Reporting is one of the most elemental pillars in Volaby. We know from our Orange Sky legacy the power of tracking data from each activity is incredibly important because of:
resource allocation for growth
reporting to higher boards and team
showcasing supporter contribution
We also believe that reporting goes beyond your volunteer hours. It could be as simple as collecting data around how many people your team spoke to that day. Or, it could be as complicated as, what topics did your team talk about in those interactions. With our foundation partners, we understood the variance of data collection and the usefulness of having that data exportable with one click of a button. (See how to export your Impact Data here). When thinking about the kinds of metrics you and your team need to capture at the end of the activities, think about 3 things:
What will be the least labour intensive way of capturing this data?
How will the data be used?
Who will need to see this data?
When considering the above 3 points, you might find that they are intertwined. Usage of data comes down to its exportability. The more exportable the data, the cleaner it is, and the less labour intensive it is to submit. Considering the people who will be interacting with this data has a big impact how how you construct your fields (see Report Type creation here). It is likely that your Organisation's Board or SLT will come into contact with aspects of this data so it is paramount that the data points you are capturing align with their goals of the volunteering operations within your organisation.
Examples of good field creations are:
How many haircuts did we do today? (Number)
How many kilos of waste did we clean from the area today? (Number)
How much did we make in donations? (Number)
What were the age groups of the people we talked to today? (Multi select with multiple options selected)
What topics of conversation were covered? (Multi select with multiple options selected)
How would you rate the activity? (5-star rating)
The trend here is that the way of capturing the data will remain consistent each time a report is submitted, therefore exporting this data will remain consistent and the ability to pull together trends of your impact will be less administrative heavy.