Volunteero is an amazing tool to help you and your volunteers before, during and after an event. In this article we will go over the recommended settings for an event.
We also have similar articles for ongoing and one-off missions.
Please note that this article is based on what we've seen to be successful from organisations that use Volunteero. However, we always encourage you to use the features and the platform in a way that is most beneficial to you and your volunteers.
Mission Template settings
When creating your Mission template for your ongoing mission, first decide on your general options for location, phone calling etc.
Shifts ON:
We typically see events missions requiring the shift management functionality, so go ahead and toggle this option on.
Shifts are a great tool to use when hosting an event. Volunteers can decide to sign up to all shifts that day or just pick one or two depending on their availability.
You can also create different shifts for different responsibilities or locations during the event.
For example, at the same time in a day you could have people sign up to be a steward or on the welcome team or helping out with the clean up. See example shift setup below:
Enabling Check-in check-out
Event volunteering missions often benefit from enabling our check-in and check-out functionality; this can allow you to verify attendance from the event, particularly if it's on a larger scale.
Decide on your check-in check-out timings at the mission template level.
QR code check-in
Enabling QR code check-ins for your volunteers means that a volunteer can only check into the shift when onsite. Make use of either:
Downloadable QR code print this for easy onsite checking in.
Digital QR code kiosk displays this screen onsite for volunteer check-ins. These can be opened within 8 hours of the shift start time.
Notification settings and reminders
Customise your notification timings for shift and report reminders. We recommend shift reminders that give enough notice for volunteers to be on time.
Report reminders should take into consideration travel time home. if a volunteer doesn't submit their report before leaving the event, the likelihood of them doing it whilst travelling is less, so try and get them when they're home!
Creating the mission and shifts
Mission Visibility:
When creating the mission, consider the visibility period. You want to publish it onto the Volunteero app with enough time to drive recruitment, without it becoming stale. We've found that publishing events with around 3 months of lead time tends to be enough time. If your event is creeping closer, and you still need some slots filled then you can always push a mission as 'high priority' on the app.
Leave the mission visible for a few days after the event finishes time to allow volunteers to submit reports logging their time and feedback.
Mission Approval requests:
Keep approval requests OFF at the mission level. Should you need approvals on for certain roles or tasks we advise having these on at individual shifts.
Description
This is what is going to attract volunteers to sign up. Keep this bright, interesting and full of detail. Make use of rich text options and include images within the description.
Keep the mission limit set to the amount of volunteers you'll need in total, you can specify individual shift limits.
Creating Shifts
As mentioned earlier, create one-off or recurring shifts for roles or tasks. Provide individual shift descriptions and limits and allow volunteers to see who else has signed up. The shifts feature is powerful for events as it gives staff users a bird's eye view of their volunteers.
Read our full step-by-step guide on creating shifts here.
Volunteer reports
Think about what data you want to get from your event that will showcase the impact of it. Using Volunteero's custom report templates, you can customise the questions volunteers are presented with for your event missions.
Consider including questions such as:
How much time did they spend volunteering?
How would they rate their experience?
How much money did they raise? (If the event has a fundraising aspect)
How many people did they engage with on the day?
Do they have any feedback to share?
Does the report require any action from a staff user?
Snap a selfie or submit a picture from the day with a file upload feature.
As always, if you get stuck or would like to discuss your individual circumstances please don't hesitate to reach out to our team on support@volunteero.org