Volunteer Learning Journey
The Humane League
Project Overview
Introduction
This project was part of a training and development fellowship with The Humane League, a nonprofit focused on animal advocacy. I was tasked with improving the volunteer training experience by creating a structured learning journey that would introduce new volunteers to the training platform and help them develop foundational skills for engaging with others about the organization’s work.
My Role
While the organization didn’t have a formal instructional design team, I acted as the lead designer for this project—working independently to assess volunteer training needs and create a structured, engaging learning experience. With guidance from my fellowship mentor, I designed and built the learning journey, created custom assets, and aligned the experience with the organization’s broader goals for volunteer development.
Needs Analysis
Identifying the Need
As a fellow in The Humane League’s Organizers team—a team dedicated to recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers across the U.S.—I joined a growing effort to formalize the organization’s volunteer training approach. Historically, volunteer training had been informal and decentralized, but the organizer leading training (my fellowship mentor) had begun developing a more streamlined system. The end goal of my fellowship was to design a new learning journey that would help onboard volunteers and improve their experience using the organization’s volunteer training website.
At the time, the team was using Strapi, a content management system, to create a private, volunteer-only training site. It served as a makeshift LMS and housed existing training content and a few early-stage learning journeys, but lacked structure, consistency, and clear guidance for new users.
Information Gathering
To better understand how volunteers were engaging with the training platform, I launched an organization-wide survey targeting all confirmed volunteers. The goal was to identify usage trends and uncover awareness gaps. The results revealed that:
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A percentage of volunteers actively used the training site
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Some were interested but hadn’t started yet
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A notable portion didn’t know the site existed
From there, I conducted a more targeted follow-up survey with a focus group of volunteers to dig deeper into what was working, what was unclear, and what kind of training support they felt was missing.
These findings shaped the foundation for the learning journey design and highlighted several key needs:
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A clearer onboarding experience for new volunteers
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More visible orientation to the training site and how to navigate it
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Training content that helped volunteers feel confident speaking about the organization and their advocacy work
Design & Development Process
Approach & Tools
I used an iterative, learner-centered approach grounded in the ADDIE framework. After analyzing the training needs and feedback from volunteers, I began designing both updates to the existing training site and a brand-new learning journey. I worked directly in Strapi to revise site structure and content, using a combination of embedded media, visual design elements, and curated learning paths to improve clarity and engagement.
Key Design Elements
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Developed a “How to Use the Training Site” video tutorial to onboard new users and introduce site functionality
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Designed interactive knowledge checks using Google Forms, layered with graphics and branding, to make assessments feel more engaging
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Created a new learning journey specifically for onboarding volunteers—featuring a welcome message, organizational overview, intro to tools and programs, and curated foundational skill training
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Built a course catalog that clearly listed all available courses on the site, including descriptions and their relevance to different volunteer roles
Challenges & Solutions
One key challenge was working within the limitations of Strapi, which lacked built-in LMS functionality such as progress tracking and course completion status. To address this, I added a “Mark as Complete” button at the end of each learning journey, allowing volunteer organizers to track which users had completed specific trainings—creating a simple but effective workaround using the tools available.
Another challenge involved developing engaging knowledge checks without access to premium tools. As a nonprofit, the organization didn’t have a budget for dedicated assessment platforms, so I used Google Forms to build interactive checks. I leveraged features like free-text input to encourage reflection and used branching logic with multiple-choice questions to simulate real-life decision-making scenarios—creating a more dynamic learning experience within a free toolset.
Implementation
Deployment
Once development was complete, I published the learning journey and updated training resources directly on the volunteer training site within Strapi. The new onboarding content, “How to Use the Training Site” tutorial, and interactive knowledge checks were embedded alongside existing training materials to provide a more cohesive and accessible experience for new volunteers.
Collaboration & Handoff
While I led the design and implementation work independently, I worked closely with my fellowship mentor—who served as the training lead for the Organizers team—to ensure alignment with broader volunteer engagement goals. I also created a course catalog as an internal resource for organizers to reference and share when directing volunteers to relevant content. To support long-term scalability, I documented my design approach and provided a proposal outlining future opportunities to expand and improve the training site.
Evaluation & Outcomes
Project Completion & Presentation
The learning journey and updated training site were launched near the end of my fellowship, which meant there wasn’t enough time to collect meaningful post-implementation feedback or performance data. However, I concluded the project by presenting it to the entire organization—sharing the research insights, design process, key deliverables, and opportunities for future development.
Planned Evaluation Strategy
Had I remained in the role post-launch, I planned to evaluate the success of the project by:
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Monitoring page visits and completion records to identify engagement trends
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Comparing completion data against site traffic to spot potential drop-off points or usability gaps
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Conducting follow-up volunteer surveys to measure changes in awareness and usage of the training site, and to assess increases in confidence or clarity during onboarding
These data points would have provided both quantitative and qualitative insights into how effectively the learning journey supported volunteer engagement and learning outcomes.
Reflection
This project gave me the opportunity to manage an instructional design process from needs analysis through implementation, while also thinking strategically about evaluation and future scalability. It was rewarding to contribute to a mission I care about and to design an experience that supports both volunteers and the team members who guide them.
Visual Showcase
Project Previews
Below are visuals from key pieces of the learning journey and related training materials. These examples highlight the visual structure, tone, and navigation experience I created to make the site more approachable and intuitive for new volunteers.
Video Tour
Note: The volunteer training site is only accessible to confirmed volunteers of The Humane League.
Conclusion
This project was an opportunity to apply instructional design principles in a real-world, mission-driven environment. From conducting a needs analysis and gathering user feedback to designing new content and presenting my work to the organization, I was able to lead an end-to-end initiative that not only improved the volunteer experience—but also helped lay the foundation for a more structured training approach moving forward.
I’m proud to have contributed to a cause I care about, and grateful for the opportunity to build something meaningful that supports both volunteers and the team members who guide them.