Lesson 3: Other Information to Track

Other things to track

In the last lesson, we covered the importance of tracking volunteer hours and contact information. As part of a community group or community center interested in connecting other people with gardens, you are also running a program. Tracking data about your program demonstrates the community’s investment and involvement in the garden. Keeping up with program data can also help you set goals and know if you have met them or not. 

We use google sheets to track volunteer hours, numbers of volunteers, numbers of people who come to our workshops, and in kind donations. We keep this information in one google workbook with a tab/sheet for volunteer numbers & hours, farm visitors, workshop participants, plants/seeds donated, pounds of food harvested, in kind donations, food scraps recycled, and amount of compost made. 

We track contact information about volunteers, donors, and others in a free program called Give Butter. Give Butter is designed to be fundraising software, but it also has a contact database. If you don’t have a lot of volunteers or participants, google sheets will track names, cell numbers, and anything else you and your staff might need to get in touch with your volunteers.

Track this information to build a stronger garden program:

• Donations & their approximate value - did someone give you seeds, lumber for beds, bottled water for volunteers, or a mower? Track it! Sharing this information with supervisors demonstrates that others value what you’re doing!

• An in kind donation is the donation of a good or service rather than money. If a store donates a sandwich plate, that is an in kind donation. The value is what it would cost to buy the sandwiches. If a graphic designer donates their time designing educational signs for the garden, the value of their time is an in kind donation or contribution. It’s value is the amount of money you would have to spend to hire someone to do that work. 

• A monetary donation - Of course you want to track these, too! The fundraising world has done the research, and the people who give to an organization once are more likely to give again. Use that information! Keep track of who gives you money, thank them, and then reach out around November (Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) or in the spring, share your garden successes & plans, and ask for a contribution.

• Volunteer involvement - volunteer names and contact information, when they worked, how long they worked, and what they worked on. Keeping track of this information helps you thank and recognize volunteers and their contributions and keep track of who showed up and what they were working on. See the section on volunteer/volunteer management.

• Garden visitors - Did people stop by just to see what you’re doing? Demonstrating community interest demonstrates a garden’s value. Collect your visitors’ contact information in your log and invite them to programs or volunteer opportunities.

• Programs or classes held in the garden, the number of classes and the number of participants - Again, as community-focused gardens that often rely on donations or support from larger organizations, demonstrating that your garden is an active place for community engagement is important.

• Pounds of food shared or donated - If your garden has a goal of sharing food with the community, make sure you are tracking the amount of food you donate.

• Numbers of plants or seeds or tools donated - E.A.T. South gives away seeds to schools and community groups and hosts an annual seed exchange. We also grow plants for the community and track the numbers of seeds and plants we share.

• Photos, great quotes from volunteers or visitors, track whatever else interests you.

Where should you keep all of this information?

Pick the system that works for you. A notebook or binder in a tool shed or greenhouse is a great place for volunteers to sign in, list what activities they completed, track the amount of time they spent in the garden, and any food harvested. Set a time each week or month to transfer this information into your spreadsheet.

When you give your staff or volunteers an orientation to the garden, show them the garden notebook. Explain what information you are tracking and why. If you can’t be on site to work in the garden, you can also leave project instructions and information for your staff and volunteers in the garden notebook. Use it as a communication tool. Leave instructions in the notebook, and ask volunteers or staff to list what they accomplished as well as any questions or challenges.

You might also use the notebook to keep a running list of volunteer projects, and then use a chalkboard or whiteboard to post each day’s volunteer tasks. If you have different groups throughout the day - youth in the morning, adults after work - consider posting the activities for each group so they know what’s going on. It also shows garden visitors that people are active and engaged in the garden. They may want to get involved!

Tools for tracking information

We use Google products because they are cheap to free, and it’s easy to share and collaborate on documents. Google Sheets is their spreadsheet program and the tool we use when we are tracking anything that is a number (number of volunteer hours, pounds harvested, plants donated).

Google Docs is their document program, and we use it to keep and share notes, draft documents like this one, write thank you letters, etc.

Use Google Forms to get feedback on workshops, ask volunteers for information about how the program is going, or to survey the community about their interest in a garden. Google Forms allows you to create quick and easy surveys to help you plan for and evaluate your garden program.

Our shared Google Calendar holds information about meetings, projects,, and community events. You could share project information with your garden group through the calendar.

Tip: When you create an calendar item for a volunteer group or a community event, write the contact information for the groups on the calendar entry. You can also save meeting notes, include maps to the event, and share other information in the calendar entry. 

Good Drive is where everything is stored. We have files for different projects, photos, recipes. It’s easy to share access to files with different people so consider this when starting a program. You could have a file in Google drive with each day’s project information instead of a physical notebook if all volunteers have access and cell phones.

While we keep most of our photos in Google Drive organized by year (one folder for all 2025 photos, etc.), you can connect Google Photos to your phone and it will upload all the pictures you take. If you’re mostly using the phone for work and garden pictures, this might be a good option for easily storing pictures and videos from the garden.

Other tools - We have used Give Lively and Give Butter as was of tracking contact information mostly for fundraising. If you can afford to pay for a CRM, you can get features like groups texts and modules that help you track volunteer hours.

Evernote is a note taking app that lets you collaborate with others. There are free and paid versions. You can keep to do lists, notes, and pictures in the app.

Since we’re on the subject of apps and software, we use Canva to create flyers and social media. If you have nonprofit status or can be under a nonprofit’s umbrella, Canva offers free licenses for their premium program.