Critical Timing for Volunteering and the Internet

Thanks for the comment, Jayne. Actually, the argument here is that we can all learn from standard KPIs that have been rigorously tested in other industry contexts, namely eCommerce, to achieve better outcomes for volunteering. That should be our operating standard, not historical figures reported by volunteer listings websites. In the volunteer sector, we all have "conversion funnel metrics" - giving more volunteers and organizers more successful matches, experiences, and value created together. We use and would recommend others use surveys in addition to these metrics, and more on that in a moment. In terms of measurement, we want to monitor "reach" (how many people see the opportunities), "conversion" (what percentage of people sign up), "retention" (what percent of volunteers return to the same place to volunteer), and "virality" (the ratio of number of volunteers invited by each person who volunteers with the organization). Mobile apps are the REQUISITE innovation to accurately track these essential trends. Prior to mobile, websites could only reasonably measure reach by looking at impressions or hits on a listing, but as anyone who looks at website analytics knows, it's imprecise to equate hits to unique visitors and guesswork to separate volunteer visitors from web-crawling robots. These websites have no mechanisms to attribute attendance, retention, virality and other valuable data without relying on people to electively self-report feedback. For this reason, online volunteer listings have never been able to accurately track the volunteer lifecycle. Now consider mobile: since mobile apps are downloaded and logged into by credentialed, individual users, mobile app analytics can EXACTLY track who a user is, what she browses, what she signs up for, what she attends (using location and double verification from the attendee and host), when she repeats an activity, what she invites friends to do with her, etc. MOBILE MAKES ALL OF THIS TRACKING A MORE EXACT, REAL TIME SCIENCE. SURVEYS ARE ONE WAY TO APPROXIMATE THESE METRICS, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS BE AN INDICATOR RATHER THAN AN EXACT MEASURE because they are subject to survey design choices, selection bias, delayed/asynchronous responses, subject matter recall, imperfect response rates, manual human data entry, and selective reporting. Surveys, however, play an essential role in program optimization. Using the conversion funnel KPIs we've described here, we can see where there is a kink in our flow. Look between each stage: -Are enough potential volunteers seeing the listing? -What percentage of viewers sign up? -What percentage of registered attendees show up? -What percentage of past volunteers return? -How many volunteers does each volunteer bring with them over her lifetime with your organization? -Considering volunteer hours, donations, invited volunteer hours, and invited volunteer donations, what is the lifetime value to your organization of each of your volunteers? These metrics will vary based on the nature, frequency, demographics, network structures, and other factors defining your volunteer community, but the more familiar you get with your own trends and industry averages, the more familiar you'll become with identifying opportunities to evolve into an even more effective program. When you identify kinks in your funnel, you can then focus your survey questions around the experiences volunteers are having in that stage of their engagement with you. For example, if you notice a lot of volunteers see, sign up for, and attend your opportunities, but do not return, you could zero in on questions like these in your surveys: -How was your experience volunteering for X? -On a scale of 1-10, how effectively do you believe the tasks you were asked to perform supported our mission? -Before volunteering for X, what interested you in our opportunity? -On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being not at all and 10 being fully satisfied, how closely were your expectations met by the volunteer opportunity you performed? -How would you describe the social environment you experienced while volunteering for X? -On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being not at all interested and 10 being 100% interested, how interested would you be in spending time in the social environment you experienced while volunteering for X again in the future? -Did you receive a "thank you" communication for the efforts you performed while volunteering for X? -Are you aware of when the next occasions to participate in opportunity X will be occurring? By asking questions like these, you may be able to surface specific activities that could influence a volunteer's interest to return. A well-designed survey should include open-ended questions, such as the common "reflection" request, as well as quantitative questions to measure volunteer sentiment. And of course, all of the above is an academic approach to answering Jayne's question. THE REAL REASON WHY PRACTITIONERS SHOULD FAVOR MOBILE APPS IS BECAUSE IT MAKES THE ENTIRE PROCESS DESCRIBED ABOVE TOTALLY EFFORTLESS, AUTOMATED, AND TURNKEY. No more manual coordination, disjointed followup and survey processes, data entry, time-consuming reports. You can just focus on providing the best opportunities at the best cadence for your community and organization's goals.