FREE 6+ Volunteer Schedule Samples and Templates in PDF | MS Word

You might find that there is a need for your organization to get volunteers on certain occasions in order to easily make specific tasks easier to execute. With all the tasks that you are juggling in your organization, you want to make sure that you do not end up spending so much time on making the schedule instead of doing the things that you are supposed to do. You may also see sample work schedules.

• Schedule Samples and Templates
• Printable Schedule Templates

Volunteer Schedule Template

If you are new or if you have a hard time figuring out how you should go about making the volunteer schedule, we will give you a couple of tips on how you can make a simple and effective one. We also have a couple of free schedule samples and templates that will give you a better perspective on how you can make your very own volunteer schedule look like. Continue scrolling down in order for you to find out more about making volunteer schedules.

Part of getting volunteers is the tedious task of making a schedule that the volunteers can easily follow. If you are the coordinator for the volunteers, then this is your job. Communicating, monitoring, and even remembering the names of the volunteers are all part of the job that you have in order to make sure that all volunteers are doing the jobs that they are assigned to.

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Community Group Volunteer Schedule

Sample Volunteer Schedule

How to Make a Volunteer Schedule Template

You want to make sure that you do not feel overwhelmed and that your volunteers will also not become overwhelmed. A volunteer schedule will help to make things a little bit more clearer for you and for the volunteers. The hardest part when it comes to these schedules? Setting it all up. You may also like printable daily schedule templates.

One of the very first things that you need to know is the number of volunteers that you have for your organization and for the tasks. Usually, you will be the one to decide the number of volunteers that you will be needing and you would usually just send out a sign-up sheet to some of your partner organizations and to schools.

You will also set up a deadline for getting back the sign-up sheets and counting the number of volunteers that you have. Once you have already counted the number of volunteers that you have, it is now time for you to place each volunteer to a designated task or job. Here’s how you can start making that schedule.

Establishing a Scheduling Method

Come up with a good scheduling method that you can easily stick to and follow. This will also be the basis of your future volunteer scheduling should you get volunteers in the near future.

• Take a notebook/journal or even your laptop/phone. Always remember that when choosing a scheduling method, you have to stick to it. Play around with different scheduling methods and see what works best for your volunteers. See whether you would also prefer making use of a calendar schedule or if you choose to have a simple list of the schedule and who will be assigned to specific tasks. You might be interested in using an activity schedule.
• Include a date. The date will be crucial as this is what will tell your volunteers when they would be doing the specific tasks. Including the date, as well as the time, can help your volunteer to stay on track and ensure that they know what the schedule is. Using the calendar method would be more convenient because the date will already be stated. You may also check out employee schedule samples.
• Include all the necessary information. You want to make sure that you include all the necessary information in the schedule to avoid any possible confusion. The information that you should include are the following:
  • Name of volunteer for the specific task
  • Time volunteer is needed
  • A short description of what the task is all about
• Stick to the schedule. Once you have figured out everything that you will include and the scheduling method that you would like to follow, it’s time for you to start making your volunteer schedule and distribute copies to all the volunteers. A printable schedule template should help you make things easier.

1. Start Creating the Schedule

As mentioned earlier, since we already have all the necessary information figured out, it is now time for you to come up with your volunteer schedule. Here’s how you can do it.

• Plan out the tasks.  Typically, you will already have the event agenda ready. All you need to do now is to write down the names of the volunteers who will be assigned to every part of the program or where they will be assigned during a specific part of a program. Again, remember that there is no fixed manner on how to make a schedule. It all depends on what you think will work for your volunteer team.
• Prioritize. Know which aspects of the event are the most important. Make sure that when you are building the schedule, you also highlight which parts are crucial and write down some notes for these parts. Starting with the big parts will also help to know how busy your schedule will be and you will also be able to figure out which parts need to be expedited. Check out some event schedule samples for your reference.
• Start and end times. Including the estimated start and end times will help your volunteers stay on track and keep focused on what they need to do. Use an hourly schedule for a more detailed reminder.
• Make the schedule flexible. Make sure that you have a little wiggle room to ensure that your volunteers can make adjustments should there be anything in the event that ends late or earlier than expected.
• Make the schedule balanced. Aside from assigning the tasks at hand, make sure that you also include some breaks as to de-stress your volunteers even just for a couple of minutes. Utilizing a rotation schedule would ensure that they can have some down time.
• Give your volunteers something to look forward to. At the end of everything, you want to make sure that you are still able to take care of your volunteers and make them feel that they did a good job. At the end of the schedule template, make sure that you include a reward such as an exclusive pizza party for all the volunteers or free dinner buffet.

Volunteer Schedule Template

Volunteer Daily Scheduling Template

Editable Sample Volunteer Schedule

Tips for Making a Volunteer Schedule

• Give yourself ample amount of time to make the schedule. A minimum of one week preparation before the event would be a good amount of time. In line with this, you should also pick a good time for making your schedule. You may also see event schedule templates.
• Plan the crucial or highlights of the event earlier. Since these parts are crucial and are of importance, you want to make sure that everything for these parts goes as smooth as possible.
• Allot a space for your volunteers to place a check mark on the tasks that they have already completed. This way, confusion will be avoided. A task checklist should come in handy.
• Review the schedule and make sure that you make revisions if deemed necessary. Be prepared to do things over and over again.

The Importance of Making a Volunteer Schedule

Making sure that you have a solid and effective volunteer schedule can actually help you keep costs down as you will be able to focus on what needs to be done. It also helps to make your volunteers become productive as they already know what they need to do.

It is also a good place to define and organize what the volunteers need to do. It helps the volunteers identify when they need to do specific tasks and how much time needs to be allotted for each task. It also gives the opportunity to avoid procrastinating as everything is laid out for the volunteer to easily follow. You may also like meeting schedule samples.

Having an effective schedule at the top of your mind, it will help to filter your volunteers against distractions again, making them focus more on what needs to be done. It helps them get everything done within a specific amount of time. If everything is planned out properly, there is no need for your volunteer to ask what needs to be done next as it is already reflected in the volunteer schedule that has been planned for them. You may also check out vacation schedule templates.

Remember…

If this is your first time to come up with a volunteer schedule and you made a couple of mistakes, that is okay. You can do better the next time you handle volunteers again. Take your mistakes as a learning experience to make improvements for the future volunteer schedules. You may also see sample project schedules.

In order to make improvements for future volunteer schedules, take a look at the accomplishments you had and try to maintain these. Take a look at the failures and analyze why you failed and take all of these into consideration to come up with solutions that you think will help avoid the failures the next time there is a volunteer program in your organization.

Planning on coming up with a weekly volunteer schedule? You may check out Weekly Task Schedule Samples and Templates.