Back in 2006, as the association meant to serve volunteer managers imploded in a sea of mismanagement, I decided to try to take over the task of tracking every volunteer management software package in the English language. When I launched my list, in January 2006, there were about 25 packages.

Now, in 2011, I've got almost 50 volunteer management software packages listed.

My criteria for inclusion on the page:

• it has to have the word volunteer somewhere in its official description. It can't have just the word constituents or supporters; it has to explicitly say volunteer. 
• it has to track all contact information about volunteers (postal address, phone number, email, etc.)

It should also do most of the following:

• track where a volunteer applicant is in the volunteer orientation/participation process (completed application, completed orientation, first assignment undertaken, inactive because of illness, permanently withdrawn, etc.)
• track volunteer / community / constituent participation in events, online fora, etc. (most packages don't - more on this later)
• track volunteer hours/contribution by week, month, quarter, year, or project
• track volunteer impact beyond number of hours contributed
• track volunteer skills
• track volunteer availability and interests
• track volunteer performance reviews/assessments by a variety of staff
• allow for reports to be run/data to be exported on any combination of the above fields (a list of only those volunteers in a particular zip code who have completed the volunteer orientation and know HTML, for instance)

And this list excludes all the specialized nonprofit software out there -- to manage animal shelters, to manage museums, to manage arts organizations, etc. -- that may include a way to track some volunteering activities.

I frequently get asked: why don't you provide more information or opinions about each individual package? Please note that I receive no funding to maintain this page. The only research I do is to try to find new packages out there; what I provide about them is what the companies have emailed to me to share.

IMO: there's too many packages out there. It's time for a culling!

In addition, because nonprofits are so unique, many organizations are best served by building their own package in CiviCRM, which is open source and freely downloadable, or in some database program they already have: FileMaker Pro, Lotus Approach, the database function of the free office suite OpenOffice, the database function of the free office suite NeoOffice (for Macintosh computers), or Microsoft Access.

And, finally: I'm amazed that most of the packages out there do not have a user forum - a place where users can talk about how they are using the software, ask questions, share tips, etc. It's inexcusable for a company not to offer this. It is the simpliest thing in the world to set up -- just use GoogleGroups or YahooGroups to set up a private group that only current users can join and where all messages are screened before they are posted. If a company says they don't have time to do this, then they don't have time to provide quality customer support, period. You have to wonder what it is they are trying to hide!