Key takeaways
Manually tracking sign-ups, scheduling, hours and reporting costs small teams hours every week — volunteer management software puts all of it in one place, so that time goes back into the program instead of the paperwork.
Different platforms focus on different needs, from nonprofit volunteer recruitment to corporate employee volunteering and managed experiences.
For large organizations, the real test isn’t feature depth — it’s whether employees actually participate and whether leadership can report on the program’s total impact in one place. Everything else should support those two things.
Benevity is the best Enterprise Impact Platform for volunteer management programs that need to scale participation, reduce manual work and connect volunteering with broader social impact.
Corporate volunteering is not only an amazing way for employees to support their communities, it can also strengthen how connected they feel to their workplace. In fact, SHRM found that 79% of employees who volunteer through employer-sponsored programs are satisfied with their jobs, compared with 55% of those who do not.
As participation grows, organizations need a better way to manage sign-ups, volunteer hours, events and reporting without relying on spreadsheets and disconnected tools. Modern volunteer management software can help teams organize those moving parts in one place.
This guide compares the top volunteer management software options, what each one is best suited for and which organizations they fit. We’ll also look at how an Enterprise Impact Platform can help large companies connect volunteering with broader employee mobilization and social impact programs.
Best volunteer management software: Quick overview
We built this list by reviewing each platform’s official volunteering features, program coverage, integrations and intended users. We also considered how well each option supports volunteer recruitment, employee participation, hour tracking, reporting and growth across teams or regions.
What are the key features of volunteer management software?
Volunteer management software helps organizations organize volunteer programs, reduce manual coordination and keep participation data in one place. Common features include:
- Volunteer sign-ups and registration to manage who is joining each opportunity
- Scheduling and shift management for events, recurring programs and time slots
- Volunteer hour tracking to record participation and contributions
- Automated communications and reminders to keep volunteers informed
- Event and opportunity management for creating and promoting ways to participate
- Skills-based volunteering matching for connecting people with relevant opportunities
- Rewards and incentives for programs like volunteer grants or Dollars for Doers
- Reporting and analytics for tracking participation, hours and program results
- Integration with workplace collaboration tools, so employees can join opportunities and log hours without leaving the apps they already use every day
The main difference between platforms is how far they go beyond basic scheduling and tracking. Some focus on nonprofit volunteer coordination, while others support corporate employee volunteering across regions, skills-based opportunities, giving and broader social impact programs. For larger organizations, that difference can determine whether volunteering stays a standalone program or connects with wider employee mobilization and impact reporting.
Participation is often the hardest problem to solve, especially for small teams without a dedicated program manager to drive awareness. Benevity for Teams addresses this directly: It lets program administrators reach their workforce inside Microsoft Teams, where employees are already spending their day, so employees can track volunteer hours without leaving their flow of work. As Slack integration is coming soon, extending that same in-workflow experience to organizations that run on Slack.
Best volunteer management software options to consider
We built this list by reviewing each platform’s official volunteering features, program coverage, integrations and intended users. We also considered how well each option supports needs like volunteer recruitment, employee participation, hour tracking, reporting and scaling programs across teams or regions.
1. Benevity
Benevity is an AI-native Enterprise Impact Platform that helps large organizations scale employee volunteering, increase participation and prove the value of their programs with less admin work. Benevity Volunteer automates sign-ups, time tracking, reminders and volunteer rewards, making it easier to run programs consistently as they grow. With Benevity for Teams, employees can find opportunities and log volunteer hours directly in Microsoft Teams — with Slack availability coming soon — so participation fits into their existing workflow instead of requiring a separate login. The Enterprise Impact Platform connects volunteering with giving, grants, employee mobilization and reporting so impact leaders can see the bigger picture and turn participation data into measurable outcomes.
2. YourCause
YourCause’s CSRconnect supports corporate volunteering as part of Blackbaud’s broader higher education giving tool. Companies can create volunteer programs, surface nonprofit-led opportunities through the Blackbaud Verified Network and track participation across their workforce. Reporting and benchmarking tools add visibility into volunteer activity across programs and locations.
Best for: Global corporate volunteering
3. Bonterra Deed
Bonterra Deed supports corporate volunteering as part of a broader platform for employee giving and grantmaking. Employees can discover volunteer opportunities, log hours and participate in employee-led or skills-based activities. Program teams can manage engagement, measure participation and connect volunteering data with wider corporate impact programs.
Best for: Corporate skills-based volunteering
4. Blackbaud
Blackbaud’s broader product portfolio includes tools for organizations that rely on volunteers as part of fundraising and supporter engagement. Blackbaud Volunteer Network Fundraising is designed around volunteer-led campaigns, giving staff visibility into prospect activity and campaign progress through management dashboards. For more traditional volunteer scheduling and coordination needs, Blackbaud also supports integrations with dedicated volunteer management platforms.
Best for: Volunteer-led fundraising
5. Submittable
Submittable supports corporate volunteering through Bright Funds and WeHero. Its tools cover volunteer opportunity discovery, event creation, VTO tracking, Dollars for Doers programs and employee-led events through ERGs. WeHero adds managed volunteer experiences for companies that want structured events alongside the software.
Best for: Managed volunteer experiences
6. Groundswell
Groundswell includes volunteering alongside giving, grants and employee assistance funds. Its volunteering tools cover multi-day and recurring events, shifts, waitlists, employee segmentation, employee-created events, volunteer grants and hour tracking. Volunteer program teams can also use campaigns to organize participation around specific initiatives.
Best for: Employee-led volunteer events
7. Millie
Millie includes corporate volunteering as part of its broader social impact platform. Companies can create custom volunteer events, manage shifts and capacity, track volunteer hours and offer both remote and in-person opportunities. The platform also supports Dollars for Doers programs and impact reporting tied to employee participation.
Best for: Team volunteer events
8. GoodStack
GoodStack includes workplace volunteering alongside employee giving and other corporate impact programs. Its employee engagement platform allows companies to create volunteer opportunities, search for available opportunities and manage employee registration. The broader GoodStack Impact Suite also covers grants and donations for organizations managing several types of corporate impact programs.
Best for: Combined impact programs
9. OnHand
OnHand offers a corporate volunteering platform that connects employees with local and global social impact opportunities. The platform includes individual and group volunteering, sustainability actions, gamification, campaigns and real-time impact reporting for metrics like participation and volunteer hours. OnHand also provides managed group volunteering and localized campaign content for companies running broader CSR programs.
Best for: Local and global volunteering
10. Optimy
Optimy offers an employee volunteering platform for companies running programs across teams and regions. A branded portal lets employees find opportunities based on their skills and interests, sign up, log hours and view their impact. Program teams can also use forms, reporting and participation data to manage initiatives and measure volunteering activity.
Best for: Skills-based volunteer matching
11. Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets (like Excel or Google Sheets) remain a common way to track volunteer sign-ups, hours, contacts and event details without purchasing dedicated software. They give teams flexibility to build their own processes, but information often needs to be updated, consolidated and reported manually as programs grow. Organizations using this approach typically rely on separate email, calendar, survey and communication tools to handle the rest of the volunteer experience.
Best for: Manual volunteer tracking
12. Goodera
Goodera specializes in managed corporate volunteering experiences rather than only providing software for teams to run programs themselves. It curates and hosts volunteer activities with nonprofit partners across more than 100 countries and 30 languages, covering virtual, in-person and skills-based opportunities. Companies can use Goodera to handle much of the planning and execution behind global volunteering events.
Best for: Managed global volunteering
13. Building internally
Building a volunteer management system internally gives organizations full control over how sign-ups, hour tracking, reporting and other workflows are designed. The trade-off is that internal teams also take responsibility for development, maintenance, integrations, security and every future update as programs change. For larger programs, that can turn volunteer management into an ongoing software project instead of a program-management task.
Best for: Custom internal workflows
Important things to consider when choosing the best volunteer management software for your organization
Before comparing volunteer management softwares, get a clear picture on what you need the software to help you accomplish. Then, compare features based on the capabilities that will help you achieve those goals, including:
- Program management: Can you manage sign-ups, time tracking, calendar reminders, volunteer rewards and recurring opportunities without relying on manual processes?
- Ways to participate: Does the platform support in-person, virtual, mobile and skills-based volunteering so more employees can take part?
- Global reach: Can you offer relevant opportunities across different countries, regions and employee populations rather than running separate programs in each location?
- Reporting and visibility: Can impact leaders track participation, volunteer hours and outcomes, then turn that data into reporting leadership can use?
- Platform depth: Do you only need volunteer scheduling, or do you also need giving, employee mobilization, grants and reporting connected in one Enterprise Impact Platform?
- Risk mitigation: If volunteering connects employees with nonprofits or includes financial rewards, does the platform support nonprofit validation, compliance screening and traceable records behind those programs?
Once you know which capabilities matter most, you can narrow the list to platforms that actually fit how your volunteer program operates today and where it needs to grow. The best fit should reduce the manual work behind running programs, make participation easier to manage and give impact leaders the visibility they need to improve results over time.
Support volunteer management programs with Benevity
As volunteer programs grow, the coordination behind them should not grow at the same pace. The right software keeps sign-ups, hours, communications and reporting connected so impact leaders can expand participation without creating more manual work.
For large organizations, Benevity brings volunteer program management, flexible participation, reporting and broader social impact programs into one Enterprise Impact Platform. Benevity Volunteer automates sign-ups, time tracking, reminders and rewards, while the Trusted Global Engine adds nonprofit validation, compliance and stronger oversight as programs scale globally.
Streamline volunteer management with Benevity.
Volunteer management software FAQs
How do I track employee volunteer hours without manual spreadsheets?
You can track volunteer hours manually by having employees submit their time through forms, emails or shared spreadsheets, then reviewing and combining those records for reporting. As programs grow, volunteer management software like Benevity can centralize sign-ups and time tracking in one place instead. This reduces manual reconciliation and gives impact teams a clearer view of participation and volunteer activity.
Is there free volunteer management software?
Yes, some volunteer management platforms offer free plans for basic scheduling, sign-ups and tracking, including tools like POINT and SignUp.com. Free options can work for smaller programs, but growing organizations often need stronger reporting, integrations, global support and broader program management. At that point, an enterprise platform like Benevity can support volunteering at scale alongside giving, grants and reporting.
What is the best volunteer management software for nonprofits?
The best volunteer management software for nonprofits depends on whether you need recruitment, scheduling, communications, hour tracking or all of those together. Platforms such as VolunteerHub and VolunteerLocal are built specifically around nonprofit volunteer coordination and scheduling.
For companies managing employee volunteering with nonprofit partners at enterprise scale, Benevity can manage programs from opportunity and hour tracking through impact reporting.
How do I improve my company's volunteer program adoption?
Make volunteer opportunities easy to find, offer different ways to participate and remove friction from sign-ups and hour tracking. You can also use a volunteer management software like Benevity that supports personalized and flexible volunteering experiences, including opportunities that employees can access across locations and interests. Clear communications, leadership participation and simple program rules can also help more employees get involved.
How do I prove the ROI of my corporate volunteering program?
Start by tracking baseline metrics such as participation rates, volunteer hours, repeat participation and program outcomes, then compare those results over time. Use reporting tools from a volunteer management software like Benevity to help impact leaders visualize trends, measure performance and connect volunteering data to broader social impact reporting. That gives leadership a clearer picture of what the program is achieving and where to invest next.
Learn more about the ROI of your program with Benevity’s Impact Calculator.
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