General FAQs

Below, you’ll find a list of frequently asked questions. You can click on any of the section headers below to open or close them.

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[accordion title=”► What happens if I archive a volunteer?“]

If you archive a profile, there are several things to consider:

• An archived profile cannot be edited via the Quick Search feature. You must go to: People >> Search in order to retrieve the profile, then select either “View” or “Edit”.
• You cannot communicate with an archived volunteer. The option to search for profiles with an archived status does not exist when sending email or text.
• Archiving a profile will remove (permanently) information for that person’s General Interests, General Availability, Activity information (assignments, signups, backup list) and Committee memberships. (If the status is later changed back to a non-archived status, this information is NOT restored.)
• Archiving a profile will retain information for contact information, Custom Fields, Qualifications and hours log entries.

A volunteer whose profile has been archived can still log on, however they can no longer view or sign up for Activities, log hours, or view/edit the Custom Fields, Qualifications, General Interests and availability associated with the organization(s) in which they are archived. The welcome message is not displayed to them, either.

For more information: Archiving Volunteers

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[accordion title=”► What happens if I remove a volunteer?“]

If you remove a profile (People >> Manage Volunteer Status >> Remove Volunteers), there are several things to consider:

• You cannot communicate with or edit a profile that has been removed from your organization. You, however, can send the person a sign-up link (Configuration >> Links for Website) so that he/she can re-register as a volunteer with your organization using his/her original username and password.
• Removing a profile will remove information for that person’s Custom Fields, Qualifications, General Interests, General Availability, Activity information (assignments, signups, backup list), Hours Goals, and Committee memberships for your organization.

Removing a profile will retain information for contact information and previous hours log entries.

For more information: Removing Volunteers

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[accordion title=”► What does Inactive mean and how is it different than Archived?“]

Volunteer statuses can basically mean anything you need them to mean. An “Applicant” is typically someone who has just filled in your application form, while someone who is “In Process” may be undergoing orientation and training. If you change the status of someone to “Inactive”, it may mean that they will be unavailable (vacation, leave, etc.) to volunteer. A volunteer who has been archived can no longer sign up

Changing a volunteer’s status may also affect the visibility of activities to that volunteer.

For more information: Volunteer Statuses

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[accordion title=”► How do I generate a list of volunteers?“]

On-Screen Reporting of Volunteer Names

If you want to see a list of volunteers on your screen, you can go to People >> Search to enter your search criteria.  In the “Search Results”, you will be able to:

• View a profile
• Edit a profile
• Send an email to a volunteer

Reporting on Volunteer Information

There are a variety of pre-created reports available to you to produce printable reports on volunteer information:

• Hours reporting: a variety of pre-built reports designed to show hours that have been logged (Reports >> Hours Reports)
• Scheduled assignments: a variety of pre-built reports designed to show assignments to scheduled Activities  (Reports >> Schedule Reports)
• Activity signups: a report (spreadsheet format) that enables you to display information about the Activity and contact information for those who have signed up for an Activity but have yet to be assigned to it (Reports >> Exports / Excel Reports >> Signup Detail Export)
• Profile information: a report (spreadsheet format) that enables you to search for and display information about a volunteer (Reports >> Exports / Excel Reports >> Personal Profile Export):
  • Contact details
  • Custom Field values
  • Qualification values
  • Total hours logged
  • Last login date

Other Volunteer Reports

Other pre-built reports are available:

• Phone List
• Mailing Labels

Please note that, while you can search for specific volunteers to include in these reports, you cannot change the structure of the information included in the report.  (If you output to Word or Excel, you will have some control over the formatting of the report that is generated.)

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[accordion title=”► How do I remove a large number of people from an Activity assignment?“]

If you have accidentally assigned a large number of volunteers to a shift of a scheduled Activity (or an unscheduled Activity), you can easily remove them in bulk.

1. Go to: Assign >> From Scheduled List
2. Click the [+] button to the left of the shift to show the list of people assigned
3. Check the box to the left of each person you wish to remove from the assignment (or check “Select All” to select all people assigned)
4. In the “Change Selected” droplist, select “Remove Selected Assignments”
5. Confirm that you wish to remove the selected people from the activity assignment

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[accordion title=”► How can I tell if a volunteer can see a specific Activity?“]

When volunteers click on the OPPORTUNITIES tab in MyVolunteerPage.com, they can set a variety of filters to limit which Activities display to them (by Qualified, Generally Available, Signed Up, Scheduled, Backup List). One or more of these settings may be preventing them from seeing an Activity.

If there are no current or future shifts in the Activity, a volunteer will not be able to see it or sign up for it.

The Activity’s visibility settings may also be preventing them from seeing the Activity. To diagnose why this may be happening:

1. Edit the volunteer’s profile.
2. Click on the “Assign” tab.
3. Click on the link to the Activity. At the top of the window that opens you will see a summary to indicate that the volunteer:
   • is [NOT] generally available (the relationship between the volunteer’s General Availability and the Activity’s Schedule Classifications)
   • is [NOT] qualified (the relationship between the volunteer’s Qualifications and the Activity’s Qualifications)
   • can [NOT] see this activity (the relationship between the volunteer’s status and Qualifications and the Activity’s visibility settings)
4. By clicking on the link to either the “qualified” or “visibility” note above, you can find out why the volunteer is/isn’t qualified or why the volunteer can/can’t see the activity and then fix the problem.

(Note: A volunteer will be able to see an Activity to which they have been assigned.)

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[accordion title=”► How are Activities displayed to a volunteer on the Timeclock?“]

Here’s how the list of Activities will appear in the Timeclock:

• If the Activity type is “Scheduled” and the assignment is today, it will appear first
• If the Activity type is “Unscheduled” or “Seasonal”, it will come after that
• If the volunteer is assigned to the Activity (for any shift), it will come after that
• Remaining activities will be sorted by Activity Category, then Activity name within each category

Scheduled assignments for “today” will be highlighted differently from other Activities in the list.

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[accordion title=”► How do I assign a volunteer to a shift that occurred in the past?“]

When you are editing a volunteer’s profile, you can only assign that person to current or future shifts of your Activities.  If you need to assign someone to an Activity that occurred in the past, you will need to go to Assign >> From Scheduled List and select the desired start/end dates. By clicking on the link to a past shift, you will be able to assign someone to that shift.

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[accordion title=”► Under what circumstances can / can’t you edit an Administrator’s profile?“]

The software will compare a list of what organization(s) you (i.e. the profile you have logged in with) are a FULL administrator of and what organization(s) the administrative profile you are trying to edit is an administrator (any kind of administrator) of. If your full administrative list covers ALL of the organizations in which they are an administrator, you can edit the profile.

PART 1 – For the current user (i.e. the administrative profile you are logged on with):

• Give me a list of all the enterprises in which I am a FULL admin
• Give me a list of all the organizations in which I am a FULL admin

PART 2 – For the administrative profile I want to edit:

• Give me a list of all the enterprises in which the user is ANY kind of admin
• Give me a list of all the organizations in which the user is ANY kind of admin

If the administrator (“Part 2”) has anything in their list (organization or enterprise) that the current user (“Part 1”) does not, the user is not allowed to edit that administrator’s contact information as this would potentially give them administrative access to an account that they did not previously have.

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[accordion title=”► Should I use the Document Library or the File Manager?“]

Document Library

• This is a central repository where administrators can add files that could be used by administrators and/or volunteers.
• If a document is available to volunteers, they will see a “Files” section on their Home page in MyVolunteerPage.com. Files are not accessible to volunteers without a username that is associated with your organization.
• In an enterprise environment, files in the Document Library at the enterprise level are available to the member organizations.

File Manager

• The main use for the File Manager is to insert an image into the field (example: a logo at the bottom of an email) or a link to a file. Items uploaded to the File Manager will only be visible to volunteers if they can see applicable field.
• Files in the File Manager can be included as links in any Rich Text Field where the File Manager is available (e.g. descriptions for custom fields, qualifications, interests, activities, etc., within the body of an email, a welcome message, and so on).  Files could then be accessible to volunteers before they log in and before they even have a username associated with your organization, if they are included in the description of an active General Interest or in the pre-assigned description of a publicly-visible Activity.
• In an enterprise environment, files in the File Manager will only be accessible to administrators at the level at which they were added (i.e. at the Enterprise level only or within one specific organization).

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