Volunteero's automated reference feature enables the system to reach out and collect references for volunteer applicants automatically.

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Volunteero's reference feature works by automatically emailing the referee with a link to a reference form. It can be sent automatically at the point of submission or manually at a later date when triggered by a staff user.

Volunteero can also send a 7 day reminder to the referee is a response has not been submitted.

The reference feature is added to an application, it is linked to the reference form you will have built and when a new volunteer application is received, this will kick off the whole process. The references will be tracked and approved on the platform.

Head to the 'Registration' section and into forms to get started with creating a reference form.

Click + form

You need to make sure that the form type is 'Referee form'

You then give it a relevant name and then create stages. In most instances we have come across, this is likely just to be one stage called "Approve" or something similar.

This process needs to match the form type 'referee form'

This is the form that referees will fill in about an applicant, so consider the types of information you need and the questions you want to ask.

As with any form on Volunteero, drag and drop the fields on the left-hand side to customise your form contents. You can edit this at a future date.

View our guide on form building for full instructions here

A few things to note:

We always recommend adding your logo which is a rich text and media field. You can then use the options to add an image.

Note that when adding an image, you must find the image on google, right click and copy the image address.

We would also recommend adding some text to provide more detail on how to answer the form.

Add a short answer question and link with the Volunteero field, Referee Given Name. Repeat this process and link with Referee Family Name. These two stages ensure that the reference will link to the volunteer application.

See below example of a reference form build using rich text and media, long answer, short answer, and drop down fields.

You'll now need to add your reference collection form into the relevant application form(s).

If you haven't created your application form yet head over to our step-by-step guide for full instructions.

Once you've got your main volunteer application form build out you can drag and drop a 'email reference field' from the left-hand side into the form as shown below.

Make sure to link the appropriate referee form here. Without this link Volunteero cannot send off your referee form.

Remember that this form is viewed by the volunteer applicant so the label and description need to make sense for that person.

You can also choose to add multiple reference fields to a form which can link to various reference forms for example: if you collect a personal and a professional reference per applicant.

Configure the settings for your referee form on the settings of the form that the reference field appears on. So if this reference is making up part of your volunteer application form, you need to configure the notifications on that form.

Do you want references to be sent at the point of submission or manually triggered at a later point by a staff user?

Volunteero can support either. The default setup is that emails will be automatically sent to reference providers once a volunteer submits the application however here is how to switch to the manual option.

Your forms are now ready to go. From this point onwards any reference form that is embedded into an application form can be sent off.

You can view the status of each reference and whether they have been sent for, returned or declined by the referee.

Each reference will be returned on the application submission and can be viewed

If you would like to learn more about managing references, check out our article:

Managing email references

If you would like any help setting up the email reference feature or have any questions, please reach out to our support team. We would be very happy to help 😊