❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers.
Your volunteer Needs or Opportunities will require a variety of skill sets—which is where the Interests or Skills feature comes in!
Interests or Skills are a great way to match volunteers with your Needs or Opportunities. When a volunteer comes to your site, they can search for volunteer opportunities by Cause, location, or even Interests or Skills! This makes it easier for them to respond to the opportunities that matter most to them and that they can provide their expertise.
Interests or Skills can also be customized to highlight your organization's mission and purpose.
ℹ️ So you know: Some sites have language overrides in place. This means you might see Needs in place of Opportunities, Agencies in place of Programs, Prerequisites in place of Qualifications, or even Interests in place of Skills.
Default Interests or Skills
You can select the number and type of skills you want to be attributed to your organization's available Needs or Opportunities; however, the default number of skills on your site is 16.
You can choose from the 16 default skills we provide or create your own. When you create your own, you can also assign specific colors and icons to them. This lets you personalize your skills the way you want. You can have the number of skills allowed on your site adjusted in increments of 4.
We can increase your Interests or Skills in increments of 4, up to 24. We can also decrease your Interests or Skills in increments of 4, down to only 4.
Custom Interests or Skills
You can create custom Interests or Skills if the default list doesn't have what you're looking for. Here are some suggestions for custom Interests or Skills, but you can define them however best suits your needs:
If | Then |
If you have volunteer Needs or Opportunities for rebuilding homes... | Add custom Interests or Skills like Home Repair, Restoration, or Construction |
If you have volunteer Needs or Opportunities that involve working with shelter animals... | Add custom Interests or Skills like Animal Care, Veterinarian, or Animal Rescue |
If you have volunteer Needs or Opportunities to work in a food pantry... | Add custom Interests or Skills like Cooking, Food Prep, or Food Handling |
Creating Custom Interests or Skills
Go to Settings > Interests or Skills.
Available menu options depend on your site and any language overrides you may have in use.
Uncheck the Interests or Skills you don't want.
Enter the new Interest or Skill in the field beside the Add New Interest or Add New Skill button.
Click Add New Interest or Add New Skill.
Click the field with the (#) beside Pick an Icon.
Enter the hex code or use the color picker to add color to the Interest or Skill.
Click Ok.
Select Pick an Icon, then pick a relevant icon.
Click Submit Interests or Skills to save your changes.