The lesson
Volunteer Insights (v2) keeps the four tabs and sharpens the cards. Every card that counts volunteers counts people with a timesheet, through Behaviour audiences like Volunteered this year and Volunteers lapsing:
- Overview: Unique Volunteers, Never Volunteered, Retention Rate (the percent of last year's volunteers who returned this year), Recruitment Rate (the percent of this year's volunteers who are brand new), Volunteer / Donor Rate and Total Hours all time. Charts: Engagement Segments (Non-Volunteer, One-Timer, Regular, Super Volunteer with 4 or more events), the Volunteer & Donor Overlap, Volunteer Age Profile and Volunteering Activity Over Time.
- This Year: Active This Year, New Volunteers This Year, Retained From Last Year, Hours This Year, Volunteering Instances, Avg Lifetime Frequency, the Monthly Trend, Volunteering Hours by Month, the Engagement Mix funnel and Volunteering by Job.
- Historic: Active Last Year and the Year Before, New Last Year, Hours Last Year, 3-Year Consistent Volunteers, At-Risk / Lapsing (volunteered last year but not yet this year), Tenure Distribution, Last Volunteered Year and Volunteer Hours by Job (top 20).
- Volunteers: Avg Years as Volunteer, Avg Lifetime Hours, One-Timers, Regular, Super, At-Risk / Lapsing, the Recruitment Trend and Top Volunteers by Hours.
How to use it. The two rates on Overview are the headline for a volunteer report: a low retention rate with a high recruitment rate means you are refilling a leaky bucket. The At-Risk / Lapsing card on Historic is a list of people to call before the next event. If a card reads oddly on a new system (a very low retention rate in the first year of data, for example), check how many years of volunteer history were loaded before you alarm anyone.