1. Analytics in the Field: Using Data
Mining to Improve Volunteer Retention
Abram Guerra, Eric Whitney
Manoj Prakash, Joel Samen
December 5, 2011

2. What is Boston Cares?
“Boston Cares mobilizes more than 25,000
volunteers annually in support of Greater Boston
schools and non-profit agencies. We offer a wide
array of programs and opportunities that make
it easy for you to volunteer no matter how busy
your schedule is.”1
Organization
Volunteer
with Project
Boston Cares
1www.bostoncares.org/about_us

3. Boston Cares Has a Wealth of Data
 1,796 Organizations
 3,597 Opportunities
 20,071 Occurrences
Database
 43,531 Volunteers

4. Connecting the Dots

5. Missing Data Values

6. Calculated Variable: Distance
 Volunteer Home Addresses
 Volunteering Locations

7. Our Target Variable
Orientation Volunteer Instance Volunteer Instance
Time
Lifespan

8. Moving to SAS

9. Interesting Initial Findings

10. Setting Up in SAS

11. The Story the Data Tells Us
Parameter Coefficient Explanation
Avg_Group_Size -0.9 Smaller-group volunteer opportunities help
increase the lifespan of an active volunteer.
Education Level 139.4 Volunteers with graduate degrees volunteer more
– Graduate degree than 4 months longer.
Education Level -41.3 Volunteers who have only partially completed their
– Some college education are active volunteers for less time.
Education Level -44.6
– Some high school
Environment_ZeroesAdded 26.1 Each time a volunteer participates in an
environmentally-oriented opportunity, they are
likely to volunteer for another month.
Profile Name – Volunteer -128.1 Volunteer Leaders (as opposed to regular
Volunteers) are active more than 4 months longer.
Reliability -74.90 The most reliable volunteers are active for shorter
periods of time.

12. So What?
Finding from Data Managerial Recommendation
Volunteers who participate in large- Improve marketing efforts at large-scale
scale, one-time events may have no ties events to raise brand awareness of Boston
to Boston Cares Cares
Volunteers with graduate degrees are Work with graduate schools to get students
more likely to have longer lifespans involved with Boston Cares, create alumni
events that focus on service
Volunteers who participate in an Increase availability of environment-based
environment-based project are likely to community service partnerships, finding
have longer lifespans more of these kinds of events for
participants

13. Lessons Learned
Data is Often
Poorly Documented
Scrubbing Data is a
Full-Time Job
Be Aware of Assumptions
SAS is a Tool
There is Always More
Data You Want