Hands On Atlanta
Learn how Hands On Atlanta scaled its volunteer program by 132% using Golden's intuitive volunteer management features.
‹ Previous Success StoryUnion Gospel Mission
About Union Gospel Mission
Union Gospel Mission (UGM) provides critical services for people facing homelessness, poverty, and addiction throughout Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Greater Victoria. Their services- which include recovery programs, housing services, and career development, aim to provide a continuum of care that intentionally supports those looking to rebuild their lives.
Every year, UGM engages thousands of volunteers to support their programs. However, a sharp decline in volunteerism trailing from the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a need to simplify their user experience, drove UGM to reconsider its volunteer engagement strategy. In 2023, they partnered with Golden to offer volunteers a streamlined digital platform, and grow their volunteer impact while reducing administrative burdens.
Today, UGM is surpassing their pre-pandemic numbers, engaging over 3000 volunteers in 2024 and increasing by 5% in 2025. As they look to 2026 and beyond, UGM plans to utilize Golden’s innovative features to scale their volunteer programs to new heights.
Key Challenges
To continue meeting the needs of their community while reducing administrative burdens for staff, UGM understood it needed to invest in a platform that could centralize its data and modernise their volunteer experience. Below are the key challenges they experienced that drove this decision:
Fragmented Data Reporting
In order to prepare reports for leadership and measure impact, UGM staff compiled data from various systems (Microsoft Excel, Better Impact) often involved time-intensive processes.
Attendance & Tracking
Prior to Golden, attendance and hour tracking was largely done in person, requiring volunteers to report hours on paper and staff to manually input data post-event.
Data Syndication
Volunteer data was not connected with other databases making it challenging to know if an individual was engaged with UGM in different avenues.
User Experience
Volunteer experiences, including finding opportunities and time tracking, were not user friendly and led to a lack of engagement on their platform. UGM realized they needed a modern system with a clean interface where volunteers could self-schedule their shifts.
Product Support & Innovation
Historically, UGM received limited support from vendors that restricted their ability to adapt a product to meet the needs of their program.
Golden Solutions
Through Golden’s modern and innovative approach to volunteer technology, UGM was able to utilize several key features of its platform to scale their volunteer impact.
Check-In Kiosk
Golden’s Check-in Kiosk allows for real-time tracking. Volunteers can sign themselves in and out from a shift- automatically capturing their attendance and hours, both improving accuracy of volunteer data and eliminating manual data entry for staff.
Salesforce CRM Integration
Golden’s direct API integration with Salesforce allows UGM to choose when, where, and how volunteer data is integrated into their donor CRM, allowing for the volunteer team and the fundraising teams to work within the same CRM platform.
Dedicated Client Strategy
As an enterprise-level client, UGM has access to a Client Strategist who manages support escalations and drives new product development based on their user feedback.
Customizable User Experiences
UGM is able to aggregate their opportunities in a branded volunteer portal, complete with user-specific customizations needed to elevate and highlight volunteer opportunities. Golden’s award-winning mobile app allows users to find volunteer opportunities from their mobile devices, and track their time with ease.
Communication Automation & Branding
Golden’s automated emails for event confirmations, reminders, updates, and follow-ups remove administrative barriers while ensuring volunteers have the information they need before and after their service. With Golden’s branded email communication package, UGM is able to customize and brand their emails for streamlined communication and brand visibility.
Executive-Ready Reporting
Golden’s Insight tab provides a centralized source of reporting for volunteer impact, providing staff a quick glance at their overall metrics while providing leadership clean and simplified reports that demonstrate growth and effectiveness.
Demonstrated Impact
Since adopting Golden, UGM has seen significant growth in their volunteer program. Their impact has been amplified through Golden’s key features and continues to help drive expansion across British Columbia.
Program Expansion
Expansion to 2 New Networks/areas encompassing 6 different sites in 2025.
Volunteer Growth
22,093 Volunteer registrations in 2025,
8% growth since year 1 of using the platform.
Volunteer Applications
1200 volunteer applications received since using the Golden platform.
User Satisfaction
75% of UGM volunteers use the Golden App; Average user score for Golden is 8.5/10.
What People Said About Golden
We are so grateful for how Golden has worked with us to creatively find solutions as we’ve developed our volunteer program over the last few years. COVID hit our volunteer program significantly, but with Golden we were able to get back our volunteer numbers within a year and a half of using the software. Thanks Golden!
We are so grateful for how Golden has worked with us to creatively find solutions as we’ve developed our volunteer program over the last few years. COVID hit our volunteer program significantly, but with Golden we were able to get back our volunteer numbers within a year and a half of using the software. Thanks Golden!