This article...
- Explains the four-step process to create an Opportunity, including key fields, qualifications, and email templates.
- Details building application forms or using pre-built forms, required fields, and leveraging Demographics.
- Discusses inviting and adding volunteers, matching requirements with sliders, auto-approval options, and notifications.
- Outlines managing applicants across statuses, assigning roles and points, viewing applications, and emailing candidates.
- Covers managing opportunities: hold status, edit applications, view details, run reports, copy, delete, reindexing.
Opportunities are the heart of the Volunteer program: They're what your users see, and can apply to participate in, on the Volunteer Opportunities page (see image below).
TIP: A number of Volunteer items should be established prior to creating your Opportunities. So, before doing so, complete the other pages in the Volunteer section (define your Opportunity Types, create your application forms, etc.).
Access your Opportunities
Super Admins and Community Admins can manage volunteer Opportunities, as described in the sections below.
Super Admins
Super Admins can manage volunteer Opportunities for the entire site.
- In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.
- Navigate to Programs > Volunteer > List.
Community Admins
Community Admins can manage volunteer Opportunities for only those communities in which they are an Admin.
- Navigate to your community's Home page.
- Click Settings > Manage Opportunities.
Create an Opportunity
Click the Create Opportunity button to begin the process; creating an Opportunity is a four-step process:
Step 1 - Define its details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Opportunity Type |
Select the Opportunity Type that best fits the Opportunity you're creating (e.g., committee service, charity activities, etc.). NOTE: Opportunity Types determine a number of important settings, like who can view and participate in an Opportunity, whether participation requires users to submit an application that must be approved, and which emails are sent throughout the volunteer process. See Manage Volunteer Opportunity Types to learn more. |
| Title / Name | Give the Opportunity a name that gives potential volunteers a clear idea what to expect. |
| Application Form |
NOTE: This field is required only if the selected Opportunity Type is configured to require approval for submissions. An application form is what volunteers must fill out when applying for the Opportunity. Regarding applications forms, you have two options:
|
| Description | Provide all necessary details potential volunteers need to know about the Opportunity here. This information appears on the Opportunity's details page. |
| Integration Code |
This is any text value that you want to assign to this Opportunity. The value doesn't have to be unique for each Opportunity, and it can be an "additional reference point" (AMS opportunity/event key, Opportunity creator, Opportunity manager, community name) that is to stored in your AMS/CRM database. NOTE: You can ignore this field if (a) you don't use sync data to an AMS with Activity Sync or (b) you don't use an additional reference point. |
| Associated Community | If you want to associate the Opportunity to a specific community, select it here. If you do, after creating the Opportunity, a new option is available when editing it that allows you to only allow members of the selected community to apply/volunteer. |
| Primary Contact | Select who you want as the Opportunity's main point-of-contact. |
| Location | Select whether the Opportunity is taking place at a physical location or online. If at a physical location, you'll be prompted to enter the address; if online, no further information is required. |
| Display Picture for Opportunity List and Details Page | |
| Upload a picture |
If you want to represent the Opportunity with an image, upload
one here.
NOTE: This image is used as a thumbnail on the Volunteer Opportunity listings page and the Opportunity's Details page. The maximum dimensions on the Details page are 300px. |
| Dates | |
| Is this open-ended? |
An open-ended opportunity does not have a set
end date. It must have a Start Date; it might also have a Publish Date but, by design, the opportunity
remains
open/available until an Admin closes it or changes it. Examples:
join a committee;
mentor others. A closed opportunity has a defined timeframe during which volunteers can apply. It has a set Start Date and End Date (after which, applications are no longer accepted), and, typically, a Sign up deadline. Examples: a one-time project; a short-term community event. - Accept the default setting, Yes (open-ended), and set a start date and, optionally, a publish date. Or... - Toggle the slider to No and set values for the four Date fields. Sign up date: If this is not specified, users can sign up until the Opportunity's End date. This can be earlier than the start date. Publish date: If this is not specified, the Opportunity immediately displays in your Volunteer Opportunities list. If you specify a date, it will not display in your Volunteer Opportunities list until the specified date. NOTE: If you edit an Opportunity, you will have to specify a new Start date. This does not impact other dates for the Opportunity. |
| Qualifications | |
| Qualifications Necessary to Volunteer |
If there are any qualifications you prefer volunteers have
for this Opportunity, select them here. These qualifications
simply reflect the credentials desired in a volunteer and
do not limit participation.
NOTE: The available qualifications are pulled from the Admin > Users > Demographics page; the qualifications you'll be able to select from here are determined by the Opportunity Type. |
| When inviting, match on: | This menu allows you to define whether potential volunteers must have ALL of the selected qualifications or ANY of them when matching users during Step 3. |
| Points, Volunteers, and Credits | |
| Estimated hours per volunteer | Specify the number of hours that will likely be required of each volunteer. Then click the dropdown to set the Experience Level. These two values are automatically multiplied to determine the number of points that will be awarded to volunteers who complete the Opportunity. |
| Number of volunteers needed | Specify the number of volunteers are needed for the Opportunity. |
| Number of Continuing Education (CE) credits | Specify the number of CE credits that volunteers will earn for completing the Opportunity. These credits are awarded at the same time as the points. |
|
Email Templates For each template, select Do not send to not send the associated message, or click the dropdown to make a selection. NOTE: See Email Templates, Automation Rules, and Reports to learn how to view and update these templates. |
|
| Invitation | Message sent to invite the user to apply to volunteer for the opportunity. |
| Nomination | Message sent to volunteers who were nominated to apply for the opportunity. A value of 'Do not Send' hides the Nominate Volunteers block on the Opportunity's Details page, and users cannot nominate others for the opportunity. |
| Acknowledgement | Message sent to those who have signed up for the auto-approve opportunity. |
| Accept | Message sent to those who have been approved as a volunteer for this opportunity. |
| Reject | Message sent to those whose volunteer application for this opportunity has been rejected. |
| Thank You | Message sent thanking volunteers who have fulfilled their opportunity commitment. |
Step 2 - Build an application
NOTE: If this Opportunity's associated Opportunity Type is set to auto-approve, skip to Step 3.
If you selected one of the pre-built application forms from the Application Form menu during Step 1, that form is displayed but not editable. Continue to Step 3.
If you selected Create new application form with form builder during Step 1, you'll need to create an application form for the Opportunity. To do so, drag-and-drop the desired Content Elements on the right to the Application box on the left. You can order your elements by hovering one element above or below another element.
Most elements can be made a Required field, forcing applicants to fill them out, and you can add Help text to them if you need to provide instructions or explain a field's purpose in more detail.
TIP: To remove a field from your application, drag-and-drop it out of the Application box.
TIP: Your Thrive Community site's custom user profile Demographics (created on the Admin > Users > Demographics page) are available as elements on the Demographics tab.
Step 3 - Invite Volunteers
At this point, you can extend invitations to any of your users (or only to users within the associated community, if you associated one during Step 1) to volunteer for your Opportunity. While those who aren't invited can still apply, everyone you do invite is added to the Invitations Sent list, which provides two benefits: It makes it easy to track their application status and allows you to follow up with any or all of them via email at any time.
For this step:
- The system indicates how many people match your Opportunity's requirements. If you'd like to tighten or loosen the requirements to potentially include or exclude more people, click-and-drag the slider.
NOTE: If your Opportunity is associated to a community, the slider includes users from that community only.
- Click List of Invitees to see the current list of invitees. In this pop-up, you can also remove specific people, if you want to narrow the list.
- Click Find and Invite Others to search for and invite additional people. Anyone added is then listed in the List of Invitees. (Only users who have opted-in to the Directory appear in search results.)
NOTE: You cannot set the default for Opportunity invitations to 0 volunteers. But you can set your Opportunity Types to not have invitation emails turned on by default so they won't send invitations unless you change them in the Opportunity level.
Step 4 - Add Volunteers
If there are people whom you know want to volunteer for the Opportunity, you can add them at this step. This removes the need for them to go through the application process.
After adding people, decide whether to:
- Auto-approve them, making them volunteers immediately, or send them to the Waiting for Approval queue, where an Admin can decide whether to approve them.
- Send them an email notifying them of their approval or queued state.
NOTE: An email is sent only if the appropriate template exists and is active. See Manage Email Templates to learn how to manage your Volunteer-related email templates.
Manage an Opportunity's applicants
From the main Manage Opportunities page, click the drop-down arrow next to an Opportunity's EDIT button and select Manage Applicants.
On the resulting page, you can (reference the image to its associated lettered text below):
- Edit the Opportunity's settings or click the down arrow to add volunteers (see Step 4 in the Create an Opportunity section above)
- View all applicants whose applications are awaiting approval. For each selected applicant, you can approve or reject their application, view their application, and email them.
- View all applicants whose applications have been confirmed. For each selected applicant, you can reject their application, view their application, assign Roles (Roles are created on the Volunteer > Settings > Volunteer Roles page), give them points, adjust the points they can earn from completing the Opportunity (you can add and subtract points), and email them.
- View everyone who's been invited to apply for the Opportunity. For each selected invitee, you can re-send an invitation and email them directly. You can also invite additional people (see Step 3 in the Create an Opportunity section above).
- View all applicants whose applications have been rejected. For each selected applicant, you can undo the rejection (moving them back to the Waiting for Approval queue), view their application, and email them.
- View all applicants you can rate. For each selected applicant, you can assign 1—5 stars, mark them as Did Not Attend, assign Roles, adjust the points they can earn from completing the Opportunity (you can add and subtract points), and email them.
- View all applicants who have completed the Opportunity.
Manage an Opportunity
On the main Manage Opportunities page, click the down arrow next to the EDIT button. The management options are described below.
- Put on Hold - Removes the Opportunity from the Opportunities list so no one can apply. You can make it Active again by enabling the On Hold status from the Show Filters menu and selecting it from the Opportunity's Edit menu.
- Build/Edit Application - Build an application for the Opportunity (see Step 2 in the Create an Opportunity section above) or edit the current application, if one is already built.
- View Opportunity Details - View the Opportunity's details.
- Reports - View and run any of the available Volunteer reports.
- Copy - Create a copy of this Opportunity, which includes all of its configured details and settings.
- Delete - Delete the Opportunity.
Reindex your Volunteer Opportunities
Higher Logic gives Admins the ability to "reindex" much of your community content, including Volunteer Opportunities. Reindexing is simply "refreshing" the content, similar to reloading a page in a web browser.
To learn about reindexing content in your community (e.g., who can reindex site content; which content can be reindexed), see Reindex Content Items.