[San Jose Jazz currently has open volunteer spots for Winter Fest 2014. Check out their GoVoluntr profile here and register for Winter Fest!]
In 2012, Tracey Ferraro started her position as volunteer coordinator with San Jose Jazz, a small nonprofit of six staff members that hosts some of San Jose’s largest music festivals. Their banner event, Summer Fest, is the official jazz festival of San Jose, complete with a star studded lineup, 11 stages of live entertainment, and tens of thousands of festival goers. With such a small staff dedicated to coordinating and planning the event, they’re reliant on hundreds of volunteers to power the three day festival.
When Tracey inherited the event, volunteer recruitment consisted of antiquated software, complex spreadsheets, and lots of back-and-forth dialogue to fill spots. Tracey set out to bring San Jose Jazz into the modern age. Utilizing GoVoluntr’s positions and shifts feature, in tandem with some social media marketing assistance from the GoVoluntr team, Tracey’s initiative to digitize and streamline volunteer recruitment ended with staggering results.
“From June 1st to the first week of August, I averaged less than 20 hours a week on volunteer recruitment activities–an approximate 50% decrease from last year. I believe it is possible these hours could be reduced even further as I continue to streamline processes.”
And by saving herself a lot of time and hassle, she was able to delve into other critical tasks.
“With less time needed to focus on actual schedule creation, I was able to better-engage our Summer Fest volunteers; Hobee’s Pruneyard sponsored and hosted a Meet’n Greet, and we held two well-attended orientations. “
Not only was Tracey able to save time and reallocate resources, but using an online resource to source and manage her volunteers boosted her numbers. The outcome with GoVoluntr? 700 volunteers providing over 2500 hours of service. And since she used GoVoluntr all of her volunteers received recognition and rewards that didn’t cost SJ Jazz a single cent.
Want to learn more about how GoVoluntr can help you find and reward volunteers at no cost? Click here to get started. Learn more about San Jose Jazz by visiting their website.
