Hands On Greater Portland has been using HandsOn Connect for over 5 years, and the amount of work that has gone into making it the comprehensive solution for volunteer management is remarkable. We post thousands of volunteer opportunities a year with hundreds of area nonprofits and have researched all of the options out there. Nothing comes close to providing the depth of resources available to help your organization and community effectively recruit volunteers. The robust suite of CMS, reporting, calendaring, registration, attendance, and team functionality allows us to help our metro area consistently rank in the top 10 for volunteerism nationwide. The team behind HandsOn Connect is always open to feedback, and implements enhancements based on user input. These regular updates continue to improve the already impressive feature set, while extensive documentation serves as a ready reminder of how impressive a resource it is.

I mostly like Hands On Connect and find that it meets the needs of our large organization. We typically have 300 active occurrences - which is a lot of data to keep track of. The Salesforce platform takes time to learn how to use but once you are comfortable the ability to customize and create detailed reports is priceless. I have added several custom fields to help us manage our volunteers (emergency contact info, etc). I also use the Activities (tasks and meetings) feature a lot to keep track of meetings and items that need to get done. The technical support we receive from Customer support representative is great - the team responds quickly to requests and offers several drop in lab hours a week. We don't use the Salesforce nonprofit starter pack or other Salesforce plug ins (we chose to keep our volunteer database and donor database separate) but if you do already use a Salesforce application adding Hands on Connect would be really easy. I like that there is a large community of similar organizations that also use the system and that we can share tips and ideas for making our website more functional. The biggest downside is the time it takes to learn a new system and understanding how to be efficient. It is also difficult to train community partners to use the site, but recent updates have made the partner portal easier to use. I have had a lot of success getting college interns to volunteer to help manage our database and do data entry because they all want to learn how to use Salesforce.

Able to customize for your needs and add other applications. Ability to run complex reports to understand data.

Limits on what you can do with your website (CMS) - you have to work within the templates provided.

The only way to get a human being online is to threaten cancelling the contract. Then they only spend 30 minutes with training and then send you to a list of videos, most of which are out-of-date.

There is nothing about this program that is helpful, useful, or worth the money.

This is the most user-unfriendly program I have ever used. They have two separate admin portals, one that doesn't work, and the other is the most confusing admin portal I have ever seen.

Excellent features are: creating data bases, reports, attenace lists,publishing opportunities and ability to generate information for social media. Volunteers mostly find registration process easy. Many have suggested improving the graphic art presentation to make it more appealing and easier to follow the sequence for creating a profile. Non Profit orgnizations frequently lack technological expertise and limit the use of the platform, requiere tecnical assistance and tutorials. Language somtimes hinder ease of use. Would need spanish version. Changes to the platform or simply adding new features many times scare off users and create concerns of losing data and the need for retraining. Thus, changes need to be planned with adequate time frames and enough technical assistance so that the action centers can plan the way they will support the partner organizations..

Accesible 24/7, volunteer matching and recruitment process, communication wth volunteers through emails and social media, ease of genertaing reports.

The screens for administrators-- letters are to small, information looks too congested/ confusing. Screen of homepage --when a partner organization opens its account page-- redistribute and design more appealing the presentation , easier to understand.

We started using Hands on Connect in 2015. While there was a steep learning curve because most of us had never used Salesforce, we are really in a groove now. We have organized clean data now and able to report on things that we never were able to--including, type of volunteering, average volunteer hours, demographics, etc. We also now are much more confident that our volunteer reporting does not include duplicate volunteers. As the Director of Volunteer Services I can also keep my eye on reporting and see where our 30+ staff are with volunteer reporting and reach out if needed. As a national organization, we are using Salesforce in other departments as well, so we are able to see if a volunteer has been a hostel guest, is a member of our organization (we have a membership program) and soon if they have donated.

Organized data Built on Salesforce Great support with labs and support tickets

If you don't know Salesforce, it can be a challenge to pick up at first.

Ability to report on many aspects of our volunteer program, track everything from volunteer names to emergency contacts, recruit for positions more effectively, and have a great looking front end website.

The ease with which we can edit our public site and the ease with which non-admin staff can interact with the partner portal. The update to 3.0 made it so much better!

The customer service could be better. Reporting could also be more intuitive. Upgrades could also be handled more efficiently.

I like the software. Anyone with experience with Microsoft Office should feel fairly comfortable using the software. The home page can be a little confusing but the tutorials to help customers become familiarized are both extremely comprehensive and useful.

Keeps the information organized and is easy to use.

The software in general can be a little cumbersome and there could be easier ways to access information, but once you become familiar with the functions the tedium is not really an issue.

HandsOn Connect allows us to manage a database of hundreds, if not thousands, of individual volunteers, potential donors, and organizational partners. Previous knowledge of Salesforce goes a long way in ease of use, but our staff is benefiting from the training provided by HandsOn Connect and tapping into the huge potential of the software.

One of the best products on the market for volunteer management and superior customer service! I highly recommend HandsOn Connect as a volunteer management software of choice.

The ease of usage and capabilities.

The dated look but, now that is about to change with the new migration of the look.

I vetted number of providers and have to say that by far HandsOn Connect offered us the biggest bang for our dollars. The staff has listened attentively to our goals, has understood the intricacies of our organization and have been willing to talk through options. We have had a number of changes along the way and with each one HandsOn Connect has graciously accepted the challenge and helped us continue to build a product specific to our needs. The system is easy to use and our staff have been able to quickly accept responsibility for loading content and managing partners. It is apparent that HandsOn Connect is not selling a product. They are helping organizations meet their mission. They are helping create a movement of volunteers. The staff is clearly passionate about service and volunteerism. We are thrilled with our partnership and look forward to serving Arkansans in a new way.

Ease of use.

Multiple layers.

The learning curve is a bit steep, but it's generally intuitive and I have yet to have an idea that this can't do. It's really nice to say "Is it possible to...?" and get a Yes!

It makes our data easy to get. Can hold lots of different kind of data about different users- nonprofits, individuals, companies.

There are a lot of "hidden" features that take figuring out. It can do all the things I need it to, but sometimes I don't have time to figure out how to do it.

Syncs well with Salesforce and captures the necessary information. Provides detailed listings in an easy to understand format for our potential volunteers.

Need assistance from outside staff to implement major changes in the template. Limited in how forms look to our users.

None so far. Looks like it might be a nice product but HOC can't make it work for us. Looks like it might be a nice product but HOC can't make it work for us.

Looks like it might be a nice product but HOC can't make it work for us. Looks like it might be a nice product but HOC can't make it work for us. Looks like it might be a nice product but HOC can't make it work for us.

Our volunteer site has been dark for 6 weeks now due to HOC not being able to make the transition from our previous host.

From day one, you will feel confident that you have a team by your side. They even provide monthly "How To" webinars to brush up on the system. With their customer service team there is never a "dumb question." They are so competent it is well-worth the money.

User friendly. And upgrades are made in a timely fashion. Better to go for the Lex than the Kia, you get what you pay for.

There are so usages and functionality it is somewhat hard to keep up unless you are using it everyday.

HandsOn Connect provides excellent ongoing customer support. Not only can you speak with someone directly, but they also store tons of training videos online for users to go back to and reference for those tasks that maybe you only do every once in a while during reporting season. The content management system is very easy to use as well. If anyone has experience with Salesforce, then the learning curve will be significantly shorter. However, I came in with no Salesforce experience and still found it pretty easy to pick up.

Customization and content management features.

I would like to be able to add some additional fields to categorize users.

Hands On Connect continues to hear their customer's needs and actively respond in the technology. Their staff offers open labs and you get to know them like they are a part of your nonprofit's family. I would highly recommend using Hands on Connect for any organization wishing to manage their volunteers in an efficient, personal and ever-evolving solution.

I started using HOC about 6 months ago when I started my position. The 3.0 version is extremely easy to use - you can upload images easier, rearrange the layouts easier, save pages for future use and many other things. The support I've received from my representative has been quick and helpful!