Managing multiple types of volunteer jobs can be a daunting task.  We worked with Upper Valley Mend to effectively automate much of their volunteer process; from sending out invitations for volunteering at crop gleans to following through on reporting hours and thanking volunteers who participated in the gleaning activity.

 

Tools We Used

We utilized FormAssembly, Outlook Calendar, Campaign Monitor and a combination of features from Volunteers for Salesforce along with some custom Salesforce flows and objects to create a solution that removed many of the labor intensive tasks that were previously needed.

What We Discovered

After evaluating the process that was being used to manage their volunteer crop gleans we determined that there were several areas where we could save time and effort.

First, we discovered that we could help them save time by integrating a mass email tool and we chose Campaign Monitor as that tool.  They would use that to create volunteer email lists directly from Salesforce and then email out crop gleaning information.

Separate Data Stores Were Eliminated

We then determined that the registration form for volunteers did not integrate with Salesforce but rather an mass email tool that had not been integrated with Salesforce.  We designed a FormAssembly form integrated with Salesforce to capture volunteer information and store it in Salesforce.  This form was embedded in their website.

Automating the Volunteer Shift Signup

The next discovery was that gleaning invitation email replies indicating a sign up for a specific glean were managed outside of Salesforce. The plan to optimize the process was to eliminate the manual tracking of responses to the emails that were sent out as invitations to glean.  

We designed a FormAssembly form  to assist in the process signing up for volunteer shifts.  The shift signup form was made available from an Outlook Calendar link on their website as well as an a link available for emailing.  Upon signing up for the shift the volunteer was automatically added to a Volunteers for Salesforce Job Shift.

The Outlook calendar was set up to sync from a Salesforce calendar which automatically added the Volunteers for Salesforce Job Sessions as they were created.

After the volunteer hours were completed for a glean, and the crops and weights entered into Salesforce, a thank you email was designed that would automatically include the total gleaned weight and crops for the day, a nice touch to a thank you email!

A number of automated emails within this process helped to save time in the volunteer management process.

Read about Upper Valley Mend Gleaning program here:

 

Upper Valley Mend has now expanded this volunteer automation beyond the original gleaning activity to include other volunteer activities as well.