Volunteer tracking

Hi ​@eedwards GREAT question. I’ve broken down your questions into sections below. I hope this helps!

1. How do you define and track who is an “active” volunteer?
A lot of organizations find it helpful to define “active” based on recent behavior, not just intent. A common pattern is:

• Active: Has logged at least 1 volunteer activity or X hours in the last 3–6 months

• Standby: Has opted in to volunteer, but has not taken an action in the last 3–6 months

• Inactive: Has not taken action in a longer period (12+ months) or has told you they are no longer available

You can tighten or loosen those timeframes based on your volume and program.

Here’s one way for you to track this in EA:

What you are doing now with a custom field is a very common pattern. A typical setup looks like:

• Custom field: “Volunteer Status”

  • Values like: New Sign Up, Active, Standby, Inactive, Retired

  • You can Auto-populate “New Sign Up” from your volunteer form by default

• Activity-based updates using queries or automation:

  • Search for volunteers who have logged activity in the last X months and update their status to “Active”

  • Search for folks with no activity in Y months and move them to “Standby” or “Inactive”

  • When someone explicitly opts out, set them to “Retired”

That keeps “Volunteer Status” closer to real behavior without creating extra work.

2. Using the Volunteer section vs a custom field

The Volunteer section of the contact record is strongest for:

• Event and shift based work

• Tracking specific roles or assignments linked to events

• Looking at participation history (which events, which dates)

If your volunteer program is mostly event based, you can often lean heavily on this area plus event reports.

Where it feels rigid

You are not alone in feeling that it is not flexible enough for non-event work like:

• Ongoing weekly roles

• Advocacy or “standby” volunteers who are waiting for legislative actions

• One-off offline activities that are not tied to a formal event

Because of that, many orgs do what you did:

Keep using the Volunteer section where it fits, and create custom fields / activist codes / groups to track the broader lifecycle and ongoing roles.

A Hybrid approach that often works well

• Keep your custom “Volunteer Status” as the single source of truth for lifecycle (New, Active, Standby, Inactive, Retired).

• Use the Volunteer section + events to store concrete activities when they are tied to shifts or mobilizations.

• Use additional markers for non-event tracking, for example:

  • Activist Codes like “Legislative Rapid Response Team,” “Weekly Phonebank Volunteer,” etc.

  • Or a multiselect custom field for “Volunteer Roles”

That gives you both the flexibility you need and the benefit of the native volunteer tools where they fit.

3. How do you track volunteer activities, especially offline?

You are absolutely right that staff-logged activity only makes it into the system part of the time. That is a universal pain point.

Here are a few thinks that tend to help:

A. Self-submitted forms

Yes, some orgs use volunteer log forms, and they can work if you design them carefully.

Common setup:

• A simple EA form where volunteers can log:

  • Date of activity

  • Type of activity (phone calls, outreach, admin support, etc.)

  • Hours or quantity (e.g., number of calls)

• Optionally, a way to identify themselves:

  • Email address

  • Or a pre-filled link sent to them with their Contact ID or data pre-populated

What makes self-logs more successful

• Keep the form as short as possible

• Build a habit around it (for example, send the form link after each shift or include it in a weekly volunteer email)

• Use an automated follow-up like “Thanks for your time this week, here is your log link” so volunteers see that it matters

Behind the scenes, you can map the form submissions to:

• Interactions or notes

• Custom fields like “Last Volunteer Activity Date”

• Engagement Points, if you go that route

B. Staff-side quick capture

For offline activities where a staff member must log data, it helps to:

• Give staff a simple internal form (fewer clicks than editing contact records directly)

• Or assign one person per program or region who batches volunteer activity entry once per week, rather than everyone doing it ad hoc

C. Sign-in sheets that turn into data

When you do use events or group meetings:

• Use EA event sign-ins where possible

• Or provide QR codes at the sign-in table that point to a short “I’m here” EA form

• Then map attendance to event participation or an interaction so it contributes to engagement metrics

4. How do you measure volunteer engagement?

You named the two main groups you care about:

• Volunteers who are doing activities every week

• Volunteers who are on standby for legislative action

A practical way to distinguish these in EveryAction is to combine:

1. A lifecycle field (your Volunteer Status)

2. Activity history (events, interactions, or form submissions)

3. Optionally, Engagement Points

Sample tiers you could use

You might build something like:

• Highly Engaged:

  • At least 2 activities in the last month

  • Or Engagement Points above a certain threshold in the last 90 days

• Engaged / Active:

  • At least 1 activity in the last 3–6 months

• Standby:

  • No recent activity, but has a volunteer status of Standby and is subscribed to certain legislative alerts

• Inactive / Retired:

  • No activity for 12+ months or explicit opt-out

You can implement these tiers as:

• saved searches

• Or as a secondary custom field that is updated via searches (for example, “Engagement Tier” with values High / Medium / Low / Standby)

5. Using Engagement Points to measure volunteer engagement

Yes, Engagement Points can be a useful layer if:

• You define which actions get points, and

• You periodically look at the totals over a specific time window (for example, last 90 days)

Example EP setup for volunteers

You could assign:

• Weekly volunteer shift or ongoing role update = 10 points

• One-off volunteer action (e.g., attending a training, contacting a legislator) = 5 points

• Signing up for a legislative alert or action = 2 points

Then define bands, for example:

• 40+ points in the last 90 days = “Highly Engaged Volunteer”

• 10–39 points = “Active Volunteer”

• 1–9 points = “Lightly Engaged / Standby”

• 0 points = “No recent engagement”

EPs work best when:

• They are tied directly to the activities you care about

• Staff actually use them for targeting (for example, recruiting highly engaged volunteers for leadership roles, or sending reactivation campaigns to low-point volunteers)