Case Study: Piedmont Parks Conservancy

The Piedmont Park Conservancy is a member and donor-funded nonprofit organization working in partnership with the City of Atlanta to ensure Piedmont Park is an iconic park for all neighborhoods of metro Atlanta. Since 1989, Piedmont Park has invested over $66 million in capital improvements for Piedmont Park. Today, the Conservancy requires over $5 million dollars in donations every year in order to manage and enhance Piedmont Park and its programs. Their mission is to enhance and preserve Piedmont Park as a vital, urban green space, and as a cultural and recreational resource that enriches the quality of life for all Atlantans.

An essential pillar to Piedmont Park Conservancy’s mission is its volunteer program. Each year, Piedmont Park hosts hundreds of park beautification projects, community cleanups, and other corporate days of service to advance their mission in the community. 

In 2023, Piedmont Park engaged roughly 2,800 volunteers totaling 9,500 hours of volunteer time. Through utilizing Golden as their volunteer management software, Piedmont Park Conservancy has been able to streamline their volunteer operations, deepen their volunteer engagement, and strategically leverage volunteers as donors to support the Conservancy’s mission.

Key Challenges

Piedmont Park Conservancy actively engages over 2,000 volunteers annually, most often through pre-planned volunteer events. Prior to joining Golden, Piedmont Park Conservancy had been tracking their volunteers through spreadsheets and papers, and realized that in order to scale their program they would need to invest in volunteer management software in order to meet the needs of their growing program.

Piedmont Park Conservancy knew they needed a volunteer management software system that could easily streamline their waiver collection process that was printed, signed, and digitally transcribed into Excel after each event. They also needed an easy-to-use system for volunteers to find and register for opportunities without having to create an account, and could coordinate corporate volunteer groups and large-scale days of service with ease. 

Lastly, as a donor and member-funded organization, they needed a software system that could fully integrate with their donor management CRM system, Virtuous, to seamlessly integrate volunteer and donor data in one centralized database. 

Golden Solutions

Piedmont Park Conservancy was already utilizing Golden as a member of the Hands On Atlanta network. When searching for a volunteer management database, they found that they could have more freedom and flexibility with their program if they were to obtain their own Golden Enterprise license to manage their program. 

How Golden Helped

Since joining Golden as an Enterprise user, Piedmont Park Conversancy’s volunteer numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, while still managing their program through Excel, they engaged 2,024 volunteers totaling 6,180 hours of service. Last year, in 2023, the Conservancy engaged 2,800 volunteers totaling over 9,500 hours of service.

Overall they were able to increase their volunteer count by over 700 volunteers, and 3,500 increase in volunteer hours. Piedmont Park Conservancy has also been able to engage nearly 100 corporate groups.

They credit much of this success to utilizing Golden for their volunteer management system, including these key factors:

Automated Branded Email and SMS Texting Communications

Golden’s branded email feature allows for Piedmont Park Conservancy to deepen their brand awareness with their volunteer base. Golden's SMS feature also allows for text messages to be sent instantly to volunteers in the event of last-minute changes due to weather or other logistical communications.

Custom Reservations and Signature Events

Piedmont Park Conservancy regularly works with large groups of corporate volunteers. Golden’s Custom Reservation feature reserves spots for these groups, and easily tracks their registration. Golden’s latest feature; Signature Events, can create roles for their large-scale service opportunities, allowing them to effortlessly create and assign roles for each event. 

Waiver Collection

Piedmont Park Conservancy no longer needs to collect paper waivers from volunteers. In Golden, organizers can easily upload waivers to each opportunity for a volunteer to review and accept before officially registering for an opportunity.  “Golden enables us to set our volunteers up for success before they even arrive at Piedmont Park. We are able to collect and share information, expedite the waiver approval process, and track impact thanks to this software," says Loren Lownes, Volunteer Manager at Piedmont Park Conservancy.

Integration with Virtuous

Volunteer and event data seamlessly flows into Piedmont Park Conservancy’s CRM, Virtuous. With this integration, they can track and monitor volunteers and donors in a centralized database, and begin to strategically target certain volunteers and corporate groups for funding. "Having reliable volunteer data that integrates seamlessly into our CRM has set up our team for success!" says Anne Marchetta, Development Manager at Piedmont Park Conservancy.

"Partnering with Golden to seamlessly integrate volunteer data into Virtuous has empowered organizations to see the full supporter experience", says Mallory Greer, Director of Partnership at Virtuous. "This integration allows teams to strategically engage with volunteers, transforming them into lifelong donors through responsive fundraising." 

Donation Features with FundraiseUp

Golden and Piedmont Park Conservancy have recently partnered together to pilot a new donations feature with FundraiseUp that will prompt volunteers to make financial donations after completing opportunities or canceling their registrations. The ability to customize these tasks and target specific groups and events allows them to strategically continue to leverage volunteers as donors for their organization.

Future Outlook

Looking toward the year ahead, the Piedmont Park Conservancy is excited to utilize Golden’s Signature Events feature for their large service days to help assign volunteers to specific roles. In addition, Golden looks forward to enhancing our volunteer donation features to help convert more of Piedmont Park Conservancy’s volunteers into donors.