How Should Your School Track Volunteer Hours?

Best for: Activities that require advance registration or a limited number of volunteer spots.

Hands On Board allows schools to create volunteer opportunities, manage available spots, and organize sign-ups for activities such as field trips, fundraisers, and classroom celebrations.

Schools can:

-Set the number of available spots.

-Assign volunteer hours to opportunities or individual slots.

-Establish volunteer clearance requirements.

-Choose automatic or manual hour crediting.

Families register through the school’s Hands On Board site. They can then use Event Check-In at the school kiosk to confirm their participation or an item drop-off.

Related guides:

-Create and Manage Volunteer Opportunities with Hands On Board

-Register for a Volunteer Opportunity on Hands On Board

-Check In for a Hands On Board Volunteer Opportunity

Best for: Regular volunteer activities that don’t require advance registration.

Schools can create preset volunteer activities, such as Popcorn Friday, that parents select when checking in at the kiosk.

This allows families to record participation and associate their volunteer hours with a student without signing up through Hands On Board.

Related guides:

-Set Up and Manage Required Volunteer Hours

-Checking In as a Volunteer

Best for: Volunteer activities that aren’t already listed on the kiosk.

Parents can select Something Else during volunteer check-in to enter the activity they completed, record their hours, and select the student who should receive credit.

This is useful for occasional volunteer work that doesn’t require advance registration.

Related guide: How to Check In and Record Hours as a Volunteer

Best for: Volunteer work completed outside the school’s kiosk check-in process.

Parents can submit volunteer hours directly through the ConciergePad Parent App.

Important: Parent-app submissions are not automatically credited. A school administrator must review each submission and either approve or decline it before hours are added to the student’s balance.

Related Guide: Self Report Volunteer Hours on the Parent App

Best for: Volunteer work that needs to be credited directly by a school administrator.

Administrators can manually add volunteer hours to a student’s record without requiring the parent to check in at the kiosk or submit hours through the Parent App.

This is useful when:

-A volunteer forgot to check in.

-Hours need to be recorded for an activity completed outside school.

-A school needs to credit volunteer participation on behalf of a family.

Related guide: Manage Logged Volunteer Hours

Yes. Schools can use different methods depending on the activity.

For example, your school might use Hands On Board for field trips, preset kiosk events for weekly activities, and parent-app submissions for volunteer work completed outside school.

Each method serves a different purpose, allowing schools to choose the appropriate process for each activity.

If you’re unsure which method would work best for your school, contact support@getconciergepad.com for guidance on configuring your volunteer-hours process.