For many nonprofits, volunteers are not only a fantastic way to help provide services to the community, but also an opportunity to develop a group of loyal supporters. Unfortunately, the process of recruiting, managing and tracking volunteers can become exhausting. And with so much else on your plate, the last thing you want is to pore over a spreadsheet of volunteers or spend your time tirelessly sending out reminder emails.

Enter the Wired Impact Volunteer Management plugin for WordPress. No more rummaging through emails to remember who signed up or texting a volunteer to tell him there are no more spots available. With this plugin you can now focus more of your time on cultivating relationships with volunteers, and less on logistics.

Before we hop in it’s worth mentioning that I was heavily involved in the development of the plugin. I just wanted to mention that for the sake of full transparency. Alright, let’s get started.

Wired Impact Volunteer Management Features

In order to truly determine if the Wired Impact Volunteer Management plugin can help your organization, let’s take a quick look at some of the features to see if it’s a good fit.

Post One-Time and Flexible Volunteer Opportunities on Your Website

The plugin allows you to easily post one-time and flexible volunteer opportunities directly on your website. While so many third-party volunteer management tools force visitors to another website, posting opportunities on your site keeps visitors interacting with your brand and engaging with your content.

Volunteers Can Sign Up Directly on Your Website

On top of listing the available opportunities on your site, volunteers can sign up there as well. This allows you to use a tracking tool such as Google Analytics to collect a ton of helpful information such as what sources are driving new volunteers, what pages are leading individuals to sign up and how often previous volunteers are becoming donors. Here’s a look at the signup form.

Limit the Number of Volunteer Spots Available for Opportunities

In many cases, nonprofits need to limit the number of volunteers that can sign up, either because they don’t have the physical space or they don’t want volunteers sitting around with nothing to do. The plugin allows you to enter a maximum number of volunteers so you don’t have to worry about overbooking. Once that limit is reached, the form disappears and visitors can no longer sign up. Below you’ll see a screenshot of the WordPress admin showing how you can limit the number of volunteers and see a list of who has already signed up.

Customizable Reminder Emails to Volunteers

Getting volunteers to sign up is one thing, but how about making sure they actually show up? The plugin gives you an edge by sending customizable reminder emails days before the opportunity takes place. Take a look below at an example of one of these emails.

Volunteer Profiles That Track Participation

Wired Impact Volunteer Management also tracks participation to help answer these questions:

• Who has signed up for the most volunteer opportunities?
• How many volunteers have signed up for opportunities?
• When did a volunteer start volunteering with your organization?
• What volunteer opportunities did an individual sign up for?

You can also add notes on a specific volunteer in case you want to remember what they look like, what company they work for or that they always sign up, but never actually show up. Below is a screenshot showing one of these profiles.

How to Get Started with Wired Impact Volunteer Management

So let’s say you’re interested in using the plugin to manage your volunteers. How do you get started?

Install the Plugin

Obviously, before using the plugin you’ll need to install it on your website. Follow these steps:

1. Log into WordPress
2. Go to Plugins >> Add New in the left-hand menu
3. Search for “Wired Impact Volunteer Management” using the search box in the top right of the screen
4. Click the “Install Now” button for the Wired Impact Volunteer Management plugin

Adjust the Settings

Now that the plugin is installed, you should adjust the settings to meet your needs. Follow these steps to do just that:

1. Find the new “Volunteer Mgmt” menu within the WordPress admin, hover over it and click “Help & Settings”
2. Go to each of the “General”, “Opportunity Defaults” and “Email” settings tabs, change what’s needed (many defaults are set for you, but you can adjust as necessary) and save your changes

Create Your First Volunteer Opportunity

Installation? Check. Settings? Check. Let’s publish a volunteer opportunity:

1. In the “Volunteer Mgmt” menu click “Opportunities”
2. On the Opportunities page, click “Add Volunteer Opportunity”
3. Fill in all of the fields including the title, description, contact info, location info, when the opportunity is and any volunteer limit
4. Click the blue “Publish” button
5. To display one-time opportunities on your site place the shortcode “[one_time_volunteer_opps]” directly within the content of any page, making sure to publish your changes
6. To display flexible volunteer opportunities you’ll want to add the “[flexible_volunteer_opps]” shortcode on a different page

Easy as that. You should now be able to see your opportunities listed out on the frontend of your website and visitors should be set to start signing up.

Now the volunteer and the administrator will be emailed a notification when they sign up. You can also see who signed up by visiting the edit screen for each of the opportunities.

At this point you’re probably trying to understand the difference between one-time and flexible opportunities. One-time opportunities happen at a fixed date and time, such as a yearly trivia night. Flexible opportunities can happen on different days and times or may be ongoing, such as when your nonprofit needs a volunteer to help with your social media on a regular basis.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Wired Impact Volunteer Management

Here are some helpful tips for using the plugin:

• Remove Volunteers from an Opportunity – On the edit screen for any opportunity you can remove a volunteer by clicking the “Remove RSVP” button, which is especially helpful if someone can no longer make it and you want to open up a spot for another person to sign up
• Add Notes for a Volunteer – As I mentioned above, you can add notes for any volunteer within their profile by clicking the “Edit Volunteer Info” button, which can be used to store any information you’d like about each person
• Filter Opportunities for Easier Viewing – On the “Opportunities” page use the “Upcoming One-Time Opportunities”, “Past One-Time Opportunities” and “Flexible Opportunities” filters to help you see exactly the opportunities you want
• Use Variables in Your Emails – Make sure to use the variables such as {opportunity_name}, {contact_name} and others in your email templates to provide more helpful, automated info to your volunteers
• Adjust the Look and Layout – If you don’t like the way the content is displayed, you can turn off our styling under the “General” settings or you can copy the files under the plugin’s “templates” folder into your theme for more granular control

I know we’ve covered a lot, but hopefully the plugin will help your nonprofit more efficiently and effectively manage your volunteers. Would you like to share some tips of your own? Do you have any questions? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.