Every nonprofit is unique and has tailored needs. Accordingly, what might be an excellent software solution for one nonprofit, might not be a great fit for another. Understanding that, this article aims to highlight the pros and cons of the 9 Best Volunteer Management Software Platforms on the market today. We hope that this list and breakdown will help you find the volunteer management software that is the best fit for your organization.
Getting started with Bugle is fast, easy, and free. Thanks to Bugle’s self-service functionality, a new nonprofit can create a Bugle account and launch their first event in less than 6 minutes, without ever speaking with a Bugle representative. Unlike many freemium offerings on the market today, Bugle’s Community Plan is feature rich and not limited to a trial period.
Both of Bugle’s free and paid plans offer unlimited admin accounts and support an unlimited number of volunteers. Whether your nonprofit is taking advantage of Bugle’s free Community Plan or has upgraded to Bugle’s Premium Plan, your nonprofit will have access to unlimited number admin seats and unlimited volunteers with no additional costs or fees.
Bugle makes it easy for nonprofits to equip all of their chapter leaders and event organizers with a robust suite of volunteer management tools. For nonprofits that have upgraded to Bugle Premium, Bugle Analytics empowers admins with chapter performance insights and data segmentation.
Bugle does not offer background checks and does not directly integrate with any background check companies. Accordingly, adding background check documentation to a volunteer profile is a manual process.
Bugle does not offer a survey feature. While nonprofits can use Bugle’s email and text features to distribute surveys, they’ll need to create them elsewhere (Google forms, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, etc.).
| Feature | Available | Free Feature | Paid Feature | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Management | ||||
| Event Registration | Free | Free | ||
| Digital Check-in Tools | Free | Free | ||
| Checkout Functionality | Free | Free | ||
| Digital Waivers | Free | Free | ||
| Recurring Events | Free | Free | ||
| Customizable Event Templates | Free | Free | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Automated Event Reminders | Free | Free | ||
| Email Messaging | Free | Free | ||
| SMS Messaging | Free | Free | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Mobile Friendly | Free | Free | ||
| Volunteer Profiles | Free | Free | ||
| Embeddable Events Calendar | Free | Free | ||
| Events Directory Webpage | Free | Free | ||
| Data Management | ||||
| Analytics | Paid | Paid | ||
| Automated Data Transfer to Existing CRM | Paid | Paid |
Bugle’s crowdfunding functionality allows nonprofits to turn any community outreach event into a fundraising opportunity. Accompanied by reporting tools, event organizers can easily share event achievements with their volunteers and donors.
Golden offers a 30-day free trial of their Professional plan. Nonprofits that are interested in exploring the product offerings of Golden’s Professional plan can try before they buy to determine if the plan is a good fit for their nonprofit.
Phone support is limited to nonprofits who have upgraded to Golden’s Enterprise plan. Further, Golden does not advertise video call support (allowing nonprofits to take advantage of screen sharing during troubleshooting) for any of their plans. For Golden’s Free and Professional plans, their nonprofit customers have access to Golden’s Resource Hub and email support.
Functionality to facilitate multiple chapters or locations is limited to Golden’s Enterprise plan. This functionality is not available to nonprofits utilizing Golden’s Free or Professional plans.
| Feature | Available | Free Feature | Paid Feature | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Management | ||||
| Event Registration | Free | Free | ||
| Digital Check-in Tools | Free | Free | ||
| Checkout Functionality | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Waivers | Paid | Paid | ||
| Recurring Events | Free | Free | ||
| Customizable Event Templates | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Automated Event Reminders | Paid | Paid | ||
| Email Messaging | Free | Free | ||
| SMS Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| Accessibility | ||||
| Mobile Friendly | Free | Free | ||
| Volunteer Profiles | Paid | Paid | ||
| Embeddable Events Calendar | Free | Free | ||
| Events Directory Webpage | Free | Free | ||
| Data Management | ||||
| Analytics | Paid | Paid | ||
| Automated Data Transfer to Existing CRM | Paid | Paid |
VolunteerHub offers customizable ‘Landing Pages’ that can be co-branded for joint events with partner organizations. These pages can help simply exclusive and/or closed group events and volunteer opportunities.
VolunteerHub’s Configurable Forms makes it easy for nonprofits to create and save application questions for specific groups of volunteers. This functionality allows nonprofits to collect basic information from all new users and specific information based on volunteer groups/associations.
VolunteerHub does not offer free or self-service plans. All three of VolunteerHub’s plans are paid and require implementation with a VolunteerHub representative.
| Feature | Available | Free Feature | Paid Feature | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Management | ||||
| Event Registration | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Check-in Tools | Paid | Paid | ||
| Checkout Functionality | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Waivers | Paid | Paid | ||
| Recurring Events | Paid | Paid | ||
| Customizable Event Templates | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Automated Event Reminders | Paid | Paid | ||
| Email Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| SMS Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Mobile Friendly | Paid | Paid | ||
| Volunteer Profiles | Paid | Paid | ||
| Embeddable Events Calendar | Paid | Paid | ||
| Events Directory Webpage | Paid | Paid | ||
| Data Management | ||||
| Analytics | Paid | Paid | ||
| Automated Data Transfer to Existing CRM | Paid | Paid |
Bloomerang Volunteers is purpose built to seamlessly integrate with Bloomerang’s Donor Database CRM. For nonprofit’s using Bloomerang’s CRM, volunteer data collected through Bloomerang Volunteer’s can easily be used to help convert volunteers into donors.
Bloomerang Volunteers offers a mobile application that is available on both Android and iOS. In addition to enhancing the volunteer and admin user experience, this mobile application helps to facilitate geo-location tracking and geo-fence functionality.
Bloomerang Volunteers does not offer background checks and does not directly integrate with any background check companies. Accordingly, adding background check documentation to a volunteer profile is a manual process.
| Feature | Available | Free Feature | Paid Feature | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Management | ||||
| Event Registration | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Check-in Tools | Paid | Paid | ||
| Checkout Functionality | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Waivers | Paid | Paid | ||
| Recurring Events | Paid | Paid | ||
| Customizable Event Templates | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Automated Event Reminders | Paid | Paid | ||
| Email Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| SMS Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Mobile Friendly | Paid | Paid | ||
| Volunteer Profiles | Paid | Paid | ||
| Embeddable Events Calendar | Paid | Paid | ||
| Events Directory Webpage | Paid | Paid | ||
| Data Management | ||||
| Analytics | Paid | Paid | ||
| Automated Data Transfer to Existing CRM | Paid | Paid |
VOMO is a Virtuous product and is uniquely compatible with Virtuous CRM. Nonprofit’s utilizing both VOMO and Virtuous CRM benefit from the ease of data sharing and a simplified integration experience.
The VOMO App allows nonprofits to post their events to VOMO’s volunteer event marketplace. These events are accessible for all other volunteers that utilize the app. Similar to the benefits of using Sign-Up Genius or Eventbrite, the VOMO app can increase exposure and assist with volunteer recruitment.
VOMO does not offer a survey feature. While nonprofits can use VOMO’s messaging features to distribute surveys, they’ll need to create them elsewhere (Google forms, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, etc.).
| Feature | Available | Free Feature | Paid Feature | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Management | ||||
| Event Registration | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Check-in Tools | Paid | Paid | ||
| Checkout Functionality | Paid | Paid | ||
| Digital Waivers | Paid | Paid | ||
| Recurring Events | Paid | Paid | ||
| Customizable Event Templates | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Automated Event Reminders | Paid | Paid | ||
| Email Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| SMS Messaging | Paid | Paid | ||
| Communication | ||||
| Mobile Friendly | Paid | Paid | ||
| Volunteer Profiles | Paid | Paid | ||
| Embeddable Events Calendar | Paid | Paid | ||
| Events Directory Webpage | Paid | Paid | ||
| Data Management | ||||
| Analytics | Paid | Paid | ||
| Automated Data Transfer to Existing CRM | Paid | Paid |
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