Volunteer scheduling WordPress plugins come in all shapes, sizes and, most importantly prices. Deciding which one is right for your nonprofit organization can prove tricky, especially if you’re looking for an effective, easy and affordable option.
Fortunately, we have you covered. We recently installed a new volunteer scheduling WordPress plugin for one of our clients. Before we chose a solution and implemented it, we researched the available volunteer scheduling WordPress plugins.
We thought it be beneficial to our readers to share our findings and save your nonprofit future headaches by recommending the best out there.
Participants Database
Participants Database is one of the most popular volunteer scheduling WordPress plugins with over 10,000+ active installs. While much more limited in terms of functionality, this plugin is a lightweight volunteer database management solution. Nonprofits can manage volunteer information and create forms that allow people to create and edit their own record.
If you’re nonprofit wants to ditch volunteer management via Excel spreadsheets, this is a viable option. Just don’t expect to do much more. There are paid add-ons available to extend functionality and match your needs, a la carte.
Sign-up Sheets
Sign-up Sheets is your classic WordPress freemium plugin. You can install the plugin on your site and utilize the features you need to manage your volunteer force. However, you’ll need to pay for the Pro version to access the plugin’s entire suite of features and the entire sweet of features is needed for the most effective management. 
The free version includes:
- Volunteer sign-ups
- Timeslot sign-ups
- Personnel and resource coordination
- Unlimited number of sign-up sheets and unlimited number of sign-up slots
- Administrator can clear sign-up slots if needed
- Ability to copy a sheet
- Export all sign-up information to CSV
The pro version includes:
- Ability to create Custom Task fields and Custom Sign-up form fields
- Automatically sends reminder emails before an event (optional)
- Allows customization of the confirmation and reminder emails per sheet
- Assign categories to sheets and filter by category with the [sign_up_sheet] shortcode
- Spot Locking – Locks and holds a spot for 3 minutes when a user accesses the sign-up form (optional)
- Compact View option
- WYSIWYG Visual Editor
- Setup task sign-up limits
BirchPress Scheduler
BirchPress Scheduler is another one of the classic WordPress freemium plugins. Traditionally used by service businesses such as spas, yoga studios and contractors, BirchPress Scheduler is used for online appointment bookings by embedding a booking form in a page or post on the website. The free version features include:
- Customer booking appointments for specific time in a day
- Optimize the booking form for responsive themes
- Support multiple locations
- Support multiple staff and services
- Configure service length, padding time and price
- Assign your employees to different services
- Powerful Admin Panel for booking / appointment management
- Easily embed booking form / calendar into a webpage with shortcode
- Show appointments / schedules in the daily, weekly or monthly view
- Easily add, edit or delete appointment in WP Admin
- Client Management
- Multiple-currency support
- Configure date and time format
- Set the first day of the week
- Track appointment payment history
RSVPMaker Volunteer Roles
While not a standalone volunteer scheduling WordPress plugin, RSVPMaker Volunteer Roles extends the calendar and attendee signup features of the RSVPMaker plugin. RSVPMaker is used to sign up anonymous volunteers on the public website but the extension allows for nonprofit organizations to limit signups to trusted and vetted volunteers, which is essential if your volunteers require training or approval before volunteering. Some features include:
- Schedule and promote events of all sorts: conferences, classes, seminars, speaking events, parties and weddings are a few common uses.
- Promote your event on social media and send out email list invitations using the integration with MailChimp.
- Register attendees, prompting them to enter whatever information you need, including the names of guests.
- Collect money using PayPal.
- Create webinars and other online events leveraging free resources like the YouTube Live service.
Wired Impact Volunteer Management
Wired Impact Volunteer Management is a simple, free way to keep track of your nonprofit’s volunteers. The plugin is compatible with the current version on WordPress (as of writing this post) and offers all the features to run your volunteer force at the right price—free. The features include:
- Post one-time and flexible volunteer opportunities on your website
- Volunteers can sign up directly on your website
- Control the number of sign-ups available for opportunities
- Send reminder emails anytime
- Volunteer profiles that track participation and more
After our exhaustive research, we went with Wired Impact Volunteer Management. So far so good. Did we miss any volunteer scheduling WordPress plugins? Feel free to let us know in the comments section.
