❖ Heads up! This article is intended for Agency Managers.
By the end of this article, you will be able to:
Choose between Custom Shifts and Recurring Shifts when creating Needs
Create and manage volunteer shifts for a Need
Understand how shifts appear to volunteers and how check-in works
Needs with Scheduled Shifts
Some volunteer opportunities require volunteers to sign up for specific shifts. When creating these types of Needs, you can choose either Custom Shifts or Recurring Shifts as the duration type.
The best option depends on how your shifts are scheduled.
When to Use Custom Shifts
Use Custom Shifts when shifts occur at different times on different days.
This option works well when shifts vary in schedule or capacity.
Examples
Volunteers serve soup on Mondays from 10 am – 1 pm and 5 pm – 7 pm
Volunteers staff a food stand:
Saturdays from 7 am – 10 am and 2 pm – 5 pm
Sundays from 12 pm – 3 pm
Wednesdays from 5 pm – 7 pm
Event support shifts, such as setup, event staffing, and cleanup, each require a different number of volunteers
These shifts may occur at the same time or on different days, and each shift can have its own capacity.
Assigning Custom Shifts to a Need
Go to My Agency > Needs and select Add New Need.
Select Custom Shifts from the Duration dropdown.
Complete the shift fields.
Shift Date/Time
Select the shift date from the calendar
Adjust the hour and minute to set the start time
Click Done when finished
Shift Hours
Enter the number of hours for the shift
Use numbers only (for example: 2 or 2.5)
Shift Capacity
Enter the number of volunteers needed for the shift
If four shifts require two volunteers each, enter 2, not 8
Enter 0 for unlimited volunteers
The total number of volunteer slots appears in the volunteer view.
Click Add Shift.
After adding a shift:
The shift appears below the Add Shift button
The shift fields reset, so you can add another shift
Repeat these steps until all shifts are added.
Complete the remaining Need fields and click Create Need.
Once the Need is created, the duration type cannot be changed.
Editing Shifts
You can edit or remove shifts after the Need is created.
Go to Needs and click Edit for the Need.
Select the Edit Shifts tab.
Choose one of the following actions:
Click the pencil icon to edit a shift
Click X to delete a shift
If you delete a shift, it cannot be restored and must be recreated manually.
When editing a shift, the Edit Shift window appears.
Enter 0 in the Capacity field for unlimited volunteers
Check Notify respondents of this update? if volunteers have already signed up
Click Submit Shift to save your changes. Refresh the page to view the updated shift.
Automated Notifications for Shifts
If a shift with responses is removed, the system automatically sends an email notification to affected volunteers.
Volunteers receive one email listing all shifts they were removed from
You receive a separate email for each shift response
When to Use Recurring Shifts
Use Recurring Shifts when shifts occur at the same time on a repeating schedule.
Recurring shifts can repeat daily, weekly, or monthly.
Examples
Volunteers serve food every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 5 pm – 7 pm
Volunteers sort donations on the first Saturday of each month
Tutors volunteer every Wednesday after school
You can schedule recurring shifts up to 13 months in advance, but we recommend scheduling 3–6 months ahead to help reduce scheduling conflicts.
Assigning Recurring Shifts to a Need
Go to Needs and select Add New Need.
Select Recurring Shifts from the Duration dropdown.
From the Occurs dropdown, select the repeating time interval: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
For Daily, you must select how many days this shift repeats, the date range for the shifts, their start time, and how many hours each shift lasts.
Select 1 in the Repeat Every field if the shift repeats every day.
Select 2 if the shift repeats every other day, etc.
Remember, only type numbers in the Hours field—e.g., 4, 4.5, etc.
For Weekly, you must select how many weeks this shift repeats, what days it repeats on each week, the date range for the shifts, their start time, and how many hours each shift lasts.
Select 1 in the Repeat Every field if the shift repeats every week.
Select 2 if the shift repeats every other week, etc.
For Monthly, you must select how many months the shift repeats, if you want it to repeat by the date or the day of the week, the date range for the shifts, their start time, and how many hours each shift lasts.
Select 1 in the Repeat Every field if the shift repeats once a month.
Select 2 if the shift repeats every other month.
You can choose Date for Repeats By or Day of the Week.
Does your shift repeat on the 15th of every month? Select Date.
Does your shift repeat the first Monday of every month? Select Day of the Week.
For Shift Capacity, consider how many volunteers are needed for each shift. If you have four shifts and only need two volunteers for each, type 2—not 8.
Type 0 for an unlimited number of volunteers.
The total number of volunteer slots appears in the volunteer view for a need—e.g., if you create four shifts and set the capacity to 2 volunteers per shift, then the volunteers see 8 open slots for that opportunity, or however many are left open.
Complete all other required and applicable fields for the need and click Create Need when finished.
After creating the Need, the duration type cannot be changed, but you can still edit the shifts.
Shifts and Volunteer Check-in
If your agency uses Volunteer Check-In or Self Check-In, volunteer hours are automatically calculated.
If a volunteer checks in but does not check out, the system records the hours defined in the shift
If a volunteer checks out, the system records the actual time between check-in and check-out
If volunteers use the agency check-in tool, hours are automatically approved.
If they use Self Check-In, the hours follow your site's approval settings.
Shifts and Volunteer Waitlists
If your site has the waitlist feature enabled, you can view which volunteers are waitlisted for specific shifts.
The Volunteer Perspective
Shift-based Needs appear in the Needs grid for volunteers.
Volunteers see Multiple Shifts Available above the Need title
Selecting the Need shows a list of available shifts
Volunteers can:
Respond Individually to a shift
Respond as a Team if team signups are allowed
Respond to Multiple shifts at once
Past shifts appear in faded text, and volunteers can use the Show All dropdown to filter available shifts.
The Respond to Multiple option isn't available for team signups. All past shifts appear in faded text.
Volunteers can select the Show All dropdown to filter available shifts.