With Galaxy Link, you can connect to other sites to receive and share data, including:

This is a great tool for hosting content from other Get Connected sites, helping them expand their reach and strengthen their community of volunteers!

ℹ️ So you know: Some sites have language overrides. This means you might see Needs instead of Opportunities, Agencies instead of Programs, or Prerequisites instead of Qualifications.

When talking about Galaxy Link and site connections, there are a few important terms you'll need to know:

While your specific site connection needs are your own entirely, we did want to highlight some of the most common ones we see being made:

This is a common site connection we see. In this scenario, a single-cause organization connects to a local volunteer center. In this connection, the single-cause organization's Agencies or Programs and volunteer opportunities are shared with the local volunteer center to help bring more attention to their content. This helps:

Another common site connection we see is a volunteer center connecting to a college or university's site. This allows the volunteer center to share volunteer and service opportunities for students to get involved.
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In this scenario, volunteer centers connect with corporations that value employee volunteerism and social responsibility. Through this connection, volunteer centers can share specially curated volunteer opportunities with the corporations to share with their employees. This also allows corporations to monitor and track their employee volunteer involvement.

State sites can make connections with organizations across their state to host and promote those organizations' Agencies or Programs and volunteer opportunities. This option is great for:

Another site-connection scenario we see is one major organization with a headquarters site and location-based branches or sublicenses. This option is ideal for large-scale nonprofits or organizations that want to offer licenses to smaller or location-based organizations within their communities.
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Please contact us through the chat widget from your Site Manager dashboard to request enabling the Galaxy Link. You and the sites you wish to connect to must provide documentation—e.g., signed data-sharing agreements—that confirms all parties agree to the data-sharing relationship. Once we have received that documentation, we can enable Galaxy Link for you. All content is shared from one site to another automatically once a site connection has been established; however, you can opt to block content as necessary.

For all content, except initiatives, data sharing is usually one way—i.e., a site shares content with another site but doesn't receive content back from them except for response content and reporting data. However, a site connection can be set up to both share and receive content between sites. This is dependent on how you and the other sites want to share and manage content and data.

While other sites' Site Managers can't directly edit shared content, they can:

When a Sender site's content is shared on another site, then the Host site's volunteers can:

ℹ️ So you know: These same interactions apply to a Host site.

Do Prerequisites or Qualifications impact how volunteers interact with shared content?

If a shared Need or Opportunity has active Prerequisites or Qualifications, volunteers must complete and gain approval for those requirements before responding. Depending on how the Sender site configures its Prerequisites or Qualifications, approvals may be granted automatically or require manual review and approval by the Sender sit

How can I ensure volunteers are taken to my site when responding to my Needs or Opportunities?

This is part of the site connection setup. You can have volunteers redirected to your site when they click on your Needs or Opportunities posted on the Host site. If you'd like us to set that up for you, please contact us through the chat widget from your Site Manager dashboard with your request.

Is it possible to remove shared content back to the date we set up the site connection, so I can pick and choose which pieces of content I want shared?

Yes. This is something we would have to do on our end. Please contact us through the chat widget from your Site Manager dashboard if you'd like to discuss this further.

What do my tables have color-coded segments?

The color-coding lets you know the content is from a site connection. For example, if a volunteer responds to Needs or Opportunities on a Host site, then the Sender site can review the responses from Volunteerism > Responses. The responses that are color-coded in the table are the responses that were made on the Host site.

Why aren't my Agency or Program fans appearing in reporting?

Data Explorers Reports only pull data from the site, not from connected sites. You can always review a list of Agencies or Program fans by going to Volunteerism > Programs > select the Agency or Program Name > scroll to Agency or Program Fans. The fans from the Host site are color-coded in the table.

Can I review data from connected sites through the Site Manager dashboard?

Yes. The widgets on the Site Manager dashboard pull data from any connected sites that your site has a reporting relationship with.