Question 1

How long does implementation take?

Accepted Answer

Smaller programs can be up and running in a few days. Larger, multi-location organizations often phase in programs/locations over several weeks to match training and communication timelines.

Volunteer Matrix has a special "Initial Setup" configuration assistant feature. This will guide your organziation through 18 simple steps to configure your new system so that you 100% know you are ready to go live (your free-trial site becomes your live site). There are a few steps that the Volunteer Matrix team will do for you, like importing your previous volunteers/schedule data, and modifying the registration form(s). Generally speaking, anything we need to do for you is completed in 24 hours.

As well, during the setup, we can assist you via chat, email, phone or screen sharing.

Question 2

Can we run multiple locations or departments?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Many organizations use separate calendars and URLs per location or program, with roll-up reporting for leadership. Admin users can also be limited by Project Category or Project so that you can limit each admins access if desired.

Question 3

Do you support kiosk or QR check-in?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can capture attendance and hours with kiosk check-in, QR, or self-entered hours depending on the program. The Kiosk is very simple and runs on any pad device or computer with internet access. No volunteer logins are required.

Question 4

We are interested in checking out Volunteer Matrix more, what are the options?

Accepted Answer

You can click the Demo button to schedule a live software demonstration (usually about 1 hour). After the demo, you can complete the Free-Trial form on our site, and we will setup your 30 day free trial site within 24 hours for your team to use. This will be your eventual live site and is not limited in any way, you can even go live during the free trial time if desired.

Question 5

How is Volunteer Matrix different from generic scheduling tools?

Accepted Answer

Volunteer Matrix is extremely flexible and supports one time volunteers as well as recurring, long-term volunteer programs with qualifications, roles, and real-world constraints. Other generic software treat volunteers like calendar appointments; we treat them like long-term relationships.

Question 6

Do we have to change the way we already schedule volunteers?

Accepted Answer

Most likely, No. We start by modeling how you already run your program and then with our 25+ years experience, help you standardize where it makes sense. Most organizations start with one program/location and expand once staff and volunteers see the benefits.

Question 7

How far in advance should volunteers be scheduled?

Accepted Answer

This depends on your volunteer program and type opportunities. Some organization deal with many out of state groups, and those tend to book 12+ months in advance. Local volunteers tend to do more shorter timeline volunteering. The best advice is to be flexible, since if you stop scheduling a week before an opportunity, you might miss out on some folks who didn't advance plan, but can fill those empty slots.

Question 8

What’s the best reminder cadence?

Accepted Answer

Volunteer Matrix is configured for one reminder email each week for 4 weeks before their scheduled date. You can choose what day in that week (14, 15, 16, ...). That said, we recommend at 4 weeks, 2 weeks, and at 2 days. This seems to be not overly pushy, and the 2 days before seems to allow folks to still cancel, with a chance their slots will be filled by someone else (if the slots were all full).

Question 9

How do you reduce volunteer no-shows?

Accepted Answer

This is a great questions, so much that we've created an entire guide dedicated to the topic of reducing no shows (https://volunteermatrix.com/guides/how-to-reduce-no-shows).

Question 10

Should volunteers be allowed to cancel last-minute?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. The reason being is that most people who want/need to cancel will then just become a no show, and possibly then never return to volunteer as they may feel embarrassed. By default Volunteer Matrix allows cancellations up to the same time frame they can schedule. The default is 'day before' which means I could still sign up or cancel at 11:55pm tonight for a shift tomorrow. While true last-minute cancellations are not ideal, your flexibility may ensure they try again later.

Question 11

What metrics should volunteer coordinators track?

Accepted Answer

As a data-driven software, there's certainly many possible metrics (https://volunteermatrix.com/product/reports-analytics) with Volunteer Matrix. One we really like to see is how often volunteers come more than once, since we have proprietary features which actually facilitate this. Another is the average number of hours that each volunteer performs over a time period. While it's likely that we already support your desired data-metrics, we love adding new ones to the arsenal, so for sure let us know if there is any you would like to see.

Frequently asked questions