An Application Form is what prospective volunteers must fill out when they apply to volunteer for an opportunity that requires Admin approval.

NOTE: Admin approval to volunteer for an opportunity is set at the Opportunity Type level and is not necessarily applicable to all opportunities.

Application Forms allow Super Admins and Volunteer Admins to "screen" applicants; this makes the forms a great administrative tool for picking volunteers that are best suited to your volunteer opportunity.

Application Forms in your account

In your Higher Logic account, you can:

• create as many Application Forms as you want;
• save forms for future and repeated use;
• edit forms when necessary and copy forms to accommodate minor changes;
• deactivate and re-activate individual forms; and
• associate a form to an "approval required" volunteer opportunity.

Access your Application Forms

To access your forms:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Programs > Volunteer > Application Forms.

The Application Forms page opens:

...and the list of forms:

• indicates which form is set as the default,
• is sorted alphabetically by name, and
• is filtered to Active.

You can:

• Click the Filter by dropdown and select Inactive to review the Application Forms that are currently unavailable.
  • The Inactive list view is identical and has the same options.
  • You must edit a form in order to re-activate it.
• Click the up and down arrows in the Sort Order column to rearrange the forms.
  • This does not apply any type of priority to the forms; it simply manages how they display in this list.
  • When you navigate away from this page, your set order is retained.

Manage your Application Forms

This section describes the management actions (edit, copy, delete, set default) that are available on the Application Forms page.

TIP: The next section is dedicated to the Application Form "create" process.

Edit an Application Form

1. In the Actions column of the form that you want to change, click Edit.

The Edit Opportunity Form page opens and displays all of the settings and properties that have been configured for the form.

2. Work through the Application and/or Content Elements sections to make your changes to the form.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Copy an Application Form

1. In the Actions column of the item that you want to copy, click the down-arrow icon.
2. Click Copy.

3. In the dialog, accept the default name (Copy of XXXX) or specify a name for the form; click Copy.
4. Review the list and verify that your new form displays as expected.

Your new Application Form will now be available for you to assign to an Opportunity Type that has been configured to require the approval of applications.

Delete an Application Form

1. In the Actions column of the item that you want to delete, click the down-arrow icon.
2. Click Delete.

3. In the dialog, review the name of the form and click Delete to delete it.

TIP: Deleting an Application Form is an irrevocable action. Before deleting one, consider setting it to Inactive instead, in case you want to use it again in future.

The Application Form is immediately deleted and:

• it is no longer available to be assigned to opportunities.
• it cannot be "undeleted;" you have to create a new Application Form.

Set a default Application Form

Before managing the default Application Form, review the following notes.

Default Application Form notes

• The "active" and "default" toggles are automatically disabled for the current default Application Form.
  • You cannot "de-activate" the current default form. You must set a different form as the default, which automatically enables the ability to "de-activate" the current default form.
  • You cannot toggle off (No) the "default" setting of the current default form. You must set a different form which then automatically replaces the current form as the default.
• In order for a form to be set as the default, it must be Active. If it is not, the "default" toggle is not enabled.
• When you set a form as the default, it automatically replaces the current default form.

To set an Application Form as the default:

1. In the Actions column of the form that you want to set as the default, click Edit.

The Edit Opportunity Form page opens.

2. In the Settings section, click the Is this the default? toggle to set it to Yes.
3. Click Save.
4. Review the list and verify that the checkmark icon now displays in the form's Default column.

TIP: To manage this default form, refer to Default Application Form notes at the start of this section.

Create an Application Form

This section describes how to create an Application Form for users who are interested in volunteering for an opportunity.

Application Form notes & tips

The purpose of an Application Form is capture personal information about prospective volunteers in order to better ensure that the volunteers you pick are well suited to the opportunity. Therefore, it's important that your form:

• does not request "too much information" but
• does request "valuable and necessary information."

TIP: Requesting too much information might be perceived as an encroachment of personal privacy and could discourage prospective volunteers. Keep your form focused on the applicant's suitability for the opportunity; the more applicants that respond means the larger the pool from which to select the most suitable volunteers.

In addition to your application form being designed to capture information that is relevant to the volunteer opportunity, consider designing it with a mixture of text fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, and other other elements to make it more dynamic and engaging.

To create a form:

1. In the upper right, click Create.

2. In the Settings section, use the toggles to set:

• whether the form is active or inactive and
• whether the form is the default form.

3. In the Form Builder section, drag Content Elements (refer to Content Elements, below, for information) from the groupings on the right and drop them into the Application box on the left.

• The "drop" location isn't important; the elements can be positioned after you have finished adding elements. Refer to Arrange the Content Elements, below, to learn how to position the elements.
• To remove an element from the Application box, simply click-&-drag it out of the box and "drop" it anywhere. It returns to the appropriate group.
• You can configure the elements either as you place them (each configuration dialog automatically opens on placement) or after you have placed all those that you want. Refer to Configure the Content Elements, below, to learn how to configure the elements.

4. When you have added, configured, and arranged the elements that you want on your form, click Save at the bottom of the page.
5. On the Application Forms page, review the list and verify that the new form is listed and that its Default and State columns reflect what you had set with those toggles.

Content Elements

The Content Elements are the various "building blocks" that you add to your form in order to collect information from the opportunity's applicants. This helps you determine which applicants are most suited to the opportunity.

Content Elements are grouped as:

• Form Controls - the checkboxes, text fields, date pickers, and other things that applicants interact with in order to provide the personal information that you request on the application. Scroll down the page to review all of the available form controls.
• Demographics - the account-specific Demographics fields (e.g., Certifications, Areas of Expertise) that have been set up in your account and which collect additional personal information from applicants.
  • Your account's custom Demographics are created on the Users > Demographics page in the Admin interface.
• System Data - system-based information that can collect additional personal information from applicants.

Arrange the Content Elements

As you place the Content Elements (or after you have placed several or all of them) you can position them where you want them to display on the form.

1. Hover on an element; the four-point arrow icon displays as shown below for the Email Address element:

2. Click, hold, and drag the element (up or down) to the preferred position on the form and release the mouse button; the element drops into place (now, Email Address is below the "weekends" question):

Repeat these steps for any other elements that you want to relocate.

Configure the Content Elements

You have to configure each element to collect the data you want.

1. Click the pencil icon on an element to configure it.

NOTE: The titles of the configuration dialogs will vary based on the type of element (Form Control, Demographic, or System Data).

The options on the configuration dialogs will vary because they are dependent on the type of element. However, a few of the fields are applicable to almost all of the elements, such as:

• Label is a required field for all elements. The label (e.g., Are you available on weekends?) displays in bold text on this page and on the user-facing form.
• Note Text is where you provide guidance and/or instructions (e.g., "Select 1 option") for completing the field. (Clear instructions are the best way to ensure that the applicant understands the purpose of the field; then, they are more likely to provide exactly the information you want.)
• Is required? is a toggle that you can set to Yes to make the field "required."

Application Form example & preview

The image below shows a completed form, New Doc-Test Application Form, in the Application box.

NOTE: Below the image is a second image that shows the form as it displays to applicants.

To view how the form displays to applicants:

1. Navigate to Programs > Volunteer > List.
2. Locate the opportunity in the list and, in the Actions column, click the down arrow and select View Opportunity Details.
3. On the opportunity's Details page, click the "apply" button.

The form displays in an overlay dialog:

Application Forms and Opportunity Types

Application Forms are relevant only for Opportunity Types with Submission Type set to Require Approval.

NOTE: This ensures the "approval" part of the opportunity because it forces prospective volunteers to complete an application to even be considered.

When the Submission Type field is set to Require Approval on an Opportunity Type, the Application Form field displays:

The dropdown menu is populated with the forms that have been created in your account and which are set to Active. (Inactive forms are not presented.)

You can choose either:

• one of your active Application Forms from the dropdown list or
• the Create a new application form with form builder option.

The difference is most noticeable when an Admin creates an opportunity of this Type, as detailed in the sections below.

Use an existing Application Form

If an Admin is creating an opportunity that is based on an Opportunity Type that has the Application Form field set to an existing form, the fields of that form will display on the Application Builder step of the opportunity-creation process.

NOTE: The form cannot be modified here. If you want to make changes, cancel out of this process and edit the form on the Application Form page, as described in Edit an Application Form above.

Create a new Application Form

If an Admin is creating an opportunity that is based on an Opportunity Type that has the Application Form field set to Create a new application form with form builder, the Admin is automatically presented the "create form" page on the Application Builder step of the opportunity-creation process.

The "create form" page is described above in Create an Application Form.