Theatres, symphonies, opera and dance companies do not have a steady weekly volunteer rhythm. You have a run of performances, a dark stretch, an opening, a gala, and a season that starts in September and does not care about the calendar year. Volunteer Ledger is built around areas and dates you define, which is why an uneven season fits it.
Areas of service are named by you, not chosen from a fixed menu, which matters more in the performing arts than almost anywhere else because no two organizations divide the work the same way.
Ushering, ticket scanning, programs, coat check, accessibility support. The roles that need a headcount per performance rather than one named person, and the ones where a no-show is visible to the audience.
Will-call, bar and concessions, opening night receptions, donor events on the mezzanine. Occasional, event-shaped work that a weekly rota does not describe well.
Costume and props help, set-build weekends, mailings and stuffing parties, archive and library work. The hours nobody sees and everybody depends on, and the ones most likely to go unrecorded.
School matinee support, workshop assistance, community tours. Frequently the part a specific grant paid for, which makes reporting on it separately the difference between a renewal and an awkward email.
The awkwardness of performing arts volunteering is that demand arrives in bursts. Three weeks of eight performances, then nothing until the new year, then a gala that needs everyone.
Every report runs across a date range you choose, so a season that starts in September reports on September to June. You are not reconciling two different twelve-month periods to answer one board question.
Recurring shifts can carry an end date, so the performance schedule for one production generates its dates and stops rather than leaving standing slots through the dark weeks.
Occasional volunteers are still on the roster, and they cost nothing to keep there because pricing is per organization rather than per volunteer. Nobody has to be pruned to keep the bill down, which is how programs lose the person who always works the gala.
Email every active volunteer, or only the front-of-house ones, from the roster itself when the season opens. No exporting a list that was accurate in May.
The parts below work the same whether you run a theatre or a museum, so they are covered properly on their own pages rather than summarized twice.
Publish the performances, say how many ushers each needs, and let volunteers claim the ones in their own areas. Reminders send themselves.
Hours by department, valued at rates you set, over the period a funder actually asked about.
A form on your own site, with your questions, that approves straight into the roster with nothing retyped.
Safeguarding checks for work with young audiences, stored with expiry dates and surfaced before they lapse.
The product described for museums, galleries and performing arts organizations together.
For organizations that also run guided tours and need certification tracked.
Importing what you already have, with a preview of every row before anything is written.
Yes. A shift is a date and a time with a headcount, so each performance is its own shift needing however many people it needs. A matinee and an evening show on the same day are two separate shifts with different requirements.
Yes. Reports run across any date range you pick rather than a fixed year, so your season is just the range you choose. Saving it as a preset means next season's figures are produced the same way and can be compared honestly.
It does. Name an area of service for it and log hours against it like anything else. Occasional volunteers stay on the roster at no extra cost, because pricing is per organization rather than per volunteer, so there is no reason to remove someone who helps twice a year.
They do different jobs. Your ticketing and patron systems hold audiences, subscribers and donors. Volunteer Ledger holds the people who work the house, their hours, their training and their availability. It is deliberately not a patron database and holds no ticketing or donation records.
Yes. Define it as a requirement with its own renewal rule, record it against the volunteers it applies to, and store the paperwork against that requirement. Anything expiring appears in a report over a window you choose, so a check does not lapse in the middle of a schools run.
There is no limit. Unlimited volunteers, unlimited hours and unlimited users are included in the one plan, so the price never moves with the size of your roster.
Start a free 45-day trial, bring your volunteer list across, and build one production's worth of performances to see how it fits.
