Managing Volunteers

This chapter provides an overview of volunteer management and discusses how to:

• Manage general initiative information.

• Assign volunteers to roles.

• Assign volunteers to specific tasks.

• Create a biographical bit or brief.

• Review volunteer history.

• Review volunteer audience history.

See Also

Setting Up Volunteer Efforts

Understanding Volunteer Management

This section lists prerequisites and discusses volunteer management.

Prerequisites

Before you can manage a volunteer effort, you must have one set up. There are common initiative setup pages for this task, and also volunteer-specific setup pages that enable you to complete volunteer effort setup.

See Setting Up Initiatives.

Before you can assign volunteers to tasks, roles, and projects, you must set up your system’s volunteer data.

See Adding Resources.

Volunteer Management

When you create an initiative or define a membership organization, you can create the volunteer structure necessary for the effort to succeed. You can then assign volunteers to the positions within the volunteer structure and assign additional volunteers to perform specific tasks.

A volunteer effort is one type of initiative in Contributor Relations. All initiative types share some common management pages. Some initiatives, such as volunteers, require additional management that is specific to their purpose. The volunteer-specific management is covered in this chapter; refer to the chapter below for information about managing all types of initiatives.

See Also

Managing Initiatives

Managing General Initiative Information

You manage volunteer efforts in Contributor Relations by using the common initiative functionality found throughout the system. Initiatives are the common link between campaigns, events, volunteer efforts, and membership initiatives at your institution.

A volunteer initiative is used to manage a volunteer effort. It has its own audience, resources, related initiatives, and PR plan. Use the chapter referenced below to define the basics for the initiative. You can then use this chapter to manage the remaining volunteer-specific functionality.

See Managing Initiatives.

Assigning Volunteers to Roles

One of the ways to link volunteers to a project is to assign them to a role within a leadership group.

This section discusses how to

• Assign volunteers to roles.

• Create sub-group volunteer assignments.

See Also

Assigning Volunteers to Specific Tasks

Pages Used to Assign Volunteers to Roles

Assigning Volunteers to Roles Within the Structure

Access the Volunteer Group Assignments page. This page populates with the roles you defined on the Volunteer Structure page. Here, you can assign volunteers to fill each position outlined in the structure.

Scroll through the list of roles and term lengths and enter the Volunteer ID, Start Date, and (optional) End Date for each assignment to the volunteer structure.

Important! If a required position has not been filled when you save this page, a warning message appears. You can choose to assign a volunteer to the required position or save anyway.

Creating Sub-Group Assignments

Access the Sub-Group Assignments page. This page populates with each role you defined in the structure on the Sub-Groups page. Here, you can assign volunteers to fill those roles.

Scroll through the list of roles and term lengths and enter the Volunteer ID, Start Date, and (optional) End Date for each assignment to the volunteer structure.

Important! If a required position has not been filled when you save this page, a warning message appears. You can choose to assign a volunteer to the required position or you can save without assigning a volunteer.

Assigning Volunteers to Specific Tasks

One of the ways to link volunteers or groups of volunteers to a project is to assign them to a specific volunteer task.

This section lists prerequisites and discusses how to:

• Assign volunteers and groups to tasks.

• Enter constituent data and volunteer evaluations.

See Also

Assigning Volunteers to Roles

Prerequisites

Before you can assign volunteers to projects, you must:

• Define assignment types on the Assignment Type page.

• Define a volunteer initiative on the Volunteers page.

• Set up contact types on the Contact Types page.

Pages Used to Assign Volunteers to Specific Tasks

Assigning Volunteers and Groups to Tasks

Access the Volunteer Assignments 1 page. You have already defined a volunteer leadership structure and volunteer roles; use this page to assign individuals and groups to specific tasks related to the initiative.

Volunteer ID and Volunteer Group	Enter the volunteer ID of the individual or the volunteer group that you are assigning.
Assignment Type	Enter an assignment type. The values Student Recruitment, Career Services, and Legislative are shipped with the system, but your institution can define additional values.
Area of Responsibility	Enter the area of responsibility for the individual or group that you are assigning. Areas of responsibility describe the sphere of accountability for the assignment type that you selected. Values for this field are defined by your institution on the Area of Responsibility page.
Carry Transaction	Select this check box if you are assigning many volunteers to the same basic assignment. If you choose this option, when you add additional volunteer assignments, the values for Start Date, Assignment Type, Area of Responsibility, and Volunteer Manager carry to subsequent transactions.
Volunteer Mgr (volunteer manager)	Enter the constituent to whom the volunteer is responsible.

Entering Constituent Data and Volunteer Evaluations

Access the Volunteer Assignments 2 page. This page enables you to assign individuals and groups to make contact with constituents. You can also rate volunteers on their effectiveness here.

ID	Enter the ID of the constituent the volunteer is to contact. The person's name appears to the right of this field.
Contact Type	Select the type of communication that the volunteer is expected to have with the constituent. Contact types are defined by your institution. If you enter an ID, you must select a contact type.
Completed	Select when the contact with the volunteer is complete.
Effectiveness Rating	Record a volunteer's performance on a limited basis. Valid ratings are Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor.
Assign Again	Select to assign the volunteer again in the future.
Potential Leader	Select if the volunteer has demonstrated potential as a leader.
Future	Enter any recommendations for involving this volunteer further. This is a free-text field.

Creating a Biographical Bit or Brief

Use the Biographic Profile component to prepare and generate biographic reports about potential volunteers and constituents in the system. The Biographic Report page enables you to select criteria to include in the report, so you can create anything from a comprehensive report (used to qualify a volunteer) to a limited report about a constituent (for a volunteer to use during contacts).

See Also

Tracking Prospect Data

Contributor Relations Reports: Selected Reports

Reviewing Volunteer History

This section discusses how to review volunteer history information.

Pages Used to View Volunteer History

Reviewing Volunteer Involvement

Access the Volunteer History page.

Search	Click to return all volunteer history records that fall within the time frame you selected.
Details	Click to access the Volunteer Assignment Detail page, where you can view detailed information about the volunteer's activity.

Reviewing Volunteer Audience History

Use the Audience History page to view all of the target audiences to which a volunteer or potential volunteer belongs. Audiences are defined for both initiatives and membership organizations and are based on a variety of attributes. For example, an audience might consist of all constituents or volunteers who have an involvement of GOLF.

See Also

Viewing a Constituent's Audience History