Tips for Creating or Updating your Volunteer Opportunities
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Be specific! People like to know what they're getting into. Make their decision easier, or they will likely not opt to join you. Consider adding the specific tasks volunteers will accomplish to the description, and how those tasks will further your mission, as well as any training required.
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If the Volunteer Opportunity will accept groups: consider enabling Team Registration - many groups search by this filter
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Always input Minimum and Maximum Age in the correct fields
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Remember to fill out the "Virtual Volunteer Opportunity" field - many people search by "Yes" or "No" to this question.
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Double-check and choose ALL of the appropriate "Interests & Abilities" from the drop-down box, star the most relevant one. Interests are how potential volunteers can filter what they're looking for when viewing all of the volunteer needs. Note: This is where you would flag a need as appropriate for Court-ordered service. Interests change every now and again, so double check this when updating an opportunity.
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Double-check and choose ALL of the appropriate "Clusters" from the drop-down box. Clusters are additional ways to categorize your needs. We use them from the back-end whenever we're pulling specific types of volunteer needs for promotion or sharing, and they help when volunteers use a key phrase search to filter. Note:This is where you can tag a need as "COVID-19 Response" and we will add it to our COVID-19 Response landing page.
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The system allows you to do Volunteer Shift Scheduling if you have needs that require that kind of sign-up! Choose Custom Shifts or Recurring Shifts from the "Duration" drop-down box.
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Periodically update your Volunteer Opportunities, as they bump to the top of the list whenever you do. (Pssst….even just opening it in Edit and saving it is considered an "update".)
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If you have a one-time Volunteer need, post it as a Need "Happening On" a specific date, NOT as a Community Event. (They both show up on the calendar, but only Needs show up in the Needs listing)
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Post your Internships and Board opportunities and use the "Internship" or "Board Service" options in the "Clusters" drop-down box to flag these opportunities. Now that many internships are being cancelled, students are more likely to be searching for alternative internship options.
