The Volunteer Pool is a collection of users who have essentially raised their hands and said, "Yes, I am interested in volunteering and in hearing about future opportunities within your organization." After these users have opted-in, Admins can invite them (via email messages and community messages) to Volunteer Opportunities, depending on each volunteer's preferences and qualifications (suitability).

Opt-in to the Volunteer Pool

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 message, on a page in the community, or in a 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).

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click (or right click for a new tab) Edit Navigation.

2. Click the magnifying glass to expand the search bar.
3. Type "volunteer" and a results pop-up will appear after a moment.
4. 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).

5. In the Page Properties panel on the right:

1. Check the Visible in Navigation box at the top to make the page visible.
2. Change the Navigation Title (this is the page name in site navigation) to "Opt-In to the Volunteer Pool."
3. 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 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 current opportunities.

Opt-out of the Volunteer Pool

Volunteers can opt-out (or unsubscribe) via their Volunteer profile.

• Toggle Invite me to volunteer when opportunities match my expertise? to No.

The system will no longer auto-send invitations about future opportunities to them.

Can members be automatically opted-in?

Members cannot be automatically opted-in to the Volunteer Pool.

However, a Super Admin can create a case with Higher Logic Support and provide a spreadsheet that contains the User IDs and email addresses of the users to be added to the Volunteer Pool.