❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site managers. Only site managers can create custom interests for a site.
You may have volunteer Needs that require special skills—which is where the Interests feature for your site comes in handy! In this article we cover:
ⓘ So you know: Some sites have language overrides in place. You may see Skills in place of Interests, Opportunities in place of Needs, or even Programs in place of Agencies. Contact us to request language overrides for your site!
What are Interests?
Interests are a great way to match volunteers with Needs. When a volunteer comes to your site, they can search for volunteer Needs by Cause, location, or even Interests! This makes it easier for them to respond to the Needs that matter most to them, as well as the ones they can lend their expertise. For example:
- If you or an agency offers Needs for rebuilding homes, you might want to add Interests like Home Repair, Restoration, or Construction.
- If you or an agency offer Needs that involve working with shelter animals, you might add Animal Care or Veterinarian to your list of available Interests.
- Maybe you or an agency has Needs for working in a food pantry—Cooking, Food Prep, or Food Handling could be the necessary Interests that match volunteers to those Needs!
How many Interests can I have on my site?
Your site comes with 16 default Interests that you or agency managers can choose to attribute to Needs. As the site manager, you choose which of the default Interests you want available for you, other site managers, and agency manager to choose from when creating Needs.
ⓘ So you know:
- Want more or less than 16 Interests to choose from? Contact us to adjust the number for your site!
- Agency managers can only select from the Interests you have active on the site.
- When you create custom Interests, you get to select the color and icon assigned to them.
How to create custom Interests
To get started:
1. Go to Settings > Interests. 
2. Uncheck the default Interests you don't want to include. 
3. In the field beside the Add New Interest button, type in the name of the Interest you want to add. 
4. Click Add New Interest.
5. Be sure to click Submit Interests to save your changes!
6. Now you can personalize your Interests by selecting colors and icons: 
✅ Best practice: Make sure you don't skip this step! If you don't select a color or icon, then the Interest appears as an empty circle when viewing the Need on the front end: 
7. Click the field with the (#) symbol to the left of the Pick an Icon button.
8. You can either type in the hex code or use the color selector by clicking and dragging through the color spectrum. 
9. Once you've found the one you want, click Ok.
✏️ Quick Tip: You can look up hex codes, use hex codes if your organization has pre-defined colors to use, or use an extension to match colors from other sites, like a Color Picker or Eye Dropper extension.
10. Click the Pick an Icon button. 
2. Select the icon you want from the list. 
3. Click Submit Interests to save your changes!
How to remove an Interest
You can remove default and custom Interests by simply unchecking them from under the Active column. A warning pops up letting you know that you won't be able to reactivate a custom Interest once you uncheck it. You can always update the color or icon for a custom Interest or recreate it if you do remove it.
ⓘ So you know: A warning may pop up telling you to select more Interest if you don't have enough checked Active. 