Why We’re Changing the VolunteerPro Membership Platform

Why We’re  Changing the VolunteerPro Membership Platform

At VolunteerPro, our team has been quite busy over the past couple of months planning and building a brand-new platform for our Premium Membership Community experience.

For over five years, VolunteerPro has offered our Premium Community Membership to an exclusive group of leaders around the world. We’ve also learned by experimenting with a number of virtual events through the COVID pandemic.

This week, we’re unveiling our newly-designed Member portal with improved features and even MORE groundbreaking content designed for leaders of volunteers.

What is VolunteerPro Membership? 

Only our Premium Community Members receive ongoing advanced training, access to a peer community network, and an extensive library of replay recordings and downloadable resources that offer a complete foundation for program development and improvement.  

Our Members receive regular communications and virtual networking opportunities, such as: 

• Weekly Update Newsletter – a quick forecast of upcoming events 
• Monthly Catalyst Group Coaching Call – for real-time feedback 
•  ProTalk Forum – for quick answers, peer discussion, and networking 

Members also have access to advanced instruction with me and special guest experts from our industry (and sometimes beyond). This includes: 

• Two Live Seminars Per Month – resources and implementation guides for fast-tracking change 

o   6-month Program Development Sprints – one live seminar per month 

• • Total Impact Series – leadership development 
  • Total Transformation Series – program development 
  • Total Growth Series – volunteer recruitment 
  • Total Team Series – volunteer support and retention 

o   Plus, a rotating variety of the following, one per month …

• • Deep Dive Seminars – based on emerging member needs 
  • Guest Instructor Seminars – with innovative thought leaders
  •  Member Shares – where peers share “How We Did It”

And, as part of our new platform makeover, we’re happy to introduce “Just-In-Time” resources GALORE! 

• Video Vault – replay recordings of previous seminars for just-in-time, on-demand learning 
•  Resource Library – downloads of over 200 tools, templates, swipe files, workbooks, and more 
• Total Focus Support Tools –
  • Monthly Study Guides – to map out your month of learning 
  • Learning EXCELerators – pathways for focused learning on a core topic
  • Research-to-Practice Briefs – quick digests of scholarly research 
  • START Guides – accompany each masterclass to inspire next steps
  • eBooks and Reports – topical guides and state-of-the-industry research 

While the original platform proved to be a priceless resource for Premium Community Members, we thought we could improve upon the aesthetics, as well as the overall user experience design (UX). 

Why Great User Experience Design Is Important for Effective Learning  

DistanceOnline learning has obviously become increasingly important as we remain socially distant for the foreseeable future. One thing that’s not going to ever change is the need to learn and expand our knowledge and our desire to constantly improve ourselves. 

However, e-learning isn’t always the most interesting way to pick-up new concepts. It’s important that training programs are not only informative but engaging for you, the user so that you can better learn skills and vital information so that you can continue to advance your career, no matter what. 

So, we sat down and came up with a few ways to improve the VolunteerPro Premium Membership environment to make it more engaging and, I’ll just say it, fun for you all! 

But first, let’s take a deeper look into how design and user experience can greatly impact your corporate nonprofit training programs and how you can best implement them into your training strategies.  

The Importance of Aesthetic Design 

We wanted it to look good! 

Superior design in eLearning-based training methods is extremely important for properly engaging users and correctly explaining essential information. 

By implementing meaningful media, ranging from graphics to audio and video, into our training methods, VolunteerPro can help you better retain and implement the course material. In today’s given work-from-home environment, meaningful media has become a must-have for any sort of training. 

The Importance of User Experience (UX) 

We want you to keep coming back to us to learn more about your profession! 

UX defines the accessibility of the eLearning course and greatly impacts the level of Member engagement. Good user experience design is extremely important for eLearning because if your level of engagement is too low, you could finish a course without having learned what it set out to teach. 

User experience also ties heavily into the design of the program. If the design of each course is organized, simple to understand, and easy to grasp, then your experience inside of the Community will vastly improve. 

We aimed to simplify navigation and format the courses to appeal to a wide range of our Members. 

Achieve More with Multiple-Section Courses 

When it comes to user experience design, a good eLearning course is split into multiple sections, each dealing with a specific topic. By splitting up learning into digestible chunks, you can help reduce information overload, which can be a big issue with training or both employees and volunteers. 

Our “chunked learning”  teaches and delivers content to our Members in small, specific bursts. This will not only keep you engaged but will help you complete each seminar and get the most value from your Community Membership. 

More importantly, better design through topical sections gives our Premium Community Members some autonomy, allowing you to choose the lessons most important to you. 

Improved Community Forum 

This is a big one! The bread and butter of the Premium Community experience is the Community Forum, and we’ve made it a whole lot better. 

Not only is it more visibly pleasing, but it’s easier to track conversations, topics, and also network inside of our new platform. 

Members can also search the member directory to see who has been most active and thus has the highest reputation and a consistent peer contributor. 

Through our ProTalk Forum, you can meet and exchange ideas with hundreds of other volunteer professionals from all over the globe. You’ll be growing and advancing with fellow VolunteerPro members at every stage of the journey. 

Use the Platform on Any Screen! 

We live in a multi-screen world and we want you to use whatever device you’re most comfortable on. 

Because of this, we found it extremely important to make the Premium Community platform accessible on any type of screen you’d like to use. Our new Member portal is completely responsive, allowing you an optimal experience on desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

In addition, the membership can be accessed both through your desktop and other devices through the Kajabi mobile app, making on-the-go learning anywhere a snap. 

Gain Access to a Completely Unique Experience  

The training, tools, and strategies avaiable VolunteerPro’s Premium Membership portal is the only training, coaching, and implementation program of its kind. 

Every digital learning platform should have big goals, a focused direction, and a journey it can promise its learners.  

With this in mind, our entire VolunteerPro membership platform is built to help you build a high-impact volunteer strategy with less stress and more focus, so you can be less overwhelmed and able to confidently carry your vision forward.  

Our best-in-class training helps organizations like yours …  

• Building a reliable pipeline for attracting the right volunteers, at the right time, for your nonprofit.  
• Reducing the devastating impacts of volunteer attrition and boosting satisfaction by improving the volunteer experience. 
• Generating consistent, reliable volunteer talent to meet your agency’s needs through a proven, time-saving system you can rely on now and into the future.  

 The Volunteer Strategy Success Path 

 Finally, every learning strategy and membership experience should have a backbone.   

In other words, all content should be organized around a clear journey of transformation for users. 

At VolunteerPro, our entire platform, and course design and content revolve around our bespoke Volunteer Strategy Success PathTM.  

This framework of strategies, activities, and milestones across five stages and three maturity levels was developed through decades of real-life, in-the-trenches experience. It includes what’s working strategies for today’s volunteer initiatives, not yesterday’s “old school” approaches.   

Frameworks like these ensure that learners focus on the steps that are right for them as they transform your nonprofit from early-stage to adapting to a fully mature volunteer program effort. All of our content and support is aligned with these focused phases. 

Want to Learn More? Experience Our Complete Volunteer Coordination System 

If you like the idea of developing a portal that can engage and support your volunteers, becoming a VolunteerPro member can not only get you the training, tools, and coaching you need, but will also immerse you in a live community case study as it evolves. 

We follow trends and best practices in community management, and you can learn by seeing how we do it. 

The VolunteerPro Premium Membership will help you build and implement a high-impact volunteer strategy that will bring in engaged, enthusiastic volunteers who want to stay and help your organization meet its mission.  

By using the modern tools and tactics in our platform, you’ll experience the benefits of expanding your audience beyond what you ever dreamed possible and reach a whole new generation of volunteers (and donors) who can’t wait to help you succeed.  

Our Community is an incredibly effective system that will kick start your volunteer program renovation and help you more rapidly grow volunteer engagement at your nonprofit, even in these very trying and uncertain times. 

Finally. You can learn how highly effective online learning and community is engagement is achieved so that you can emulate it with your own volunteers.