❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers. Not all sites have Initiatives. Contact us if interested in enabling this feature on your site.
Initiatives are a great tool for grouping Needs or Opportunities that fall under specific categories, like:
Opportunities associated with a special event
Opportunities that occur during specific times of the year
Opportunities that are private and only intended for a select group of volunteers
Adding Initiatives
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities.
Select the Initiatives tab.
Click Add New Initiative.
Fill out the required fields and personalize the Initiative. The maximum width for an image in the Initiative banner is 993px. There is a 20px padding around the edge of the description, and an additional 70px padding added to the left-hand side of the banner. This means your image won't touch the sides of the banner. The description appears at the top of the Opportunity page:
Personalize the Confirmation, Reminder, and Follow-Up Messages sent to volunteers automatically.
Click Create Initiative.
Initiative Response Questions
Add custom questions to your Initiatives to collect important information or to determine if a volunteer has the desired skills for the Need or Opportunity.
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities > Initiatives.
Select the Initiative from the list.
Click the Questions tab.
Under Initiative Response Questions, click Add Question.
Fill out the Add Custom Question form.
Click Save Custom Question to finish.
Viewing Initiative question responses
Go to Reports.
Select the Needs or Opportunities dropdown.
Click the Need or Opportunity Responses by Initiative report.
Use the dropdown to select which Initiative you want to run the report for.
Click Export. This downloads those responses to a CSV for your review.
Initiative Opportunity Questions
You can add custom Initiative Opportunity Questions to give volunteers more context when linking a Need or Opportunity to an Initiative. Use them to highlight alignment with Initiative goals, clarify Opportunity objectives, or provide helpful details—like supervision plans, PPE requirements, or whether pets are allowed.
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities > Initiatives.
Select the Initiative from the list.
Click the Questions tab.
Under Initiative Opportunity Questions, click Add Question.
Fill out the Add Custom Question form.
Click Save Custom Question to finish.
Be sure to answer the questions when assigning the Initiative to an Opportunity!
Exclude from Agency or Program
Do you have a Program whose mission doesn't quite align with the purpose of an Initiative? Maybe they aren't such a great fit? You can stop opportunities from that program from being added to your initiative!
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities.
Select the Initiatives tab.
Select the Initiative you want to update.
Click the Excluded Programs tab.
Use the Add A Program dropdown to select the Program whose opportunities will not be appropriate for that initiative.
Click Add.
You can add all Programs by clicking Add All Programs. You can quickly remove a Program from the exclusion list by clicking the X icon under the Options column.
Want to remove several Programs from the exclusion list at once? Check the boxes beside each Program and click X Remove beside Actions.
Assigning Initiatives to Needs or Opportunities
When you're ready to assign an Initiative to an Opportunity, you can do so when creating a new Opportunity or by updating an existing one! This selection is made after you assign the Opportunity to a specific Program.
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities.
For an existing Opportunity, click the Opportunity Title from the table you want to assign the Initiative to.
Use the dropdown beside Initiative to assign the Initiative to that Opportunity.
Be sure to click Update Opportunity to save your changes!
Assigning Initiatives in bulk
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities.
On the Manage Opportunities page, check the boxes beside the Opportunities you want to assign the Initiative to.
With the Actions for Selected Opportunities dropdown, select Assign or Remove Initiative.
Use the dropdown to select the Initiative you want to assign and click Update Initiative.
Follow the same steps to remove an assigned Initiative from selected Opportunities:
Exporting Initiative data
Go to Volunteerism > Opportunities.
Select the Initiatives tab.
Click Export Initiatives. This exports that data to a CSV.
The Volunteer Perspective
Once you have assigned an Initiative to an Opportunity, your volunteers can then see information about that Initiative when they click on the Opportunity from their dashboard. This includes the personalized description you wrote for the Initiative as well as the custom Initiative Opportunity Questions and their answers.
