Moms, here’s one cool way to organize your hectic volunteer schedules!

Have you ever been the mom who had to coordinate a volunteer project - a class party where you needed a bunch of moms to bring items or snacks for the team for each game? It can be a big deal - and sometimes you feel like you’re constantly hounding moms, sending out emails, nagging parents with phone calls and follow-up texts. Not only that, it’s countless volunteer hours that you’re spending, when you could be using those hours doing other things for your family, the school or the team that you’ve volunteered to help in the first place!

That’s why we at FPgirl were thrilled to discover Volunteer Spot! We had a chance to chat with Jess Young, VolunteerSpot’s community manager (@VolunteerSpot), and ask some questions to find out how the program works. We think you’ll love it as much as we do!

Q: Can you give me the ‘elevator’ pitch of what Volunteer Spot is exactly?

A: VolunteerSpot saves time and makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to coordinate activities in our local schools and communities. Our free online signup and scheduling tools put an end to reply-all email, spreadsheet juggling and illegible clipboard sign up sheets and make it easy for more parents to pitch-in and participate.

Moms use VolunteerSpot for everything from organizing parents to help in the classroom, volunteers for large fundraisers, team and Scout snacks, Sunday school leaders, charity projects, you name it.

Q: Can you tell us how Volunteer Spot came to be?

A: VolunteerSpot is the brainchild of a busy mom who got frustrated with reply-all email about who was helping in her daughter’s school, Scouts and sports team.  She noticed it was the same ten people helping all the time and working parents, especially, found it difficult to get involved.  Not because they didn’t want to – but because poor communication got in the way. The idea to simplify parent volunteering and signups became a website, and 3 million busy moms and volunteers later, it’s a mission-critical tool (with smartphone and iPad apps) for groups of all kinds!

Q: Who are the main users of Volunteer Spot? I’m guessing busy moms? Any men? Do students, young people use it?

A: People from all walks of life volunteer and use VolunteerSpot – but given the nature of school and parent volunteering, it plays out that our business is dominated by busy moms and teachers organizing activities. That said, we’re a nation partner of Watch D.O.G.S.  – a fantastic organization that boosts father involvement in schools, and we support thousands of nonprofits, campus service teams, faith and community groups world wide – organizing daily food pantry volunteers, huge festivals and fundraising events, community cleanups, animal shelter helpers, races and so much more.

Q: What are the main benefits of using Volunteer Spot?

A: By making it so easy to ask for help and even easier to sign up to help, we save time and boost parent and volunteer turnout. One room mom recently told us we saved her and her class parents hundreds of hours of coordination time over the school year – that’s a huge savings of found time for things that matter!

With VolunteerSpot, the people signing up to help never need a password, and our signups are 100-percent smartphone-optimized so a mom can quickly choose her spots while in the grocery line or between meetings – with just a few taps.

Confirmation and reminder emails help keep everyone on track, and quick views of all the signups online in one place make coordinators very happy.

Teachers who use VolunteerSpot for parent-teacher conference scheduling tell us they go from 50-60 percent of parents showing up on time for their conferences to 95 percent+ - that’s huge!

Q: Can you offer some ways that Volunteer Spot will help moms and/or families with back-to-school craziness?

A: We all know that in parent world, at any time if could be your turn to be the one to chair the committee, be the room parent or team mom, or help organize the party.  It’s our hope that we make it easier for more parents to (boldly) step up and take the lead – stress free!

This time of year, Room Parents and PTO leaders proactively set up volunteer signups for everything from weekly readers to snack schedules, to recess and lunch helpers, class parties, teacher hospitality events, tutor/learning center volunteers, and fundraisers like carnivals, books fairs, chili cook-offs – you name it! (and then there are sports, religious education, and after-school activities needing parent leaders, snacks, carpools and fundraisers too!)

Q: Is there a charge to use Volunteer Spot?

A: NO! VolunteerSpot is FREE for everyone to use.

Q: What else can you tell us about Volunteer Spot?

A: It really is super easy – if you can shop online, you can use VolunteerSpot!  We hope your community will give us a try and recommend VolunterSpot to their room parents, teachers and team leaders this year.

Added BONUS – we have a GIANT back-to-school giveaway: Take the Pledge to Volunteer at school this year and you could win $1,500 for your school!  (there will be *3 winning schools!)  Click Here