❖ Heads up! This article is intended for Volunteers. Are you a volunteer looking for support with your volunteer account, or have questions about a specific site? See the How to Get Help with Your Volunteer Account section of the How to Find Your Organization's Site article for more information!
By the end of this article, you will be able to:
Add or update your Causes, Interests, or Skills in your profile
Search and filter for Needs or Opportunities that match your interests
Follow (fan) Agencies to receive notifications about new opportunities
Overview
Causes, Interests, and Skills help personalize your volunteer experience by matching you with Needs or Opportunities that align with what you care about and what you’re good at.
You may have selected these during registration, but you can also update them later from your profile. These selections help the platform recommend Agencies, Programs, and volunteer opportunities that best fit your preferences.
Causes, Interests, and Skills
You may have selected your Causes, Interests, or Skills during registration. If these were not included during registration, you can add or edit them at any time from the View Profile area.
These selections help match you with volunteer opportunities that align with your interests and abilities.
Feature | Description | Limitations |
Causes | Helps match you with Agencies or Programs that post opportunities aligned with your interests. | Not all sites have Causes enabled. |
Interests | Helps match you with volunteer Needs that align with your interests. | Some sites use Skills instead of Interests, but they function the same. |
Skills | Helps match you with volunteer Opportunities that align with your abilities. | Some sites use Interests instead of Skills, but they function the same. |
Editing Your Selections
If you want to edit your Causes, Interests, or Skills, you can from the View Profile area.
Log in to your volunteer account.
Click your photo or initials in the top right-hand menu.
Select View Profile.
Click either Causes, Interests, or Skills on the My Profile page.
Not all sites have the same options on this page.
Select or unselect the ones you want applied to your account.
Click the Update button to save your selections.
Searching for Needs or Opportunities
You can filter Agencies or Programs and Needs or Opportunities to find the best ones for you.
Go to either the Agencies/Programs or Needs/Opportunities area of the site from your dashboard.
Some sites use language overrides, so you may see Agencies instead of Programs, Needs instead of Opportunities, or vice versa.
Some sites may have other terms in place of these.
If you're unsure about the language, please contact the site owner for assistance.
Use the Select a Filter dropdown to refine your search.
Every site is set up according to how that organization has configured it. This means you may not see the same options as those in the examples provided. Please contact a manager for the site you're registered on with any questions.
Agencies Fanned
Not all sites have this feature enabled. If the site you are registered on uses Agencies instead of Programs, you may see this from the View Profile area.
This is essentially the same thing as favoriting something. When you fan an Agency, you receive email notifications about new volunteer Needs or Events for that Agency.
There are two ways to fan an Agency. You can either Become a Fan from the Agencies area of a site, or you can select Agencies to fan from your profile.
Agencies Area
Go to Agencies from your dashboard.
Click Become a Fan or visit the Agency's Profile Page and click Become a Fan.
View Profile Area
Click your photo or initials from the top right-hand menu.
Select View Profile.
Click + Add Agencies, then click Become a Fan for the Agencies you want to fan.