Volunteers make the world go round! It’s so wonderful when you find those people that walk hand in hand with you to better the world. Creating Volunteer Opportunities in Virtuous will help you to coordinate and track those that are willing to give their time and talents to a specific need.
To get started, in the menu on the left select Contacts --> Volunteering. This will take you to the Volunteer Opportunities page.
On this screen, you'll see any Volunteer Opportunities that have already been created for your organization, with options on the left to filter and find specific opportunities. To create a new opportunity select the Actions drop-down menu available in the top right corner of the page. Then select the option to "Create an Opportunity.”
This will bring up the new volunteer opportunity form, where you can fill in all of the information for your specific volunteer need.
Volunteer Opportunity Details
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Name (required): Provide a unique name for your opportunity that will make it easy to recognize.
- URL: The website link to the public facing sign up Form.
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Description: This is a free text field where you can include a brief snippet about the opportunity, like "Get involved at our Annual Summer Adopt-a-thon - help homeless animals find a fur-ever family at this fun volunteer opportunity. All levels of volunteers are welcome, we have a job for everyone!"
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NOTE: text entered here should be finished, public-facing copy, as your donors may see this information, depending on how you choose to manage volunteer opportunities.
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Start Date and Time (required): The date for the opportunity, and planned start time. The system will always fill in a placeholder value — select the calendar icon to choose a new value. Note that changing the date will cause the time to update as well, so both will need to be updated.
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End Date and Time (required): The date when your opportunity will end; selecting separate values for start and end allows for multi-day events. The system will always fill in a placeholder value — select the calendar icon to choose a new value. Note that changing the date will cause the time to update as well, so both will need to be updated.
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Time Zone (required): Select the correct time zone for the opportunity. This is especially important if the opportunity will be held in a different time zone than the default zone for your organization.
- Anytime: Anytime Opportunities do not have specific dates. Checking this box will remove the Start and End Time fields as well as the Time Zone field.
Configuration
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Active: This will enable volunteers to be added to this opportunity. If this is not checked, volunteers and their respective hours can not be recorded for this opportunity.
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Local Only?: Checking this field will indicate to your volunteers that this opportunity is for local volunteers only.
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Current Priority: This field is hard coded with the options of ‘High’, ‘Low’, and ‘Medium’ and is intended to communicate the priority level for this opportunity for both volunteers and team members.
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People Needed: Enter the goal for how many people are needed for this opportunity. This number will allow you to track the number of volunteers signed up toward your total needs.
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Preferred Number of Hours: Enter the goal for how many total hours are needed for this opportunity. This number will allow you to track the number of hours that volunteers have signed up for toward your total needs.
Location
- Location: The name of the site or facility where the volunteer opportunity will take place. This should not be the address. That information is entered later in the form.
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Address: Enter the street address for the site or facility where the volunteer opportunity will take place.
- Anywhere: Check this box to create a virtual Opportunity that does not have a specific location. No matter where the volunteer is located, they can join your Opportunity anywhere. Sometimes Opportunities can be done anywhere in any community. Checking this box will remove the Location fields.
Custom Volunteer Fields
If your organization is using any Volunteer Custom Fields, these will display below the Location section. In the example screenshot provided, three Volunteer Custom Fields are displayed; "CPR Certified", "Photo Release", and "Sponsor".
Save and Complete Set Up
After you have entered the appropriate details, select "Save Volunteer Opportunity". You'll be taken to the page for your new opportunity. Be sure to review the opportunity data to ensure everything is correct; if not, you can always select the edit icon to make changes.
You'll notice that the opportunity screen has two tabs, Opportunity, and Volunteers. The Opportunity tab shows all of the general information for your opportunity. The Volunteers tab lists your volunteers and their information, which you can learn more about here. You also have the ability to add an Organizer for this opportunity to provide quick access to that Individual’s contact information.
Once you've created a Volunteer Opportunity, check out our other articles on this topic to learn more.
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