❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers.
You may want volunteers to meet certain requirements to register for your site or respond to Needs or Opportunities. Depending on your site, you will either have a Prerequisites or Qualifications (these are interchangeable terms for the same feature) area in your main navigation. This is where you create those requirements.
These requirements are great for ensuring volunteers meet basic or advanced qualifications. Here are some examples of why you might want to create a Prerequisite or Qualification:
You want volunteers to review your organization's privacy policy during registration
This can also be accomplished with a Clickwrap Waiver attached to a Need or Opportunity
You have important training materials or other informational content you want volunteers to review before they respond to a Need or Opportunity
You have qualifying questions that volunteers must answer before they can participate in your organization's Needs or Opportunities
You have a Need or Opportunity that is restricted to individuals with current and specific licensures
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, or Prerequisites in place of Qualifications.
Select your product to see the steps for creating these requirements on your site.
Amplify & Center Site Managers
Amplify & Center Site Managers
Creating Qualifications
You can create and manage Qualifications for your site from the Qualifications area. Depending on the product, you may see Needs in place of Opportunities or Agencies in place of Programs. These are interchangeable terms for the same features. You can request language overrides for your site as applicable.
Go to Volunteerism > Qualifications.
Click Add New Qualification.
Fill out the Create Qualification page.
Status: The default status is Active, which means the Qualification is shared publicly on your site once you finish creating it.
Inactive status is for when you want to deactivate or remove it.
Type: There can be up to seven question types, depending on how your site is configured. What you choose depends on what kind of question you want to ask volunteers:
Small Text Field or Large Text Field: This provides a blank field for volunteers to write in a reply.
When to use: volunteers need to provide a short or long answer to your Qualification question.
Dropdown: This provides a dropdown selection for volunteers to choose an answer you provide.
Radio Button: This presents answers you provide with buttons for volunteers to select from.
File Upload: This lets volunteers submit a file with their answers.
When to use: volunteers must submit supporting documents (e.g., a copy of their driver's license).
Background Check (Not available on all sites): Select this option if you want to require volunteers to complete a background check before responding to your Opportunities.
Waiver: This requires volunteers to sign a waiver when submitting the qualification.
You must create a waiver first and then you can select that waiver from the dropdown.
A Create New Waiver button appears if you haven't already set that up.
Title: The title appears in the volunteer's Qualification table, Opportunity form, etc.
Category (Not available on all sites): This helps Site Managers sort and find Qualifications when adding them to a volunteer Opportunity.
These are not visible to volunteers and they don't contribute to reporting.
Question: This is the question the volunteer answers.
If you have a waiver-type Qualification, you might write "Please sign this waiver" in this field.
Auto Approve: You can choose to have volunteers' answers to the Qualification auto-approved by selecting Auto Approve from the dropdown here.
The default setting is No, meaning you'll need to approve any Pending Qualifications submitted to your site.
You can also opt to have Qualifications Auto approve if the correct answer is selected for Dropdown and Radio Button types.
Permissions: Here you can decide how volunteers interact with Qualifications.
Not Required for Opportunity Access: Volunteers can access your site's posted Opportunities without submitting the Qualification first.
Required to View Any Opportunities: Volunteers can't view posted Opportunities until they submit a response to the Qualification and it is approved.
Required to Respond to Any Opportunities: Volunteers can view Opportunities but not respond to them until they submit a response to the Qualification and it is approved.
Required to View Selected Opportunities: Volunteers can't view the Opportunities this Qualification is attached to until they submit a response to it and it is approved.
Required to Respond to Selected Opportunities: Volunteers can't respond to the Opportunities this Qualification is attached to until they submit a response to it and it is approved.
They can still view the Opportunities.
Required to Use Site (Not Recommended): Before anyone can use your site, they must submit a response to the Qualification and it must be approved.
Duration: There are ten duration types available in this dropdown:
User-provided date: Select this option if you want volunteers to provide an expiration date when they answer the Qualification question.
1 or 2 weeks: These are great options for health-related waivers, e.g. if you want volunteers to sign a waiver that they haven't had any signs or symptoms of illness in the last two weeks.
1 or 6 months; 1, 2, or 3 years; First of the year; Forever
These dates reflect when the Qualification is answered and added to the volunteer's profile, not the approval date.
Add Content Link: Toggle this On to add content to a Qualification.
The Link URL and Link Text fields appear when you toggle this On.
This is great if you want volunteers to review your organization's privacy policy on a custom page or if you'd like to share any other links to additional content.
Click Create Qualification to finish.
Qualification Categories
Depending on your site, you may see the option to select a Category when setting up your Qualifications. These can be managed from the Qualifications area of the site.
Go to Volunteerism > Qualifications.
Select Click here in the Qualification Categories description.
Type the Category title in the empty field and click Add Category, then Add to finish.
Sustain Site Managers
Sustain Site Managers
Creating Prerequisites
Go to Volunteerism > Prerequisites.
Click Add New Prerequisite.
Fill out the Create Prerequisite page.
Status: The default status is Active, meaning the Prerequisite is shared publicly.
Inactive is for when you are ready to deactivate the Prerequisite.
Type: There can be up to four question types available for your Prerequisites.
Dropdown: With the dropdown option, you create a list of options for volunteers to choose from when answering the Prerequisite's question.
File Upload: If you want volunteers to provide supporting documents for a Prerequisite, then this is the option for that.
Background Check: Select this option if you want to require volunteers to complete a background check before responding to your Opportunities.
Waiver: This requires volunteers to sign a waiver when submitting the Prerequisite.
You must create a waiver first and then you can select that waiver from the dropdown.
A Create New Waiver button appears if you haven't already set that up.
Title: The title appears in the volunteer's Prerequisite table, Opportunity form, etc.
Question: This is the question the volunteer to answers.
You can also instruct volunteers on how to complete this Prerequisite, e.g., "Please sign this waiver".
Auto Approve: You can choose to have volunteers' answers to the Prerequisites auto-approved by selecting Auto approve from the dropdown here.
The default setting is No, which means you'll need to approve any Pending Prerequisites submitted to your site.
You can also opt to have Prerequisites Auto approve if the correct answer is selected for the Dropdown type.
Required on registration: If you want all volunteers to answer Prerequisites during registration to your site, toggle this button On.
Hide from registration: If you want to hide Prerequisites from volunteers during registration, toggle this button On.
Volunteers can still answer Prerequisites in their profile or when responding to Opportunities with an assigned Prerequisite.
Permissions: Select how you want volunteers to interact with the Prerequisite.
Required to View Any Opportunities: Select this option if you want volunteers to answer the Prerequisite before they can view any available Opportunities with your organization.
Required to Respond to Any Opportunities: Select this option if you want volunteers to answer the Prerequisite before they can respond to any available Opportunities with your organization.
Duration: There are ten duration types available in the dropdown:
User-provided date: Select this option if you want volunteers to provide an expiration date when they answer the Prerequisite question.
1 or 2 weeks: These are great options for health-related waivers, e.g. if you want volunteers to sign a waiver that they haven't had any signs or symptoms of illness in the last two weeks.
1 or 6 months; 1, 2, or 3 years; First of the year; Forever
These dates reflect when the Prerequisite is answered and added to the volunteer's profile, not the date they're approved.
Add Content Link: Toggle this On to add content to a Prerequisite.
The Link URL and Link Text fields appear when you toggle it On.
This is helpful if you want to have volunteers review your organization's privacy policy on a custom page you've created or if you'd like to share any other links to additional content for their review when answering a Prerequisite.
Click Create Prerequisite to finish.
The Volunteer Perspective
Here are some examples of what Prerequisites or Qualifications may look like from the volunteer perspective, depending on their purpose. Remember, not all sites are configured the same.
Here is an example of a Qualification with the permission setting Required to View Any Opportunities:
A Prerequisite or Qualification with the dropdown option may look like this:
If you have the file upload option set up for volunteers to submit supporting documents, it might look like this:
If you want to have volunteers review content during registration or when responding or viewing an Opportunity, your qualification could look like this:
You can also use qualifications to ask important questions when a volunteer first registers with your site. These questions appear in the final step when they fill out the registration form for your site:
