Evaluation is an important tool to gauge the effectiveness of your volunteer program and your agency's relationship with its volunteers. This includes the benefits the volunteer program makes to the:
- agency
- individual volunteer
- broader community.
Measuring the financial value that volunteers contribute and how volunteering has contributed to developing community capacity may also be important to consider.
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Collecting information
You can develop a profile on your volunteers by reviewing data such as:
- age
- gender
- location
- length of time volunteering
- activities undertaken
- amount of time volunteered
- expenses incurred and claimed.
This information can inform the way an agency recruits, motivates, manages and retains its volunteers to best meet its objectives. Evaluation data also provides valuable information on what is working well, and why, so your agency can continue to grow good practice in its volunteering activities.
Evaluation methods
Gauging what elements of your program work well, and why, is critical to managing an effective volunteering program. Engaging Queenslanders: Evaluating community engagement is a step-by-step tool that explains evaluation techniques and what you might want to consider in evaluating your volunteering activities.
It is important to communicate evaluation outcomes to volunteers, volunteer organisations, employees, senior management, clients of the agency and the broader community. Reporting on your program, both formally and informally, also serves to profile its value, highlighting the benefits of your volunteer activity.
Case study:
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