Volunteer Ledger logo Volunteer Ledger
Volunteer & docent management

Your docents deserve better than a shared spreadsheet.

Volunteer Ledger keeps docents, gallery guides, front of house, education tours, events and studio help in one system: hours, shifts, paperwork, milestones, and the in-kind figures your grant applications ask for. Built for museums, galleries, theatres and arts organizations.

  • 45-day free trial
  • No credit card to start
  • Unlimited volunteers and users
  • No per-volunteer fees, ever
Volunteer Ledger week schedule for an art museum: weekend store cover, Sunday gallery tours, a family art workshop, collections cataloging, a school group and an exhibition opening night, each showing how many of the volunteers needed have been filled
Volunteer Ledger dashboard for an art museum showing 19 active volunteers, hours and miles this month, eight areas of service, requirements needing review, and an hours-over-time chart
What you get

Everything your program runs on

Volunteers & hours

Docents, gallery guides, front of house and studio help: unlimited volunteers, areas of service, hours and mileage, with bulk actions and up to 30 custom fields.

Requirements

Docent training, background checks for youth tours and signed agreements, each with its own renewal rule, and one queue of what needs attention.

Reports

Hours by program and volunteer, rosters, recognition and the in-kind dollar value of volunteer time for grant applications. Print on your letterhead or export to CSV.

Recruiting

A public application form with your logo, your fields and your areas of service. Approving an applicant creates the volunteer record.

Recognition

Milestone tiers you set, by hours served and years of service, with a recognition report and upcoming birthdays. When someone reaches one, our free volunteer certificate maker prints their certificate.

Your data

Secure, access-logged document storage. CSV import that previews every row before it writes anything. Export your records any time.

How it works

Set it up in an afternoon, then keep it up as you go

No consultants and no training course. Docents, front of house and event help all live in one place.

Bring in your volunteers

Import a spreadsheet or add people as they come. Each volunteer gets their areas of service, a start date and the requirements that apply to them.

Fill shifts and log hours

Post shifts that volunteers claim themselves, then log hours on one fast screen or let volunteers log their own. Requirements track their renewal dates.

Show the value of volunteer time

Hours, rosters and milestones, plus the in-kind value of volunteer time for grant applications and board reports, ready to print or export to CSV.

Feature highlight: Scheduling and self sign-up

Fill every tour, desk shift and opening night.

Create the shifts you need covered, from a 10am school tour to an exhibition opening, and let volunteers claim the ones that fit.

Coverage you can see at a glance.

  • Shifts with a headcount. Set the area, the time and how many volunteers it needs, once or as a repeating series.
  • Volunteers claim their own. Volunteers with a login see the open shifts they can fill and sign up themselves. Full shifts close on their own.
  • The gaps before Saturday. Week, month and list views show what is filled and what is still short.
  • Shift reminders. Turn on reminder emails and assigned volunteers hear about their shift beforehand.
The Volunteer Ledger schedule for a museum week: shifts this month and still needing volunteers, then a week of shifts such as weekend store cover, a family art workshop, Sunday gallery tours and an exhibition opening night, each with how many of its places are filled
Feature highlight: Hours, logged by docents and volunteers

Docents log their own hours, so you stop chasing sign-in sheets.

Turn on volunteer sign-in and each volunteer gets a simple page to record their time, area and mileage. Staff can still enter or correct anything.

Their own record, and nothing else.

  • Only their own page. A volunteer sees their hours and shifts, never other volunteers, reports or settings.
  • Time in and out, or total hours. Plus mileage when your program tracks it.
  • The areas you assign. Front of house, tours, studio help and the rest, so every hour lands in the right program for your reports.
  • Staff entry stays open. Coordinators can enter hours for anyone, or import them from a spreadsheet.
A volunteer’s own My recent hours list in Volunteer Ledger at a museum: dates, areas such as Front of House and Studio & Workshops, hours and miles
Feature highlight: Reports for grants and the board

The volunteer numbers your grant applications ask for.

Hours by program and by volunteer, and the in-kind dollar value of volunteer time at the rates you set. Print them on your letterhead or export to CSV.

Run a report once, or schedule it.

  • In-kind value. The dollar value of volunteer time, with a rate per area of service if you want one.
  • Hours by program. Totals by area, by volunteer, or line by line for any date range.
  • Scheduled reports. Save a report and have it emailed to your director or board each month or quarter.
  • Print or export. Print-ready pages on your letterhead, or CSV with every line.
A Volunteer Ledger hours report at a museum: total hours, cost savings, miles, entries, volunteers and areas, an in-kind value note, and a bar chart of hours by area such as Education & School Tours, Docents & Gallery Guides and Events & Openings
Feature highlight: Recruiting

From application to volunteer record in one step.

Publish an application form with your logo, your questions and your areas of service. Review each applicant, then approve them into your roster.

A front door you can share anywhere.

  • Your link, your branding. Put it on your website, in a member newsletter or at an exhibition opening.
  • The details you need. Contact information, an emergency contact, the areas they want to serve and their own words.
  • Approve to create the record. Approving an applicant creates the volunteer record, with a duplicate check first.
  • Nothing sits unseen. New applications show as a count in the app until someone reviews them.
An application opened in Volunteer Ledger at a museum: interested in Docents & Gallery Guides, the applicant’s own words about leading tours, above the Approve as volunteer button
Real customer review
5 out of 5 on Capterra

I've managed volunteers for over 10 years at different agencies on various platforms; this is by far my favorite. It meets our program's needs through its various customizations and reports and is extremely user friendly for staff and volunteers.

Georgie N., Volunteer Manager, Development

Non-profit organization management, 51-200 employees. Reviewed September 18, 2026.

Read the full review on Capterra

Georgie's agency helped shape Volunteer Ledger during development and uses it at no cost.

Capterra reviews constitute the subjective opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences and do not represent the views of Capterra or its affiliates.

Simple, flat pricing

One plan. Everything included.

Nearly every competitor prices by volunteer count. We don't. Your savings grow with your program.

No credit card to start. No setup fees. After your free 45-day trial, paid plans renew automatically until you cancel. Cancel anytime. Switching between monthly and annual billing is prorated. Your data stays exportable, and a lapsed account becomes read-only. We delete an account only after 12 months read-only, and email you 30 days before.

New trial signups are currently closed. Already a customer? Sign in.

How to start

Start your free 45-day trial. Use every feature in the plan. No credit card.

Forty-five days is long enough to import your roster, log a real season of hours, and run a full month of reports, then decide with real data. Create your workspace in under a minute. If you let the trial lapse, your account simply goes read-only and your data stays viewable and exportable. We delete an account only after 12 months read-only, and email you 30 days before.

Questions coordinators actually ask

We already have a CRM or ticketing system. Do we need this too?

They do different jobs. Your CRM or ticketing platform is built around patrons, members, donors and sales: who bought, who gave, who attended. Volunteer Ledger is built around the volunteer program: who serves, in which area, for how many hours, what paperwork they have on file, and what the board and your funders need to see. Most arts organizations run the volunteer side in spreadsheets precisely because the CRM does not model it well. Volunteer Ledger replaces those spreadsheets and leaves your CRM alone.

Can we track docents separately from event and front-of-house volunteers?

Yes. You define your own areas of service (docents and gallery guides, front of house, school and education tours, the museum store, openings and events, studio and workshop help, archives and collections, grounds) and every hour is tagged to one. Any report can then be filtered or totaled by area, so you can show docent hours on their own, or the whole program together, without re-sorting a spreadsheet.

Can volunteers sign up for their own shifts?

Yes. Shift scheduling and volunteer self-signup are included in every Volunteer Ledger account. You publish shifts on a schedule (a gallery day, a tour slot, an opening night) and set how many volunteers each one needs. Volunteers with a login can claim an open shift themselves and release it if plans change, and the schedule shows you who signed up and what is still uncovered. You can also assign shifts yourself and leave self-signup switched off. Running a theatre or performing arts company? See performing arts volunteers.

Can we use volunteer hours as in-kind match on a grant application?

That is exactly what the Cost Savings report is for. Set an hourly rate, either one rate for the whole program or a different rate per area of service, and the report gives you the estimated in-kind dollar value of volunteer time for any date range, broken out by area, ready to print or export. Many arts funders accept donated volunteer time as in-kind match; there is no prescribed rate or method, so the figure is your own documented estimate using the rates you set.

Can we take volunteer applications online?

Yes. Switch on a public application form and you get a link to hand to your web person or post on social media. The form carries your logo, your own custom questions, and your real areas of service, so applicants pick where they want to serve. Submissions land in an applicant pool you review, and approving one creates the volunteer record with their areas already attached, optionally emailing them a login at the same time.

Can I import from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Both volunteers and hour entries import from CSV, and the app provides a CSV template for each so you can map your existing spreadsheet quickly. The import previews every row before it writes anything, so you can see what will happen first. You can be up and running the same day you sign up.

Can I export my data?

Yes, any time. Your records export back out to CSV, and every report has print-ready output for grant applications, annual reports, and board packets. Your organization owns its data. If your account ever lapses it becomes read-only and you can still export. We delete an account only after 12 months read-only, and email you 30 days before.

How much does Volunteer Ledger cost?

One plan. Launch pricing is $34.99 a month or $349 a year when you subscribe by December 31, 2026, locked in for as long as you stay subscribed. The standard price is $59.99 a month or $599 a year, so launch pricing is 41% off. Paying annually saves two months either way. Every account includes unlimited volunteers, unlimited hours and unlimited users with admin, staff and read-only roles, all reports with print and CSV export, requirement and expiration tracking, training records, milestone recognition, the public application form, document storage, shift scheduling with volunteer self-signup, email to all active volunteers in one send, scheduled email reports, Microsoft single sign-on and an optional custom domain. Nearly every competitor prices by volunteer count. We don't. Your savings grow with your program.

Is there a mobile app?

Yes. Staff and volunteers sign in to the Volunteer Ledger app for iPhone, iPad and Android with the same account they use on the web. Get it on the App Store or Google Play.