Volunteer Management System, Fairfax County, Virginia

About the Program

Category: Volunteers (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

In 2013, Fairfax County moved to a consolidated, county-wide volunteer management system in order to better recruit, schedule, manage and serve our volunteers. The goal was threefold: • To make a better experience for the volunteers and those interested in volunteering. • To make the administration of volunteers more productive & efficient for county staff. • To allow for centralized accurate reporting by operational unit to management and citizen stakeholders. The investment in an enterprise system, which replaces 26 programs in 15 different agencies, improves efficiency and effectiveness for county staff who manage volunteers; residents interested in volunteering; and active volunteers scheduling and tracking their hours. Benefits to volunteers include: • Ability to streamline data entry and eliminate duplicate background checks. • Ability to cross-pollinate to easily sign up for opportunities in multiple agencies. • Ability to become a resource for emergencies. The program has been a success with more than 18,000 volunteers registering in the system in two years and more than 1500 individual and group volunteer opportunities available in a one searchable site. As a result of this consolidation, tracking and reporting an unduplicated number of volunteers and the value of their contributions is greatly improved. In 2015, volunteers contributed more than $12 million of services to Fairfax County.