Are you having volunteer management software challenges? I keep hearing a version of the same story from leaders of volunteers, over and over again. It goes something like this: “We got a volunteer management system because we thought it would make things easier and faster. Instead, it made everything harder, took forever to set up, and now half our volunteers won’t use it.”
Sound familiar?
Before I became a volunteer engagement consultant, I was a cabinet maker. I spent years working with beautiful wood, sharp chisels, and some very expensive machinery. There’s an old saying that gets drilled into you pretty quickly when you enter the trades: a good craftsman never blames his tools.
It means, of course, that if the work isn’t turning out well, the problem isn’t the saw. It’s the plan, the skill, or the process behind it.
Here’s the thing. A volunteer management software system — a VMS — is a tool. A very clever, often expensive, and genuinely useful tool. But it is not a solution. And if you buy one thinking it’s going to solve your problems, you’re going to be disappointed.
Imagine I’m building a cabinet.
I’ve got a rough idea of what I want — something for the hallway, with a couple of doors. I haven’t really measured the space. I haven’t drawn up proper plans. I’m not sure how the doors are going to attach. But I’ve just bought a brand new, top-of-the-line table saw, and that’s going to make everything come together perfectly. Right?
Hardly. A high-end saw, in the hands of someone without a solid plan, produces beautifully cut pieces that don’t fit together.
It’s the same with a VMS. If your volunteer recruitment process is confusing, a VMS will automate that confusion. When your scheduling is chaotic, the software will digitalise the chaos. If you don’t have a clear picture of what information you need to collect about your volunteers, or how you’re going to communicate with them, or what your onboarding actually looks like — no amount of software is going to sort that out for you. Your volunteer management software challenges are really process challenges.
So, what needs to come first?
Before you even start shopping for a VMS — before you watch a single demo or compare features — you need to take a good honest look at your internal systems.
Ask yourself:
What does our volunteer intake process actually look like, from the moment someone expresses interest to the moment they show up for their first shift? Are there barriers? Is it logical? Does it gather the information we actually need?
How do we currently communicate with volunteers? Is it consistent? Do people know what to expect and when?
How do we track volunteer hours, roles, and skills? How does our scheduling work? Are there gaps, overlaps, or last-minute scrambles that happen regularly? Is all that information accessible and useful, or is it scattered across spreadsheets, sticky notes, and the memory of someone who just left for holidays?
If the honest answer to any of these is “it’s a bit of a mess, really” then that mess needs to be cleaned up first. Because when you load a messy system into software, you don’t get a clean system. You get a mess with a subscription fee.
Get the process right, then automate it.
The good news is, sorting out your processes before you purchase a VMS has benefits beyond just making the software work better. It forces you to think critically about how your program runs. You may find inefficiencies or barriers you didn’t know were there. You’ll clarify roles and responsibilities. You might discover you’ve been collecting information you don’t need, or that you’re missing information you desperately do.
Think of it as a dress rehearsal. Run through your entire volunteer journey on paper — or on a whiteboard, or in a shared document with a handful of current volunteers. Map it out step by step. Where are the bottlenecks? Where do things fall through the cracks? Fix those things first.
Then, and only then, go shopping for a VMS. At that point, you’ll also have a much clearer idea of what features you actually need — which means you’re far less likely to end up paying for a complex system with bells and whistles that you will never use.
The Right Tool for the Right Job
I haven’t been in the trades for a few years now, but I still have a workshop full of high-end tools. None of them, though, are a substitute for planning and good design. The best table saw in the world won’t tell me where to make the cut.
A VMS can be a wonderful thing. It can save you enormous amounts of time, reduce errors, improve communication with your volunteers, and give you data that helps you make better decisions. But only if the foundation underneath it is solid.
So, before you invest in the tool, invest in the process. You’ll have fewer volunteer management software challenges, and your future self — and your volunteers — will thank you.
