How to Track Volunteer Grants: Tools, Metrics & More
Volunteer grants, also known as “dollars for doers” programs, are a form of corporate giving that rewards employees’ volunteerism by providing monetary donations to the organizations they support.
These programs supply an invaluable source of funding for nonprofits and schools—however, identifying, pursuing, and managing funding through the programs can be challenging without the right tools and strategies in place. So, if you’re looking for new insights to help track volunteer grants effectively for your team, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’ll explore the essential tools and metrics needed to track and report on volunteer grant opportunities—from identification through completion. Empowering your organization with the following information will ensure your team maximizes its potential from the programs with ease:
- Why Should Organizations Track Volunteer Grants?
- Key Volunteer Grant Metrics & KPIs to Monitor
- Top Tools to Track Volunteer Grants Accurately & Efficiently
Ready to get tracking? Let’s dive in.
Why Should Organizations Track Volunteer Grants?
Corporate volunteer grants offer immense potential for nonprofits, but few organizations are making the most of the opportunities before them. Why? A lack of an established volunteer grant tracking process can certainly play a role. Meanwhile, tracking volunteer grants effectively allows fundraisers to supercharge their corporate giving and volunteer engagement efforts alike.
If you’re wondering why your team should invest in revamping its volunteer grant tracking system, our leading reasons include:
- Increasing Financial Support: Volunteer grants provide additional funding, which can be significant for nonprofits relying on external support. Tracking volunteer grants through completion allows organizations to increase revenue ultimately collected through the programs. More money = more beneficiaries receiving value from your services!
- Enhancing Volunteer Engagement: Encouraging volunteers to apply for grants increases their commitment and engagement with your organization. By tracking volunteer grants—and your volunteers’ involvement in the programs—you can grow stronger relationships with supporters who participate.
- Building Corporate Relationships: Strengthening ties with corporations that offer dollars for doers programs can lead to further partnership opportunities as well. Source tailored insights from tracking volunteer grants to demonstrate employees’ devotion to their causes. For example, you can let a company that has already contributed volunteer grant funding to your organization know that you appreciate their existing support—and that of their staff—and recommend additional ways they can get involved.
- Powering Tangible Impact Measurement: Tracking volunteer grants helps measure the financial impact of volunteer efforts, ultimately showcasing the value of each contribution. When volunteers see that their efforts are being appreciated and converted into nonprofit funding, they’ll be more likely to remain dedicated to the cause.
Key Volunteer Grant Metrics & KPIs to Monitor
The best way to determine the success of your organization’s volunteer grant marketing efforts is to track select KPIs (or key performance indicators). The metrics you choose to measure can help your team assess its overall impact, improve outreach efforts, demonstrate value to stakeholders, and more.
Here are a few metrics we recommend tracking within your volunteer grant strategy.
Recommended KPI: Volunteer Grant Eligibility Rate
Why it Matters: This metric represents the portion of your volunteer network identified as eligible for a volunteer grant program through their employers. The figure allows your team to better understand and pursue the volunteer grant opportunity.
How to Track This Volunteer Grant Metric: Use a volunteer grant database tool to triage volunteers based on whether their employers offer volunteer grant programs. Then, divide the number of volunteers who work for participating companies by the total number of volunteers in your community.
Recommended KPI: Volunteer Grant Completion Rate
Why it Matters: This metric represents the portion of your volunteer-eligible supporter base that ultimately submit in a volunteer grant. Understanding this figure allows you to measure the efficiency of the full volunteer grant process and identifies areas for improvement in your strategy.
How to Track This Volunteer Grant Metric: Divide the number of volunteer-grant eligible individuals who ultimately produce a volunteer grant for your organization by the total number of volunteer-grant eligible individuals.
Recommended KPI: Total Volunteer Grant Funding Received
Why it Matters: This metric represents the direct financial benefit from companies through volunteer grant programs, indicating the overall level of support.
How to Track This Volunteer Grant Metric: Add the sum of each volunteer grant you receive in a given time period.
Recommended KPI: Grant Amount per Volunteer
Why it Matters: This metric represents the average value a volunteer grant brings. It also allows you to more accurately forecast incoming grant revenue and aids in tailoring realistic targets and expectations for the results of your implemented strategies.
How to Track This Volunteer Grant Metric: Add the sum of each volunteer grant you receive in a given time period, then divide the total amount of funds by the number of volunteer grants received.
Recommended KPI: Number of Companies Providing Volunteer Grants
Why it Matters: This metric represents the extent of your organization’s current corporate volunteer grant contributor network, and demonstrates your potential for future growth.
How to Track This Volunteer Grant Metric: Count each company that contributes one or more volunteer grants to your organization in a given time period. See if these top volunteer grant companies are supporting your efforts!
Top Tools to Track Volunteer Grants Accurately & Efficiently
Equipping your team with the right tools to track volunteer grants is an essential component of the process. After all, doing so allows for increasingly accurate and efficient management of volunteer data. Plus, innovative technology allows you to enhance reporting capabilities and strengthen relationships with individual volunteers and corporate partners alike.
Effective tracking tools will help your organization streamline volunteer grant identification and promotional efforts, too, ultimately leading to increased funding, improved engagement, and better, more-informed decision-making.
Here’s what we suggest:
A specialized volunteer grant database
For example, Double the Donation can provide exclusive access to forms and guidelines for thousands of companies that provide volunteer grants (and matching gifts, VTO, etc.). This ultimately simplifies the process of securing volunteer grants, making it easier for volunteers to do their part in the request and driving more volunteer grants to completion.
Comprehensive volunteer time-tracking tools
For volunteers to submit grant requests to their employers, they’ll generally need to supply some sort of record of their activities.
For that purpose, you’ll want to ensure you’re making it easy for volunteers by equipping them with tools to track and verify the hours they spend with your organization.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) portals
Many companies facilitate volunteer grants through their CSR platforms. In that case, your team will need to log in to the portals to verify volunteer hours. (Don’t worry—we have a handy guide here on navigating those platforms.)
These portals will also allow you to see how many volunteer grants have made it to this step!
Remember: the right tools can go a long way. Effective tracking tools will help streamline your identification and promotional efforts, too. In the end, it ultimately leads to increased funding, improved engagement, and better, more-informed decision-making.
Next Steps for Tracking More Volunteer Grants
Tracking and reporting on volunteer grant opportunities is a vital component of a successful corporate engagement strategy. With the right tools and key metrics, your team can track volunteer grants more seamlessly than ever before.
As a result, your organization can boost its financial resources, strengthen relationships with corporate partners, and encourage greater volunteer involvement.
Interested in learning more about how you can track volunteer grants and other forms of corporate giving? Check out these recommended resources:
- Top Volunteer Grant Companies Offering Dollars for Doers. Uncover top volunteer grant opportunities in your supporter base. Explore lucrative programs from companies like Disney, Allstate, and ExxonMobil.
- Tracking Volunteer Time Off: A How-To Guide [& Template]. Volunteer time off is a valuable incentive for corporate volunteering. See how your team can track and report volunteer time to utilize the programs.
- Matching Gift Reporting | Actionable Metrics & Reports. Corporate matching gifts are the most-offered kind of giving initiative. Supercharge your nonprofit’s efforts by scaling up your matching gift reporting!
