Implementation checklist

Implementing a new volunteer management system can feel overwhelming. Between migrating data, configuring calendars, setting up permissions, and training staff, there are many moving parts.
 
This step-by-step volunteer management implementation checklist walks you through everything you need to collect, configure, and test before going live — so your launch is smooth and stress-free.
 

General Best Practices

• Reach out for assistance - support is 100% included, and it's 100% normal to have questions. You are paying us for support (included in the cost), so you aren't 'bothering' us with questions. Actually, part of the reason Volunteer Matrix is so great is that we really analyze your questions to see if we need to add more in-situ support, change the verbiage, etc. So you are doing us a favor by asking questions.
• Time management - this is a tough one. We know that you are super busy and being pulled in multiple directions all the time. But what we've seen is that the fastest implementations seem to be where you can dedicate 1 or more more hours each day you do work on it, focusing on targeted items.
• Use the Built-In Setup Assistant - Volunteer Matrix provides a "Initial Setup" configuration assistant that will walk you through 16 steps to knowing your organization is ready to go live. Each has a description/background info, then a button to take you to that screen. You can make notes for yourself or for VMX support, and mark them completed or in progress. Organizations that follow this checklist typically go live 50-70% faster than those who skip the structured setup. This feature will also expose you to features and options that you may not yet know exist, and so enable your configuration to best match your organizations existing processes.
• Use the available help options  
  

  Self help options are baked in

  • Each admin screen has a right side vertical green HELP drawer. This changes with each screen (no 500 page PDF for you to keyword search), and provides often just the details you need.
  • When you open that green HELP drawer, there is a 'Ask a question' box, that sends us an email and you can expect a full response usually in 15-30 minutes (always less than 24 hours).
  • Built into many of the screens which have forms you will see a green help icon by an item. Use this to get more details about that particular item.
   
  

  Reach out to Support

  • Bottom right corner is the Support live Chat - we are very available even in what would be considered typical off-business hours.
  • Send a email - you likely already have an email address for us, so use that or email - Typical response response time is less than 15 minutes.
  • Call us - Yup, we even support the old school method of communication. +1 (808) 982-4174.
  • On request, we can also do screen sharing trainings/support. You can either reach out to us at the time and we can likely do it then, or you can schedule a date/time using our DEMO calendar on this website.

Step-by-Step Implementation Checklist

If you use the Initial Setup feature in Volunteer Matrix, then you are waaaay ahead of the pack, and so this list is likely redundant for you.
This is an ordered list as some items are best done before or after others so that you don't have to revisit previous items to make changes.

1. Do the software demo - this is a requirement, so if you have admin access you've already done this part. While we call it a demo, it's effectively training.
2. Add your admin users & billing contact. All admin users must have their own login, and since we don't charge you by the number of admins, there's no reason to try to share (results in both being logged out of the system, loosing your current work).
3. Review the Global Settings - your system comes preloaded with content, so most of our clients don't actually change much here. There is an 'overview' button at the top of this screen - use that to see the main points for that section. If those look good, then you likely don't need to open that section for a more thorough review.
4. Required Documents/Waivers - When you create your projects/events, it's helpful to already have these in place so that you don't need to come back later to enable requiring these.
5. Modify your volunteer registration form - Actually, support will do this for you, but we need you to let us know what you want changed. If you have an existing PDF or online form, we can also use that as a starting point.
6. Setup your Calendars - we already configured your main calendar to use your organizations website as the template, but if you think you will add more calendars (one per location, very different volunteer types, etc) you can do that now. You are able to add/delete calendar willy-nilly without harming your projects, so you can do this later as well. Each calendar is able to have it's own different registration form and registration process.
7. Add Skills & Interests - You can have multiple sets of these and assign them to each calendar registration process.
8. Volunteer Qualifications - You will use these to either allow or deny volunteers to sign up for your projects/shifts. These might be an online training in Volunteer Matrix, or set after an in-person orientation, or be the Background Check expiration date, etc. These are a powerful 'control' feature and there are many options available - please edit a Volunteer Qual in the admin and try out all the options.
9. Volunteer Group configurations - this one is pretty simple, if you don't disallow groups, then likely the default configuration is fine.
10. 3rd Party software integrations - Volunteer Matrix has many integration partners, so if you want your data updated/synched in your other software, check out the System Configuration (gear icon), then listed at the bottom. If you have a software not listed, let us know as we do add new connectors regularly (no cost).
11. Import your previous data - Support will import your data for you. Get all the data you can out of any existing system, all dates/times, names, projects, etc. We can import all of this for you (no cost) so that you can run the Volunteer Matrix suite of reporting features even on your past data.
12. Create your Projects/Events - If we imported your data with schedules, then we might have also created the same projects already for you. You will want to edit each project you will use again so that some of the required missing data points are added. A project can have up to 100 shifts on each day, and each shift can have up to 10,000 volunteers. You likely won't create a new project for each position, but rather a project with multiple shifts, each for each position.
13. Right after you add a Project, the system will send you over to create the schedule for that Project. You can add recurring or one time schedules easily. The color coded screen will show you where your days are all the same or different.
14. Pretend you are a volunteer - What better way to ensure you know the process and can check for any misconfigurations than just signing up as a volunteer? Besides, it's quick and easy, right? This is also a great time to have a set of existing volunteers 'test' for you as well.
15. If you plan to have volunteers clock in/out, be sure to schedule some shifts and try out the Kiosk, QR codes and Roll Call features so that you are ready to use them on the first 'real' day.
16. Make your Volunteer Matrix calendar page live. This could not be any easier, just have your web person link to your organizations assigned calendar address. No embedding, no extra coding.
17. Send out the welcome email - We have a default 'welcome' email template for you to use, which you can edit before sending out.

Launch & Communication

Office reception

If you have a reception person fielding phone calls, be sure they know about the new scheduling system, and that people are able to access it via your website. While your staff absolutely can manually schedule people, we suggest you push people to the website to self-schedule. This helps avoid a situation where they expect you to always schedule for them via phone.
If there are any questions about their volunteer password or login, request that they visit the calendar page, and use the lost user/pass options. As a backup, your reception can go to the public calendar page themselves, and use the lost password option and enter the volunteers email address and choose the option to have it emailed to the volunteer. In this way the volunteer then receives an email with their login and a link to your calendar page. The same email is sent if an admin clicks the 'email login' button on a volunteers profile.

Other Stakeholders

Others in your organization may be using reports and exports that you aren't aware of. Check with your other staff and list these out so that you can provide them similar or better reporting going forward.

Common Implementation Mistakes

• Setting a very far future launch date.
• Importing data after building projects
• Not testing as a volunteer
• Skipping qualification setup
• Not informing reception staff and other stakeholders