The 2021 national volunteer week is april 18-24

During this annual observance of the national celebration, ezVolunteer wants to help your school identify your volunteers with real-time screening on their background check.

For many schools volunteers are a necessity to complete campus operations on any given day. From assisting with front office administration to reading to Kindergarten students in the library; volunteers make a difference.

As you reflect on how volunteers further your educational mission, here are three reasons to consider updating how you manage the volunteer process:

TRACKING VOLUNTEER TIME INVOLVES GUESSWORK
Many schools don’t record volunteer time because there aren’t enough people or hours in the day to transcribe sign-in sheets. For those that do track volunteer hours it’s often done by a PTA member or school staff who estimate the number of hours donated by a volunteer. Volunteer time has a value ($27.20 per hour according to Do Good Institute)! Without accurate records your school may be missing out on grant opportunities. You may also run into issues if your state requires reporting on family and community engagement in your schools.

BACKGROUND CHECKS TAKE TOO LONG
When volunteers register, whether online or on-paper the process of running background checks is often a bottleneck. At best it means a delay in getting volunteers into the school to help with daily tasks. In some cases this delay causes your volunteers to miss out entirely on field trips and large events with many volunteer opportunities. At worst background check delays cause prospective volunteers to choose not to register at all.

COMMUNICATING WITH VOLUNTEERS IS SPORADIC
After completing the screening process many volunteers are simply passed along to the school(s) they selected during the registration process. Sometimes the best of intentions are not met. Volunteers may not hear back from anyone on their approval or the availability and dates of volunteer activities at the school. School staff do not receive a consolidated volunteer list. If they do have a list often it is a stand alone spreadsheet or Access database, meaning each school has to come up with their own way to reach volunteers.

Our award-winning ezVolunteer program offers a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution to recruit, screen, notify and track volunteers so you can streamline the volunteer management process and increase volunteer engagement in your building.

To find out more about our award-winning ezVolunteer product use this link to set-up a 15 minute introductory phone call that fits with your schedule.