❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers.
By the end of this article, you will be able to:
Understand what hand-raising Needs or Opportunities are
Decide when to use a hand-raising approach
Set up and manage hand-raising workflows
Move approved volunteers into scheduled Opportunities
Hand-raising Needs, or Opportunities act as a pre-screening step for volunteers. Instead of signing up for a shift right away, volunteers use these Opportunities to express interest. This allows you to review, vet, and approve volunteers before assigning or scheduling them.
Hand-raising Opportunities are especially helpful when you want more control over who participates or when additional steps are required before volunteers can serve.
ℹ️ Good to know: Some sites use language overrides. You may see:
Needs instead of Opportunities
Agencies instead of Programs
When to Use Hand-Raising Opportunities
Consider using a hand-raising Need or Opportunity if you answer yes to any of the following:
Volunteers must complete interviews, onboarding, paperwork, or special training before participating
You need to vet volunteers to ensure their skills or background align with your organization’s needs
You want to build a waitlist or interest pool for future scheduling
You need a group of volunteers who can be activated quickly (for example, during disaster response)
If you do not require a multi-step vetting process, creating Qualifications may be a better fit.
Getting Started
Before creating a hand-raising Need or Opportunity, identify roles that require more than a simple waiver or qualification.
A hand-raising setup typically includes:
A multi-step vetting process to determine whether volunteers are a good fit
Two related Needs or Opportunities:
A public Need or Opportunity where volunteers raise their hand to show interest
A private Need or Opportunity used after volunteers are approved
Duration Type Recommendations
We recommend using the Flexible or Is Ongoing duration type so volunteers have time to express interest. Availability depends on your site configuration—some sites include Flexible, while others use Is Ongoing.
User Group Requirement
You must create a User Group and assign the private Need or Opportunity to it. Approved volunteers are added to this User Group so they can access and respond to the private Opportunity.
How it Works
Here are the steps of this process:
The volunteer selects a Need/Opportunity that clearly emphasizes they're only showing interest—not signing up just yet, but rather raising their hand for it.
Once they've found one, they click Respond. This doesn't ensure they'll be selected and scheduled for it, just that they're interested in volunteering for it.
You can include qualifications in this step that help you pre-screen the volunteers before they're processed through the more in-depth screening.
Please note that depending on how you've set up your qualifications, you may have to approve it before they can click Respond to show interest in the Opportunity.
You can then review the responses of interested volunteers and decide to move forward with the application and vetting process from there.
You can always filter
your Responses table by the Need/Opportunity when reviewing them.
Another option is to review responses directly from that Need/Opportunity. Go to Volunteerism > Needs/Opportunities > select the Need/Opportunity title > click View Responses.
You can email those users directly from there too!
Once the volunteers you've selected to screen have completed all of the steps you require for the Need/Opportunity and are approved, they can be added to a User Group assigned to the private Need/Opportunity.
Don't want volunteers to schedule themselves for the Need/Opportunity? Then you can keep it private without sharing it with a User Group and just schedule volunteers yourself.
When they're in the User Group, they can then access the private Need/Opportunity and respond to it. They won't see the private Need/Opportunity until after they've been added to the User Group with the assigned Need/Opportunity.
The private Need/Opportunity has a lock icon in the top right corner of the card, which indicates it's private.
Now, you can start scheduling them!