Online Sign Up Blog by VolunteerSpot

Fundraising - Silent Auction Addition - Socials

Try SOCIALS to Raise More Money AND Build Community

In every crowd, there are people who love to throw parties, people who love to attend parties, and people who just love to PAARR-TAY!  Harnessing these party fanatics has turned into a well-loved fundraising program called “Socials” or party fundraisers – small, individual planned events that provide a great opportunity to build community and raise money for your school, church, or nonprofit organization.

 

 

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“Our elementary school has had Social event fundraisers for the past three years,” said Eanes Elementary PTO member Laura Greenberg. “Socials are great because they build community, enhance friendships and raise lots of money.  Our Spring Garden Wine and Cheese Party for 50 adults at $50 per person raised $2,500 for our school!”

Here’s how Socials work:

1. Have a committee solicit party ideas from the group’s membership. Then choose the events that are most appealing to your organization.
2. Find people who are willing to sponsor or host the gatherings at their own expense. Usually, those who made the event suggestion are offering to host.  Often, a few families partner together to host. Party expenses are usually tax-deductible. If some hosts want to throw the party at their house but can’t cover material costs, just deduct them from the funds paid by party goers.
3. Determine a reasonable amount to charge for people to attend the event. A typical ticket price range for Socials is from $15 to $75 per person.
4.  Advertise and solicit sign ups for the events.  (Usually on a clipboard at a larger event like a silent auction, school carnival, etc.) And of course, be careful in scheduling your events to avoid having overlapping activities or scheduling parties on religious holidays or at times when people are likely to be out of town.
5. Collect the money.
6. Have the party!

Your organization can decide to put on as many events as you think your members would support.  The gatherings should be varied and targeted to your membership’s interests.  They can be at the host’s house or at another event location. 

Tap into the resources of your membership: does someone in your group own a bowling alley or other activity place?  Is there a generous benefactor in your community who would be willing to underwrite an event or offer a prime location?  Is there a pit master in the crowd ready to barbecue for a crowd? Take advantage of the opportunities to put on an event and offer publicity and recognition to those who support you at the same time.

Some examples of successful Social Themes include:

Garden Wine and Cheese Party for 50 adults

Margarita Dinner Party for 20 adults

Family Game Night for 10 families         

Art Gallery Tour and Appetizers for 30 adults

Bunko Party for 24 Ladies

MardiGras Costume Party for 50 adults

Holiday Cookie Decorating for 16 1^st-5^th graders

Tennis Lessons and Lunch for 8 ladies

Family Roller Skating Party for 100 people

70s Fondue Fete' for 40 adults

Backyard Washer Tournament for 40 adults

Crawfish Boil for 30 adults

Pool and Cigars for 20 men

Black Thai Asian Party for 100 adults

Taste of Spain: Tapas and Sangria Party for 24 adults

Dove Hunt for 12 pairs of fathers & sons

Lunch with the Principal for 30 kids

Family Golf Outing & Picnic for 30 families

Ornament Exchange and Brunch for 30 ladies

'Fun on the Lawn Games' Kids Party for 50 kids

Oscars Party for 15 families

Texas Hold’em Poker for 20 adults

Backyard BBQ for 40 adults

Bowling with the Teachers for 40 kids

One way to make your proposed Socials known and easily available for sign up is to have them displayed at an activity where the majority of your members are likely to attend, like the School Carnival, Silent Auction/Gala, or Back-to-School night. You can also run online signups through VolunteerSpot.com – you can post links to each of the social signups on a PTA web page and publicize through the school newsletter, to get the widest possible publicity and attendance.

You can easily put together an attractive flyer or booklet with enticing party descriptions advertising the Socials in advance, so that potential party-goers will get excited about the events and know what they want to attend. These can be sent home in one of the first weekly packets of school information kids bring home and left in the school office. 

Be sure to stress to your group that guests can sign up for as many parties as they would like to attend and bring as many people as they’d like (as long as they pay for each spot). Remind them that this is a fundraiser and a community builder!  

“For a school, it is key for the sign up event to take place near the beginning of the school year. That way parents and kids can have fun all year going to parties and getting to know each other,” Greenberg said. “Our school has a Friday night adult-only party that has Socials signups, a silent auction, games, music, dinner and beverages – and this fun kickoff event really gets people excited about the socials they’ve signed up for the rest of the year!” 

With a full year of socials on the calendar, families who attend get to know other families in the school or organization and build community spirit. And you’ve got an important new fundraising stream to increase the amount of money you can raise, that can easily be added to what you already do, or replace a funding source. And, your group now has a great excuse to party all year! Enjoy! 

 

Fundraising with Kids - Call for Ideas!

The pressure is on and kids are being asked to raise money right and left for their school, sports teams and youth activities.  Finding kid-friendly fundraisers that are fun and easy to orchestrate can be challenging.  Are you tired of asking family and neighbors to buy cookie dough, wrapping paper, and magazines?  We are too!  That's why we're putting together a free eBook filled with creative fundraisers that don't involve selling the usual stuff!

We've talked to parents and volunteer leaders across the country and have collected fresh kid-friendly fund raising ideas from A-Z.  We are almost ready to publish our next eBook and would like to include a few more ideas.  How have you raised money with kids? Anything goes from traditional to creative!  

Please share your traditions and ideas by clicking COMMENTS below and we'll add your fundraisers to our upcoming eBook! 

To see VolunteerSpot's other fun and helpful eBooks, please click here.

Sign Up Sheets - Online

VolunteerSpot's online sign up sheets are free and easy! Click 'Home' to learn more.

The transition to online sign up sheets from paper ones can really improve the attendance and participation at your events. Unlike paper sign up sheets, which only recruit those who physically come into contact with it, online sign up sheets make it easy to recruit in a number of different ways (including paper) and end up with more people signing up, But if you're still on the fence about how truly easy it would be to ditch the clipboards and put everything online, here's some things to consider:

1. Online sign up sheets are available anywhere there is a computer terminal. Both the activity coordinator and the participants can log in, make changes
2. Online sign up sheets won't get lost
3. Online sign up sheets don't just record who's volunteered to attend, they also serve as an automated reminder service, relieving the organizer of a big time burden.
4. Online signup sheets can mean a specific number of jobs are available -- so when the popular jobs of cleaning up during the local music festival are claimed in the first 5 minutes of publication, the organizers doesn't have to deal with the 500 other people who wanted the job, and then scrawled their names all over the clip boards trying to get in.
5. Online clip boards are neat - no more decoding strange handwriting, indecipherable email addresses or phone numbers.
6. Online sign up sheets can't get eaten by the dog!

VolunteerSpot's online sign up sheets allow coordinators to set the schedule for one day or a whole year of repeating activities, and make it a private non-searchable web-based spot or it can be public with its own public entry. This privacy element is key when working with children's activities.

Many first time online signup sheet users are a bit nervous about the technological challenges of such a new system -- after all they've been using clipboards forever  -- but are then pleasantly surprised at how simple the whole process is! From setting up the activity, to inviting potential volunteers via emails, to literally going to sleep and waking up the next day to find half the jobs are already filled -- yes, that's usually all it takes to convince most people to make the switch. And, once the activity rolls around, the reminders are automatically generated - and VolunteerSpot makes the whole thing extremely simple.

There are many different kinds of volunteer actions that are ideally suited to this format of sign up sheet:

• Recess monitors
• Library volunteers
• Auction night workers
• Neighborhood cleanups
• Food drive booth workers
• Cookie booth signups (online job slots mean numbers can be limited)
• Film festival volunteers
• Swim meets
• Neighborhood garage sales
• Socials fundraisers
• Class parties
• Parent Teacher Conference Schedules
• Room parent activities
• Snack bar duty for baseball
• Hockey tournaments

If you haven't tried moving your clipboard online this year, it's time to start. Cut your time and frustration, and make coordinating any of your projects easier than ever.

Back To School Night

Whether you're starting at a new school or heading back your old one, Back to School Night at your child's school is a valuable opportunity to get the lay of the land, find out what activities, clubs and other opportunities exist for your child, and finally, find out how you as a parent can offer your time to help.

With so many of us working, Back to School Night can be one of the only opportunities we have to visit the school, meet the teachers, check out the facilities, and hopefully even connect with some of the parents we'll be seeing on the sidelines at the local soccer game or trading emails and phone calls with for play dates and parties. It's pretty much the must go event of the back to school season. And as informative as it can be, with so much information coming at you, it can be confusing.

I like back to school night because the PTA knows this might be the one opportunity to connect with ALL the parents. At our school, as you enter the building and within each classroom, there are tables and tables full of clipboards asking for parents to sign up to volunteer as library volunteers, science volunteers, recess helpers, book fair and carnival volunteers, field trip chaperons, auction chairs, and more. It's great to find something you can fit into your calendar, however busy you may be -- your kids like seeing you participate and it really makes a big difference given current school budget realities.

My school has been using the clipboard table forever but now that computers are more common than transistor radios, we've decided to embrace technology and make the sign up process easier than ever by using VolunteerSpot. This also lets parents sign up even when they are not physically in the school building, by simply visiting the school website and clicking the 'volunteer' link.  Starting this Fall, all the sign ups for our different activities at  school will use VolunteerSpot, which has a neat functionality that allows users to create a URL link to the signup sheet, so users on email or visiting the school website or booster club website can simply click on say the 'Fall Carnival Volunteers' or 'Recess Helpers' link and the entire schedule is sitting there awaiting their sign up. Also, by doing sign ups this way (instead of a clipboard), VolunteerSpot also automates confirmation messages and reminders to the volunteers (especially helpful for people who sign up in the Fall for an event in the Spring)!

For schools with good computer setups, connected computers can be set up to the school volunteer sign up page so parent visitors can see that it's there and either sign up on site at school that night or know that they can visit at any time and grab a volunteer opportunity. For schools still embracing clipboards, VolunteerSpot makes it easy for committee chairs to turn those parent signatures into online assignments. Once entered into the online calendar, VolunteerSpot takes over with automated confirmation and reminder messages.

The easier we make it for parents to volunteer and sign up, the greater the participation level we will achieve, and isn't that what every school wants and needs?! So enjoy your Back to School Night and don't forget to volunteer!

Add Purpose and Action to Your Lazy Summer - and Still Be Lazy!

Summer is officially here when the backpacks haven't moved in 2 weeks, the bundles of school work have finally moved off the dining room table (even if they haven't been sorted, they are put away somewhere). The morning flurry of action and rush to the bus has been calmed, the corn is high and summer has arrived.

Summer is supposed to be lazy and energizing, and the lack of morning craziness and the drive to start the day into ACTION takes the wind out of my productivity and I like it. But I will pay a price come fall when the activity suddenly picks up and I'll feel like I'm waking up from a three month slumber and it will be a mad dash until Christmas.

I think I need to open my calendar a bit and think about Fall. I think I need to harness this laziness toward a purpose.  But it's harder to just make things happen, when you're not constantly bumping into the people you need to work with in the school corridors, at bus stops or at school events. And with everyone scattered all over enjoying family plans and their own summer of wonder, how's a lazy mom supposed to get anything done?

One of the big projects I have is installing a new school demonstration garden to be designed, built and implemented by the time the kiddos go back to school in the Fall. My co-chair and I have been talking back and forth, but this summer kid business and personal summer laziness has kept us from focused action. Everyone is everywhere, and I feel like I just need to set up the action steps toward completion in mid-August, and fortunately, I have just the tool to help me get there - VolunteerSpot.

Normally I would be running into all the people I need to be working within work at the school, but in summer, that gathering point has disappeared. Instead, I'll just setup a planning meeting and ask for signups - in VolunteerSpot. I'll also set up the work days in VolunteerSpot, email out the invites, and see who's coming. I'm actually going to need chain saws (yeah for dads with power tools!) for part of the work -- I'll just throw that in the To Bring list.

To set up the entire summer calendar for the project - about 7 different meeting and workdays -- will take about 15 minutes - tops. Everyone gets an invitation to participate for all the aspects of the project build, and wherever they are enjoying their lazier summer days, they can check their calendars, find a time to help, and suddenly, my summer's become very very productive -- with just a small investment of time in VolunteerSpot. When the meetings and workdays start rolling around, I can check VolunteerSpot to make sure enough people are coming, and VolunteerSpot will automatically send the reminders via email to all the people who've signed up to attend. That's a pretty neat trick as I sip ice tea at a summer barbecue -- all this work getting done for me, and I still get to feel lazy.

Happy summers everyone!

VolunteerSpotlight: Lori, Blue Sharks Swim Team Volunteer Coordinator, Knoxville, TN

We consistently get feedback that VolunteerSpot's free and easy volunteer scheduling software saves leaders time and makes it easy for more people to volunteer.  One of the most helpful applications of VolunteerSpot is coordinating parent volunteers for Youth Swim Teams.

What most people don't know is that it  takes an army of dedicated parent volunteers to staff youth swim meets each weekend - timers, lane judges, concessions stand workers and more.  Swim parents get up before dawn and stay at the pool for most of the day - all the while cheering kids, participating in the swim meet production, and enjoying friends and neighbors. 

Today's VolutneerSpotlight shines on a parent hero - Lori, the Blue Sharks Swim Team Volunteer Coordinator from Knoxville, TN. 

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Please tell us a little about yourself and your role as a volunteer leader.

I have three very active boys, and I believe it is important to volunteer in the activities that they love. It keeps us connected, shows that I care about what they do, and makes me feel that I am doing my part.

With three boys, do you volunteer for other organizations, besides the swim team?

Oh gosh, over the years I’ve volunteered in so many activities: soccer, baseball, TSA, cub scouts, PTA and so on. In some I have had a small role and in some I’ve stepped up to lead.  Currently I am involved with our elementary school’s Silent Auction fundraiser, our high school’s Project Graduation, and our summer swim team – the Gulf Park Blue Sharks (go Sharks!).

How did you get interested in volunteering?

I am following the footsteps of many other parents who volunteered before me.  They have paved the way and shown me the importance of volunteering.  It seems to me that when you see a kid who is involved and excited about an activity, you will notice that their parent is also involved in some way.

What are your volunteer needs at Blue Sharks Swim Team?

Ha – it might be easier to ask what we DON’T need. It takes over 60 volunteer jobs to run a single home swim meet. Juggling who is doing what when is a major task… and it used to be harder than getting the actual SWIMMERS to the right spot. We need jump judges, timers, scorers, concession stand workers… the list is long.

Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?

I had not yet really helped much with the Swim Team… then one day the Meet Director asked if I would be able to set up an online volunteer registration site. I started searching to compare what other sites did… when POOF, I found VolunteerSpot.  I am so grateful that Google led me to you.  I couldn’t believe that everything I needed was already available… and FREE. Now we can send out an email asking for volunteers at a meet, and our parents sign up directly on the site. I love that they don’t have to sign up or get a password or anything – the first click gets them straight to the calendar.  They can see exactly what positions are still available… that alone used to take several phone calls!  I can look at the EVENT to see who is signed up -or- I can look at the PERSON to see their events. That is amazingly handy.  I don’t think we’ve ever had that capability before. I can print out the current status and take it with me to practice to get more help, then I can actually sign folks up myself according to what they told me in person. That means that the online list is always up-to-date (and no one can say they can’t sign up cause they don’t “do computers”). Finally, I really dig the messages it sends.  I can send a message anytime I need to, plus the site sends automatic reminders to me and to the volunteers.  I even get an automatic email if someone drops out at the “last minute.”

What’s one piece of advice you have for parent volunteers out there?

Get involved!  You may think your older kids don’t want you around, but they do.  Volunteering is the way to be there without getting in their space.  Plus you’ll learn about the activity and be able to talk about it (I didn’t know what a 200 IM was, now I know why my son is exhausted!).

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We salute Lori and all the volunteer heroes out there everyday making our communities better places to live! If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing, and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at VS@volunteerspot.com.

Fundraising Ideas for Volunteers: A Nonprofit Strategy for Fundraising

Today's guest author is Kirby Rooks; his article originally appeared on Suite 101.

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It is very common for volunteers to help with projects, simple administration duties and coordinate with other volunteers. They often become complacent and bored.

Asking the nonprofit’s development department for fundraising ideas for volunteers and a lot of eyebrows are raised. Unfortunately most nonprofits don’t use volunteer assistance for fundraising.

According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review “One-third of volunteers drop out after one year of participation, costing nonprofits an estimated $38 billion in lost labor.”

Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy

The Stanford Social Innovation Review concludes in the article ” Volunteers are effective fundraisers because their personal commitment to the organization’s mission makes them convincing advocates for the cause. In addition, volunteers are likely to donate to the organization at which they serve.” It comes very natural to volunteers who share a passion for the nonprofit to lend financial support.

Individuals get together to help the organization and to socialize with friends. They invite friends to join their group, which leads to indirect solicitation by association. Association becomes acceptance by means of belonging within the group. Those in the group become effective fundraisers because they share with each other on everything about the group, especially fundraising.

Knowledge in the hands of a volunteer becomes a tool to convince others of the importance of donating to the cause. This is an effective fundraising strategy by using volunteers.

Fundraising Ideas for Volunteers

Hold a town hall meeting to discuss fundraising ideas for volunteers. Have all volunteers fill out a talent questionnaire, so their experience is evident.

Get the volunteers to discuss giving and what it means to the organization. Tangible evidence of how donations make a difference in the lives of the nonprofit’s clients is important. Offer to council them on basics. Share with them the bulk of financial to a nonprofit comes from lots of small donations. The volunteers as a group make a substantial difference in how effective the organization will be that serves the community.

Here are a few ideas to get started:

• Persuade them to give at least twenty-five names from their personal email account that the nonprofit can add to their mailing list. Be sure to send an email that references the volunteer.
• How about introducing the Executive Director to 3-4 of the volunteer’s closest friends, neighbors or relatives? Chances are they already know that the volunteer is passionate about the organization and would be delighted to meet the Executive Director.
• Volunteering to supply speakers for your clubs, schools and churches is a popular way of getting your Executive Director introduced. It allows the use of his expertise in networking to find donors and volunteers.

All that is needed is to make the volunteers aware of these opportunities.

Volunteer Awareness with a Call to Action

Volunteer awareness is by itself useless. But volunteer awareness with a call to action is a valuable marketing skill. Awareness is ok but don’t get caught up in just making people aware of the nonprofit or cause. Get them to take action in the form of small donations or volunteerism.

Volunteers giving speeches to the community’s service clubs is much more effective then say the Executive Director who probably makes the rounds once a year.

Volunteer awareness with a call to action is often misunderstood. It is a powerful tool when used by volunteers. When volunteers discuss a nonprofit that is close to their heart the passion they use to express the nonprofits mission in the community is unequaled by anyone else.

This is the best time to call to action those in the audience in the form of volunteerism or donation.

Awareness can happen at any level. Awareness takes the form of individual persuasion as well. Even to the point of lobbying political representatives in the local and regional areas.

Awareness, for the benefit of a nonprofit’s clients, to change public policy can be more important then funding. It alters the playing field and can enable the nonprofit to transfer expensive projects to the government to help focus on a specific issue therefore saving money.

One of marketing’s greatest tools is awareness. But the strength of a nonprofit lies in the hearts and minds of its volunteers.

Giving New Mom the Perfect Gift - TIME!!

We've updated VolunteerSpot to make it easier than ever to celebrate a new baby with Mommy Meals and Scheduled Helpers.  Our simple planning and sign up tool helps you rally a caring circle of friends to support the new family.  Given the tough economic climate, we thought it would be timely to re-run this December post with fresh screen shots. If you're looking for a memorable, high-impact, low-cost gift...grab some friends and family and look no further!

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My girlfriend, Mare, just had a baby - an adorable little girl. The sweet thing about Mare, is she doesn't want to put her friends out.  She's very sensitive to the economic climate and asked us (her play group girlfriends) not to give her baby gifts -- this is her 2nd baby, and she's got all the basics covered. 

Of course, the thought of NOT doing something special to welcome our newest little friend won't fly with our playgroup!!  VolunteerSpot offers just the unique gift solution we needed to individually make small commitments of time that collectively roll up to a meaningful, thoughtful gift for our new-mother girlfriend!

We set up a caring calendar, scheduling meals, play dates for her first daughter, and 'on call' days for shopping and last-minute help.  Each of us chooses a volunteer spot that works with our schedule and signs up to help.  Mare knows that she's got helping hands coming twice a week while she's getting settled and bonding with her new baby.  Call it a Mommy Meal Scheduler, or Mommy Scheduler, or Mommy Care Calendar - whatever you want...it's called PEACE OF MIND for new mother and fun play dates for big sister!!

Here's how it works:

One lead friend sets up a care schedule and invites friends, family and neighbors to sign up for a spot to help with an email message or URL link.

As a helper, when you click the link - it looks like this.  First the Month View:

 

Click any open day to sign up to help new mom. In this example, I signed up to bring dinner and take big sister on a play date:

It's that easy!  VolunteerSpot automatically schedules our choices and sends confirmation and reminder messages to keep us all on track.  If anything comes up, we just go in and adjust the schedule. 

Happy Mom, and Happy Play Group - we get to give Mare an AWESOME, virtually free, GIFT - TIME!!!

VolunteerSpotlight: Tommy Palmer, Volunteer Coordinator of Lakeland Community Theatre, Lakeland, FL

We love highlighting the great work of our VolunteerSpot users. This week we hear from  Tommy Palmer of Lakeland Community Theatre in Florida.

Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.

Lakeland Community Theatre has been delighting our community for more than 20 years.  We put on five productions a year on our main stage; and for children, we offer two full theatre productions in the summer as well as camps and classes. Right now we are staging Macbeth and Hansel and Gretel.

We rely on volunteers for everything from front of the house, such as ticket takers, ushers, and concessions, to talent, lighting, sound, and stage production support.  To give you an example of scale, for front of the house, each production can require up to 160 volunteer positions to make it work - that's a lot of coordinating.  Many of our volunteers are parents of the children in the shows and folks in our community who are interested in seeing the arts in our community flourish.

How did you get started as a volunteer leader?

I started volunteering with the company 10-12 years ago.  After sticking around for so long, I became the lead volunteer coordinator...funny how that works. I was also a Big Brother for several years with Big Brothers Big Sisters, until my 'brother' aged out of the program.  During pledge-drive season, I volunteer with our local public radio station answering phones.

What advice do you have for people considering volunteering?

Do it! Helping out and getting involved gives back so much more to the community than the time you invest. Volunteering really builds community.  I feel like I'm connected and part of this community as I haven't felt before.

Why did  you decide to use VolunteerSpot?

Our theatre is run by volunteers and we all have day jobs! I know juggling email messages and calling volunteers wouldn't work for me, so I started looking for online volunteer management tools.  VolunteerSpot was the easiest volunteer software out there.  We've used it for four shows now for ushers and concession stand volunteers, and will be expanding to box office volunteers and production support, like lighting, on our next production.VolunteerSpot compartmentalizes my volunteer commitment and reduces the overall time to coordinate folks.  If it took longer, I couldn't volunteer as much; VolunteerSpot helps me be more involved.

Anything else you would like to add?

If you are ever near Lakeland, Florida, please come to one of our shows and enjoy the power of dedicated, talented community volunteers!  Lakeland Community Theatre

We salute Tommy Palmer and all the volunteer heroes out there everyday making our communities better places to live! If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing, and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at VS@volunteerspot.com.

See Who Loves our New FREE Volunteer Scheduling & Sign Up Tool

When you work with volunteers you learn they are an extra special breed of people: kind hearts, passionate about their causes and children's activities, and generous with their time and talents.  At VolunteerSpot, we're very grateful that volunteers are also generous in sharing feedback.  We've listened and added several new features thanks to user suggestions. 

It's one thing for us to tell you how VolunteerSpot makes volunteering easier - but we'd like you to hear it from our customers out there doing good work.

VolunteerSpot you are my hero!  I used to have to juggle 80 volunteers a week with paper signup sheets, you have made my job so easy and my volunteers love you too!  Shelly-Marie,  Heart House Austin, Austin, TX

I absolutely LOVE how easy this site is to use as an administrator and also as a volunteer! Thank you for providing this amazing scheduling tool to organizations that are trying to do good. I love the graphical interface too! It's VERY user-friendly and is not intimidating to use! I can't thank you enough for making this service available. I've been looking forever for something just like this!!  Heather, Soup Kitchen Volunteer Coordinator and Girl Scout Leader, St. Peter, MN


I love the Volunteer Spot -- what a long overdue tool, so useful for volunteer jobs like mine (organizing our Elementary School's Sports Day!). I can't tell you the pain I've been through in the past trying to reconcile a million email responses with an Excel spreadsheet -- a nightmare!  Congratulations on the launch of a much-needed tool.  Nancy, PTA Sports Day Committee Chair,  Round Rock, TX

You have created a simple volunteering management program that I've been dreaming of for years!  Congratulations!  Eli, Challah for Hunger, several US locations


Thank you for the volunteer scheduling service that you provide – it is nice to have a free, easy to use website that fits my episodic volunteer needs very well! Keep up the great work! Kristin, Volunteer Coordinator, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, Lynnwood, WA


VolunteerSpot is a blessing to all who manage volunteers.  I like this tool,  with it I might have continued as Career Day Chair,  getting volunteers to talk about their careers at a local school.  The coordination effort with E-mails was just too much.  But to list 5 opportunities, with volunteers by area.  And to know what was filled  at a glance would be great.  I'm now willing and able to pick this up again in the fall.  Thanks!  Donna, PTA Parent, Pataskala, OH

I teach at a PreK through 3rd Grade school – and I was given the task of finding a good/user-friendly online signup site that our school could start using.  I looked at many sites that are out there but all of them were either over-complicated, confusing, expensive – or all three! I found your site and was very quickly impressed – and started using it right away for my Morning Parent Readers.  Parents quickly got back to me with very positive feedback:

“Brilliant! Just signed up – and even for a computer idiot like me it was easy…”  and 

“Well - that was easy! 2 click process!! Thanks!”   and 

“We just signed up through VolunteerSpot and found it to be easy and convenient. Actually we're feeling rather high tech after the experience! Thank you!”

So I have become the pioneer for my school in using your site – and I am now going to use it for my upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences. Our whole school hopes to adopt VolunteerSpot for scheduling in the fall. James, Third Grade Teacher, Washington, DC


That was so easy!  Thank you VolunteerSpot for your help scheduling volunteers for our Parish Festival.  Even our older members could easily sign up on your site.  I can't even think how much time you saved me over last year.  LOVE IT!  Michelle, Mom and Parish Festival Chair, Baton Rouge, LA

Thank YOU for the amazing free service you are providing for our nonprofit community! It is a gem. I feel a lot of gratitude for it. Callie, Project Transitions, Austin, TX


I love your site!!! I'm glad that I discovered it and I have been spreading the word. Thanks for not requiring a large login process for the volunteers. Simple is better!  I knew there had to be an easier way to manage the volunteers. I'm currently organizing a July 4th Parade and Concert with over 3000 in attendance.   Thank you so much for this tool!  Theresa, Mom Volunteer,  Neighborhood 4th of July Festival Chair, Orange, OH



I recently started using VolunteerSpot to coordinate volunteers for our summer swim team. Swim meets require a LOT of volunteers - and coordinating who is doing what has in the past been a huge time consuming task.

I've gotten a ton of positive feedback from the volunteers on how easy VolunteerSpot is to use. I love that the volunteers do not have to keep track of a password - I email them, they click, they're in.  At a glance, they can see what they've signed up for, and what I still need.

From an administrator's perspective, I am so impressed with how much progress you are making on the site. I'm happy!  Thanks for offering such a great site.  Lori, Blue Sharks Swim Team Volunteer Coordinator, Knoxville, TX

Thank you VolunteerSpot for making our school Walk-A-Thon a huge success.  Even though about a quarter of our families didn't have email, your tool saved us time and was very helpful in getting all our parents signed up and where they needed to be. I'm a fan and am spreading the word to all our PTA committees and homeroom parents!! Donna, PTA Walk-A-Thon Volunteer Committee Chair, San Jose, CA