We use something called Futures Program. We like it because it is designed specifically for schools, so has all the right terminology. Cost was $300. Good software and good manuals came with it, including a manual on running volunteer program.It keeps track of volunteers and their hours and associates them with students if you want. Flexible and easy to use. It keeps track of what each volunteer signed up to do and you can schedule volunteer time or just input hours directly. Gives reports by time period, by volunteer, by activity, etc. Can't remember for sure, but I think the website was something like www.schoolvolunteer.org
or .com. Also free tech support.
Ran into this site today while looking up something else and remembered this thread. This company's software is free, as long as you have less than 100 volunteers to track. It's too small for me, but maybe someone else can try it out and let us know how it goes.... www.samaritan.com/SchoolVolunteerism.php
I keep track of volunteer hours with a simple sign in sheet in the office. All visitors to the school must report to the office first thing. the people who are there to volunteer simply sign in on a different sheet that has columns for their name, the date, time in/out, which activity/classroom they are here to help, and a total column for how much time they spent helping. I check the sheets daily, pull them off when they are full, and enter the hours in a simple Excel spreadsheet. I have formulas plugged in to sum the hours for the month and calculate the average number of hours put in per day. All this information is provided monthly to the principal so she can present it to the school board. We had over 1800 classroom volunteer hours last year and hope to surpass that this year!!!
Help counter looks like a neat thing, but $499.00, it is an expense we can do without. My spreadsheet works just fine. It might not keep track of volunteer hours, but oh well. I know time is worth money, but I am not that expensive. Good for you for being able to afford such an item. I bet it makes life much easier.
Hi,
We are using "Help Counter" from www.lidentech.com
It is a GREAT program. We got a donated computer, monitor and printer and it is running in the front office.
It is a complete volunteer sign-in program and database, allowing us to print out lists based on what parents responded to on a take-home volunteer sheet. It tracks their hours (which our district requires, twice per year) as well as projects or classroom help.
