Volunteers
Give every new volunteer a next step
People sign up to help, then hear nothing for weeks. Grantkeeper turns your sign-up list into welcome notes, shift reminders and thank-yous you send from the tools you already use.
Text it like this
Fictional example.
Welcome in the first week
A good welcome is short. Thank the person, say what happens next, and give them the shift, the place, the entrance and who to ask for. Someone who signed up without choosing a shift gets one easy question, such as which Saturday works. Leave the long handbook for later.
Grantkeeper works from the export you send, whether it comes from SignUpGenius, VolunteerHub, Planning Center or a spreadsheet. It drafts one note per person, flags missing requirements such as training, a background check or a guardian form, and treats a tentative slot as tentative, not confirmed.
Remind, then thank
A day or two before the shift, a reminder gives the date, time, place, what to wear or bring, and a contact for the day. Send it only to the people on that shift. When one shift changes, only those volunteers need to hear about it.
After the shift, a short thank-you names what they helped with and mentions the next date they could come. Grantkeeper keeps an hours summary as it goes, which saves time later for the board packet and grant reports.
Send from the tools you have
Grantkeeper prepares the drafts and the list of who gets which one. You send them from your sign-up tool or your email account. Some sign-up tools can also send their own reminders. Text reminders go only to volunteers who agreed to texts, and phone numbers stay in the roster, not in group messages.
A shift reminder and a newsletter are different kinds of email. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide explains how the law looks at a message's primary purpose, and what a commercial message needs, such as a working opt-out and a postal address.
Keep the list current
Each week, update the list with what you learned: someone who moved, someone who only wants Saturdays, someone who asked to stop hearing from you. Grantkeeper notes those changes in the drafts it prepares, so the next reminder doesn't go to a person who already said no.
Keep requirements next to the role, not the person. If the tutoring shift needs a background check and the pantry shift needs a food-safety briefing, the roster shows who has done which, and the drafts ask only for what is missing.
If you recruit volunteers through Ad Grants, a completed volunteer form is one of the actions Google lists as a valid conversion. See the volunteer roster recipe for the weekly version of this routine.
Sources: FTC CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide, Google Ad Grants: set up conversion tracking
Start here
A simple follow-up rhythm for volunteers: a welcome, a reminder before the shift, and a thank-you with hours, drafted by Grantkeeper.
- Send Grantkeeper the latest sign-up export.
- Get welcome, reminder and thank-you drafts by person.
- Send them from your sign-up or email tool.