Schedule Your Nonprofit’s Volunteers with VolunteerSpot

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Name: VolunteerSpot

Quick Pitch: Free virtual sign-up sheets and event organizing tools for volunteers.

Genius Idea: The marquee service of this site — free virtual sign-up sheets and volunteer tracking tools — help event organizers put all details in one place and avoid the dreaded "reply all" emails.

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Getting bogged down with "reply all" emails? Or how about the numerous calendars and event reminders you have through your email, smartphone and Facebook?

Mom Karen Bantuveris was trying to balance her job, PTA meetings and Girl Scouts, but the communication between volunteers was cluttered.

"I saw many people drop out of volunteering, not because they didn't want to help, but because the communication process was too frustrating," she tells Mashable.

Bantuveris created VolunteerSpot, a site offering free tools to anyone organizing a volunteer project. There's no software to install, or approvals to wait for. Organizers can reach out to their community or groups and ask for volunteers. Willing volunteers can immediately sign up.

And now, with the release of their free iPad app, Clipboard by VolunteerSpot [iTunes link], busy volunteers can organize events on-the-go with this virtual sign-up sheet.

"VolunteerSpot is easy for anyone to use and was designed for tech-timid users," Bantuveris said. "If you can shop online, you can use VolunteerSpot."

The site has 1.7 million "mostly active, influential moms," Bantuveris said.

Organizers can put out a call for volunteers in one of three ways: by pasting a link to your page in a mass email; by entering email addresses in the site's planning wizard; or by putting a "sign up" button on their website.

The "organizer wizard" lets users ditch endless email chains and paper sign-up sheets. But if you don't want to do away with old-school planning tactics entirely, you can print rosters and sign-up sheets from the site, too. The site makes your job easier by directing everyone who's interested in helping your cause to one website, where the details of who is doing what are neatly laid out. Volunteers can select their own assignments, which entire groups working on the project can view, keeping everyone organized and informed.

And forget phone trees. VolunteerSpot sends automated messages to your volunteers prior to their commitments.

The basic services — including unlimited online sign up sheets and calendars, the planning wizard, automated email reminders, smartphone sign up and electronic calendar sync for volunteers and the ability to export activity data, plus more — are free. Premium service offers volunteer hours tracking, assistant organizers and extra reporting, which is often desired by people planning large events like festivals and races.

What do you think about VolunteerSpot? Tell us in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mangostock

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Series presented by Microsoft BizSpark

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The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives software startups three-year access to Microsoft software development tools, marketing visibility to help promote their business and a connection to the BizSpark ecosystem, giving them access to investors, advisors and mentors. There is no cost to join, so if your startup is privately owned, less than three years old and generates less than U.S. $1M in annual revenue, sign up today.