How To Super Power Parent Volunteer Participation Now

To maximize parent engagement, make it easy for parents to sign up for volunteer opportunities. 

Education research consistently shows that active and engaged parents are integral in building a positive school culture. Volunteer parents can share their unique cultural perspectives, teach specific skills, support student reading goals, host school events, and offload some work from teachers. Parent volunteers send a clear message: This school is important, we value education, and we want to be here!

Here are eight ways parent communication apps empower and spark parent volunteering.

#1 Feature All Volunteer Opportunities in One Place

If parents don’t know all the available opportunities or the information is scattered between emails, flyers, and word-of-mouth, this impacts volunteer signups. Housing all volunteer opportunities in one unified digital location makes it far easier for parents to learn about each opportunity and make a commitment. Apps like School Signals allow teachers and school administrators to create unified listings for all school volunteer needs so that all needs are clearly communicated to parents. All school-wide or classroom-specific opportunities are available to learn about from the same page.

#2 Make Signing Up Easy

Let’s reference an online shopping experience that everyone can relate to: We know that a tedious checkout process can lead to a drop out of the entire cart and the user abandoning the bad experience. In the context of volunteer signup, a new parent who may be already hesitating about signing up is likelier to quit if they cannot figure out how to sign up or if the experience is not user-intuitive and is taking too much of their time. The volunteer signup app must minimize the cognitive load and burden to make parents want to sign up. Volunteering is not mandatory in most cases; therefore, we cannot mandate parents to go through a tedious, clunky user experience. Think of the volunteer app as a representation of your school experience – an easy signup sends a message to parents that you respect their time.

#3 Make Recurring Volunteering Easy, Too

Encourage recurring Volunteering by making consequent signups as easy as possible. A parent volunteer shouldn’t have to hit the Sign Up button each week to volunteer on Wednesday mornings at the school cafeteria. A recurring signup process streamlines the signup process by letting parents select the beginning and end date for their volunteering ‘string’ and the weekdays they want to attend. With School Signals, parents can sign up and cancel Volunteering within time frames, eliminating the need to come back each week for additional signups or request users to click individually on each time slot they want to reserve.

#4 Inform and Collect Online Forms in One Place

Volunteering tasks may require parents to provide a background check, sign a waiver form, or watch educational content before they can volunteer. Provide this information and requirements on the Volunteering page. With School Signals, you can create online forms for the Volunteer page and keep the experience seamless. The integrated online forms reduce parent volunteers’ burden by eliminating third-party forms and accounts. The volunteers maintain a record of their submissions for reference, too.

#5 Auto-Remind Parents About the Volunteering

A Volunteer admin shouldn’t have to remind participants about their upcoming volunteer duties. Choose an app that has built-in reminders. With School Signals, a parent signed up for Volunteering gets an email and the app’s mobile push notification the day before their volunteer time.

#6 Showcase the Volunteer Opportunity in Its Best Light

Don’t just provide text descriptions and forms – showcase the volunteer opportunity as a community-building activity! The School Signals Volunteer Signup area is a hub where you can add banner images, post updates and shoutouts to the Volunteer Feed, and upload photos to the Volunteer opportunity’s photo gallery. The Volunteering area is a hub where volunteers want to return to make encouraging and informative comments and share the latest details.

#7 Integrate Volunteer Opportunities with School Events

A fall festival, an international night, an end-of-semester concert, a school trip – schools run events throughout the school year, and parent volunteers make them happen.

We’re proud at School Signals of how the School Signals Volunteering system seamlessly integrates with the event feature, creating a strong interaction point for signup parent volunteers. In the event listing where a parent may RSVP, they can also see if the event asks for parent volunteers’ help. Parents can see all tasks related to the Volunteering. For instance, a fall festival could list individual tasks that a volunteer can choose to sign up for, such as:

• Host a fall craft (2 volunteers needed)
• Host a pumpkin painting activity (2 volunteers needed)
• Bring refreshments for 20 people (5 volunteers needed)
• Be an event photographer (2 volunteers needed)
• Guide traffic (3 volunteers needed)

For more information, each task is detailed in the system.

#8 Use School Feed and Classroom Feeds to Promote Volunteering

To promote and encourage volunteer signups, don’t forget to make positive posts and shoutouts to the School and Classroom feeds. Showing firsthand that your school values volunteers create a positive atmosphere for parents to sign up and join the community. Remind parents of the research that shows the positive correlation between engaged families and higher academic learning outcomes.

The Takeaway

A parent communication app like School Signals with a strong Volunteer Scheduler Feature,

• Improves convenience and parents’ self-service
• Integrates with automatic reminders
• Allows detailed listings with unique tasks for signups
• Increases tracking
• Replaces paper-based volunteer forms
• Reduces the need for third-party forms
• Integrates volunteering in classrooms, school trips, school events, and school groups
• Promotes Volunteering as a valued way to contribute to the school community, yielding to a positive school culture

Increase volunteer turnout, reduce admin headaches, and create a welcoming and positive school culture. Schedule a Demo today!

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Learn more about the Volunteering feature: Check our Knowledge Base Articles on Volunteering.