Case Study: How One of the Nation’s Largest Cathedrals Simplified Its Volunteer Signups

At Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, North Carolina—one of the largest Catholic cathedrals in the United States—volunteers make a lot possible: welcoming visitors, serving meals, and supporting ministries. But over time, different volunteer groups at the cathedral adopted their own ways of managing volunteers, including through separate online signup accounts.

Michelle Connors, Director of Communications and Technology, wanted a simpler, more consistent way to coordinate volunteers across the cathedral. With a small staff and many ministry leaders organizing their own opportunities, she saw the value of bringing volunteer signups, communication, and data into one central place.

The volunteer experience mattered to Michelle, too. Some groups had been using the free version of SignUpGenius, and the advertising had become a source of frustration.

“It had gotten so out of control. One of my ministers approached me, and said ‘Can we do something about SignUpGenius? The ads are so bad.’”

Her goal was to streamline volunteer management through one shared system—simple to use for volunteers, easy for ministry leaders to manage, and centralized for cathedral staff. 

The Problem: Bringing separate volunteer signups together

The cathedral needed one simple, easy-to-use system where ministry leaders could manage their own volunteer opportunities independently, with a unified process to keep the cathedral’s branding, communication, and volunteer data together in one place.

At the same time, centralizing the system needed to be easy to roll out and couldn’t take up too much staff time.

"We have a very limited staff,” Michelle explains, “so we have to rely on the best tools for efficiency."

The Solution: One home for volunteer opportunities

Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral already uses Ministry Scheduler Pro to schedule liturgical ministers for all of its weekend Masses and special liturgies. Michelle began looking at Unison, a new volunteer management system from Rotunda, as an option.

“Most of our ministers are already familiar with MSP,” Michelle said. “I'm just going to get the free version and see how it works for a Lenten event.”

She first tried Unison for the cathedral’s soup suppers before Stations of the Cross on Fridays. Each week, a different ministry hosted the soup supper, which gave several groups a chance to use Unison from the beginning.

“The first thing I noticed was how clean the signup experience felt. No pop-up ads.”

After Lent, Michelle began scheduling the Parish Center Kitchen volunteers in Unison. Other groups saw its ease of use and popularity with volunteers. The Living Faith Committee, Women’s Group, and Cathedral Greeters will be onboarding this year, too.

“Our volunteer Cathedral Greeters fill three-hour shifts to open the doors for public prayer and tours, welcome visitors, and oversee the building. With Unison, their leader can easily manage Greeter shifts on her own, while we keep everything connected in a shared system.”

This model gives each ministry leader the flexibility to coordinate their own volunteers and the cathedral community one consistent hub to find all volunteer opportunities. The result? An uncomplicated, pleasant experience for  volunteers and staff alike.

The Impact: One system, shared across ministry leaders

What began with one Lenten event grew into a unified approach to volunteer coordination across Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral: 

• Ministry leaders manage their own signups—with data kept in a central place. 
• Staff track and manage volunteers across the cathedral and all of its groups and ministries  
• Parishioners enjoy a smoother, seamless  experience signing up for opportunities

MSP continues to schedule liturgical ministers. Another platform handles ticketing and payments for events. And when an opportunity calls for volunteers, Michelle has a simple direction:

“Everything that's volunteer-based goes into Unison.”

From soup suppers to Cathedral Greeters, Unison provides one home for volunteer opportunities—shared across the cathedral and managed by the people closest to each ministry.