The Volunteer Pool is a collection of site users who have essentially raised their hands and said, "Yes, I am interested in volunteering AND in hearing about future opportunities within your organization." Once opted-in, Admins can invite these users via email and community messages to specific opportunities depending on the volunteer's preferences, as well as the desired qualifications for the volunteer.
How do people opt-in?
Opting-in to the Volunteer Pool is virtually a seamless process for your users. Volunteers can opt-in to the pool by:
- Signing up/applying for an opportunity.
- Clicking an opt-in link embedded in an email, CMS page, or discussion post.
- Toggling the "Invite me..." option to Yes on their volunteer profile (see image below).
Additional method
Additionally, you can rename the default "Become a Volunteer" page to "Opt-In to the Volunteer Pool" (or whatever name you prefer) and make it visible in your site's navigation (it's hidden, by default).
- In the Admin Toolbar, click (or right click for a new tab) Edit Navigation.
- Click the magnifying glass to expand the search bar.
- Enter "volunteer" and a results pop-up will appear after a moment.
- In the pop-up, click Become a Volunteer to select the page in the CMS (you'll still need to scroll down to locate the page but it will be highlighted for you).
- In the Page Properties panel on the right:
- Check the Visible in Navigation box at the top to make the page visible.
- Change the Navigation Title (this is the page name in site navigation) to "Opt-In to the Volunteer Pool."
- At the bottom of the Page Properties panel, click Publish to apply these changes and make the page available to your users.
By making this page visible on your Thrive Community site's Navigation Bar, users will easily be able to access it. As soon as a user navigates to this page, they'll automatically be opted-in to the Volunteer Pool.
You can also create hyperlinks that members can click to opt-in to the pool using this page's full URL or page code (the default code and URL are shown below).
Page code
https://[yoursite].connectedcommunity.org/become-a-volunteer
Full URL
https://[yoursite].connectedcommunity.org/volunteer-pool-join
Upon accessing this page, volunteers will be directed to complete their volunteer profiles and view currently open opportunities. Of course, this page is completely customizable to fit your exact needs.
How do people opt-out?
If a volunteer doesn't want to opt-in to the pool, they can opt-out (or unsubscribe) from their Volunteer profile.
All they need to do is toggle the Invite me to volunteer when opportunities match my expertise? option to No. At this point, they'll no longer receive invites about future opportunities sent from the system.
Can members be automatically opted-in?
Members cannot be opted-in to the Volunteer Pool automatically by Super Admins. However, you can provide an Excel spreadsheet to Higher Logic via a Support Ticket containing the User ID and email address of the users to be added.