Two qualifications are taken into account when matching volunteers to an Opportunity: experience level and travel preferences. Let's learn more about these criteria, as well as how to set them up in Volunteer Manager.

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Programs > Volunteer > Qualifications.

Experience Levels

You can manage your experience levels on the Experience Levels tab.

The relative organizational value of a volunteer activity may differ based on experience required or skills applied. You can take these attributes into account by setting up a tier system of experience levels, which offer two inputs to quantify an Opportunity's relative value:

• The Skills Multiplier determines the points earned for participating,
• While the Hourly Rate quantifies (in dollars) the financial benefit of an hour’s service at that Experience Level.

NOTE: An experience level corresponds directly to the My Volunteer Experience demographic on a user's volunteer profile, and is also associated to an Opportunity when it's created. Volunteer Manager then matches the experience level chosen by the volunteer with the Opportunity's experience level, and populates that Opportunity on matching volunteer profiles for easy sign-up.

Manage Experience Levels

On the Experience Levels tab, you can edit and delete any existing levels, and create new ones. There should be several default levels that will likely fulfill your needs, and you can update their settings if not, but you can also create new levels, if needed.

To create a level:

1. Click Create.
2. Give the level an appropriate name.
3. Set your the skills multiplier and hourly rate desired for the level.
4. Determine whether the level is active, whether it's the default, and whether it's available to Community Admins.
5. Click Save to add your level to the list.

Best Practice

Customize your experience levels so they makes sense to volunteers and are accurate in terms of calculating ROI. As Opportunities are created, Volunteer Manager begins calculating their ROI. For this to be a useful statistic, update the hourly rate for your industry according to the experience levels.

Travel Preferences

You can manage your travel preferences on the Travel Preferences tab.

An important detail potential volunteers need to know about an Opportunity is whether travel is required, and if so, the distance. On the Travel Preferences tab, you can create a series of travel ranges, like Up to 20 Miles, Up to 50 Miles, that will automatically be applied to Opportunities with a designated physical location, based on the user's location.

NOTE: Travel Preferences correspond directly to the Willingness to Travel demographic on the Volunteer profile, and are also associated to an Opportunity when it's created. Volunteer manager then matches the willingness to travel option selected by the volunteer with an Opportunity's location, and populates that Opportunity on the volunteer profile for easy sign-up if they are within the same range.

Manage Travel Preferences

On the Travel Preferences tab, you can edit and delete any existing ranges, and create new ones. There should be several default ranges that will likely fulfill your needs, and you can update their settings if not, but you can also create new ranges, if needed.

To create a range:

1. Click Create.
2. Give the range an appropriate name.
3. Enter the distance (in kilometers).
4. Set whether the range is active and whether it's the default.
5. Click Save to add your range to the list.