duplicating emails, and user "hour" view. Additionally, our users have to create multiple VolunteerHub accounts, if a partner non-profit organization also uses the software. This creates confusion and difficulty with our staff for registration and reporting hours.

VolunteerHub - customizable enough, with lots of usable features

Vorteile:

I like that our users can choose to view the opportunities in different formats (date, calendar, or grid) and can skip to a certain date in the future. I like that we can create a one-page user form, so our users can see all the information they're asked to provide before beginning to input information into the form. As an administrator, I like that we can choose which fields are optional and which are mandatory, that we can create template events that repeat themselves (we just change the date), and that we can embed hyperlinks within the event descriptions to navigate users back to our website. I like that we can reserve events for a group and give the group leader a join code, and then the group members can reserve spots within that group reservation, while general users can reserve the remaining opportunities outside of the group reservation. Once the event fills, it will say "full" if users claimed the spaces, or "reserved" if we the administrators reserve the spots for groups on their behalf.

Nachteile:

It would be neat if VolunteerHub appeared to be seamlessly embedded into our website, so that it used our URL, instead of VolunteerHub's URL.

Great investment!

Vorteile:

We operate a final pantry and homeless shelter and have approximately 450 active volunteers plus host about 75 volunteer groups a year. After a pretty exhaustive search, we settled on Volunteer Hub and signed on about 9 months ago. We absolutely love this platform. It's easy to use and has all the features we need. You can create templates, edit events in batches, and communicate directly with volunteers both individually and in groups from within the system. Their support team is amazing - from onboarding to regular support, they are responsive and helpful. We are very happy with the Volunteer Hub platform and team.

Nachteile:

Volunteer Hub has a reporting function and you can download data to analyze it outside the system. We would like to be able to create custom reports which is not currently an option. The canned reports in the system don't always meet our needs.

One stop shop for volunteers

Kommentare: We've had an excellent experience! This software has helped us in so many ways and the staff is very nice.

Vorteile:

We love the points system, having your waivers in one place, e-mailing specific groups of volunteers, event sign up, handbook, it's really a one stop shop for all things volunteer!

Nachteile:

It's not the best for at home volunteers logging hours.

Solid management software

Kommentare: VolunteerHub has been a great tool for staying organized with volunteers and data. Thanks!

Vorteile:

VolunteerHub is great for storing detailed database on our volunteers. It's easy to use on their end and easy to manage on my end.

Nachteile:

VolunteerHub is great as a database and management software, however volunteers can only find it with your organization's personalized link. Don't expect anyone to stumble upon your site when looking for a way to volunteer- you have to promote the software yourself.

Great software for large organization

Vorteile:

The support team is quick to respond when I have any issues.

Nachteile:

Some but not much of the activity isn't traceable

Challenging

Vorteile:

It is a great tool for allowing individuals to sign up for events on their own, with minimal work on the part of a volunteer coordinator.

Nachteile:

The sync tool to Raiser's Edge has been a huge threat to our data integrity. And the process that we have to use for group members to register and get signed up for events is quite complicated to explain and takes a lot of staff time.

Volunteer Hub is an invaluable tool for our shelter!

Kommentare: Our shelter wouldn’t be where it is today without Volunteer Hub. I highly recommend it!

Vorteile:

Customer service is easy to contact and extremely helpful. Ease of volunteer application storage. Great tutorials.

Nachteile:

Volunteer Hub is an excellent tool but it can be a bit pricey for our non profit shelter running solely on donations.

Volunteer Hub is definitely one of the top volunteer management systems in the market for a reason!

Kommentare: Most of the entire office was able to use the system in some capacity.

Vorteile:

The ease of use, accessibility and features for volunteers are incredible! Our office enjoyed using Volunteer Hub. The different ways each department could utilize the system was impressive!

Nachteile:

It's so overpriced compared to other systems that do the same (if not more) as Volunteer Hub makes it unrealistic for any non-profit to invest in.

The Hub!

Kommentare: We've used VolunteerHub at Habitat Wake County for about 6 years. It was certainly vital for growing our volunteer program to manage 10,000+ volunteers per year. This includes multiple Construction sites, Deconstruction, A Brush With Kindness and now four ReStores! Pros - Support from Christine and the team is stellar. They are always willing to work with you to find a new solution or fix challenges. You also get regular notices about updates to the software. Once you are fully trained, it is easy to use. VolunteerHub allows a staff of 2 to communicate effectively with a multitude of volunteers and track them for metrics and volunteer recognition. Cons - Reports can be clunky, but they are always adding more options. We would love an option for regular volunteers to easily register for multiple events, i.e. every Friday morning shift for the month. We're happy to use the Hub to it's full potential and appreciate the open dialogue between ourselves and the team!

Our Experience with VolunteerHub

Kommentare: Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County has been using VolunteerHub since the late 1990s, primarily to manage the 300-400 volunteers per month who come to us to help build our houses. During our high build seasons, the ease of programming our ongoing construction events and specific details about each build day, and the ability to e-communicate with each volunteer who signs up online leads to an efficient effort by the one staff person responsible for volunteerism. Our monthly volunteer reports, and the ability to convert volunteers into invitation mailings to our annual volunteer appreciation picnic are only a few features we use on a regular basis. Also important is the VolunteerHub support staff. They have provided quick responses and even spent one-on-one time with me when I needed help in setting up a "private" ongoing construction schedule for volunteer employees of a major corporation to access.

Ohio Premier Invitational Tournament Director

Vorteile:

Very easy to use and by far the simplest way to get volunteers to sign up, and as the director, a very convenient method of tracking said volunteers.

Nachteile:

I was thoroughly satisfied and have nothing to report on the negative side.

Satisfied with VolunteerHub

Vorteile:

We are able to provide all the details needed to explain and sell volunteer opportunities, and give volunteers the information they need for a successful event. It allows us to sign up every kind of volunteer we have as groups or individuals.

Nachteile:

I wish there were more functions to post many events at once with just small changes rather than posting most events individually.