Case Study: City of Oakland achieves streamlined volunteer coordination and increased community engagement with Track it Forward

Tracking and Organizing Volunteers in the City of Oakland

The City of Oakland's Public Works Agency faced budget cuts that pushed more maintenance and beautification work onto volunteers, but volunteer coordination was fragmented across email, spreadsheets, and paper forms. The City of Oakland turned to Track it Forward's volunteer-tracking system to encourage participation, organize volunteers across parks and gardens, and provide transparency and accountability with minimal bureaucracy.

Track it Forward was deployed by park staff and volunteer leaders (notably gardener Tora Rocha) to run a Master Volunteer program, weekly workdays across about 16 parks, and to record group efforts using features like Bulk Hours. The system helped record nearly 2,000 volunteer hours in April–May 2011, provided a public view of activities that boosted participation, made volunteer monitoring part of supervisors’ routines, and enabled community organizers to track and report hours more efficiently.

City of Oakland

Tora Rocha

Head Gardener