❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers.
One of the key advantages of your site is the ability to assign capacities to Needs or Opportunities, and shifts—essentially setting a limit on the number of available volunteer spots. Once this capacity is reached, and the maximum number of volunteers has signed up, your site can respond in various ways, depending on the configured settings.
You can set your site up to hide those full Needs or Opportunities, continue to show them, or show them but include the option to join a waitlist.
These settings are available in the Needs/Opportunities area of your main settings, Settings > Main Settings. Just so you know, a setting applies to all Needs or Opportunities on your site; for example, you can't select hide some full Needs or Opportunities and show others.
Needs or Opportunities with a Flexible or Is Ongoing duration type can't have set capacities. The option to set a capacity for a Need/Opportunity is only available for those with Runs Until, Happens On, and Custom or Recurring Shifts duration types.
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.
Hiding Full Needs or Opportunities
If your site has several full Needs or Opportunities, you may want to hide those so volunteers can find the ones with open volunteer spots faster.
Go to Settings > Main Settings.
Scroll to Needs/Opportunities and select No from the Show Full Needs/Opportunities dropdown.
Click Update Settings.
Now when a Need or Opportunity is full, it no longer appears in the volunteer view. If a volunteer unregisters and the Need or Opportunity has available spots again, then it appears in the volunteer view again and they can respond to it.
Showing Full Needs or Opportunities—No Waitlist
Some Site Managers prefer to show all Needs or Opportunities, even if they are full. The default setting is to show Full Needs or Opportunities without a waitlist.
Go to Settings > Main Settings.
Scroll to Needs/Opportunities and select Yes from the Show Full Needs/Opportunities dropdown.
Click Update Settings.
If a volunteer clicks on a Need or Opportunity with shifts, they can see how many sports are still open and how many are filled:
If a volunteer clicks on a Need or Opportunity that doesn't have shifts, they can still see how many spots remain for it:
Showing Full Needs or Opportunities—Waitlist Option
Within the Show Full Needs/Opportunities setting you have the option to enable a waitlist for volunteers interested in participating in full Needs or Opportunities should a spot open up.
Go to Settings > Main Settings.
Scroll to Needs/Opportunities and select Yes, and enable a waitlist when full from the Show Full Needs/Opportunities dropdown.
Click Update Settings.
Now when a volunteer clicks on a Need or Opportunity, they'll see the waitlist button if the Need or Opportunity is full.
When they click the Waitlist button, several things happen:
The button changes to Added to Waitlist, which the volunteer can click to be taken off the waitlist
The volunteer gets a message (via email and in-app messaging) saying they've been added to the waitlist
The volunteer appears in the Waitlist table available to Site Managers.
To access it, go to Volunteerism > Needs/Opportunities, select the Need/Opportunity, and scroll down. The table is near the bottom of the Needs/Opportunities page.
You can export this list as necessary.
If a spot opens up (either by someone unregistering from the Need/Opportunity or a manager adding spots), everyone on the waitlist is notified. Newly available spots are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Waitlists are only for volunteer Opportunities—not events.