How to Manage Skills-Based Volunteerism
Part 1: Volunteer Allocation
The popularity of skills-based volunteerism has been growing rapidly in businesses and non-profit organisations alike. Especially for non-profits, they are always looking for ways to bring in skills that can help them with business operations – such as marketing, operations, finance, and IT. And the need for these skills is huge:
Did you know? The average nonprofit organization spends just 2 percent of its organisational budget on overhead, compared with the average business that spends 20 percent on overhead. (Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review)
In the previous article, we introduced bantu’s APR Framework, a.k.a. the Alarm Clock Model to show you the thought processes behind the creation of communication and engagement features.
In this article, we will share how our volunteer management solution, Workspace’s, Skills Segmentation features can help organisations manage their skilled volunteers!
How Can You Understand Your Volunteers Skill Sets? (In 50 Words)
When a new volunteer signs up on bantu.life, he/she will be asked to specify the various skill(s) he/she possess(es). Volunteers will be able to list all types of skill(s) they have — ranging from hard to soft skills. For instance, being able to cook to being proficient in Photoshop to being good with elderly. The skills they entered will be recorded in their profile for your viewing.
How Can Skills Segmentation Be Easy For Organisations? (In 50 Words)
When your organisation creates a new project, you can list specific skill set(s) you require potential volunteers to possess. For example: You are organising an event for animals and you require volunteers to be able to ‘Bathe for the dogs’ or ‘Feed the cats’, you can simply list them down.
How Does Skills Matching Works (In 50 Words)
After listing the required skill(s) needed for the project, only volunteers who possess the stated necessary skills will be able to sign up for it. That is how the matching takes places — no manual screening needed, all you need to do is to approve their participation through your Workspace account.
From then on, you’ll be able to keep an accurate record of the volunteers’ skills, and reach out to them (via other communication features) directly from your Dashboard. It’s as simple as that.
3 Benefits of Skills Segmentation Features:
#1: Eliminate the need to manually screen volunteers for their skills after receiving their application sign-ups because Workspace automates the entire process on your behalf.
#2: Volunteers will have a clear idea of the specific requirements for the project they sign up for when you list the required skills they should possess – setting the right expectations before they attend their volunteer slot.
#3: When volunteers add their skill sets, it will be immediately stored to your database. This is a dynamic process as real-time updating occurs when they add or remove these skills.
Stay tuned for the next article because we will be unlocking the next three fantastic features that will help you with Engagement and Communication!
