How to Create Custom Need Response Questions

Created by Brittany Crow, Modified on Thu, Sep 19 at 2:16 PM by Brittany Crow

 Heads up! This article is intended for Site Managers. Only Site Managers can create custom Need response questions for the site.


Would you like to ask volunteers important questions when they respond to a Need on your site? Do you need to collect volunteer data to see who is volunteering for your Needs and why? Or, does your organization and Agencies provide shirts or uniforms for volunteers and you need to know what size they wear before they show up to a Need? You can ask custom questions on the Need response form to get the information you need! In this article, we cover: 


How to create custom response questions

The custom response questions that you create appear on all Need response forms. 

ⓘ So you know: 

  • They can't be applied to a specific Need. 
  • Since they appear on all Need response forms, consider what kinds of questions can be used universally! 
    • If you and your Agencies provide shirts at every Need, then asking what size shirt they wear would be a great question to consider including. 
  • You can require them so that volunteers must answer them when responding to a Need or you can keep them as an optional step.  

1. Go to Settings > Response Questions. 

2. Click Add Custom Question. 

3. Fill in the required fields with an asterisk (*): 

a. There are five question types to choose from:

  1. Small or Large Text Field: This question type provides a blank field for volunteers to type out their answers. You can use the small text field for smaller answers, or the large text field to allow for more in-depth responses. 
  2. Dropdown: This provides a dropdown menu for the volunteers to choose from. Volunteers can only select one answer with this one. 
  3. Checkbox: This provides several answers that volunteers can check off. This is great if your question has more than one possible answer. 
  4. Radio Button: Like the dropdown option, this provides several answers with buttons for the volunteers to select. They can only select one answer with this option. 

b. For dropdown, checkbox, and radio button enter the answer options on their own separate lines in the Options field:

c. If you want to require this question on the Need response form, toggle the button to On beside Required

4. Click Save Custom Question

  • Here's what the questions look like on the Need response form from the volunteer perspective:

Custom response question examples

Here are a few example questions you might consider asking: 

  • How did you hear about this volunteer Need? 
  • What size shirt do you wear? 
  • Do you like working with animals? 
  • How much experience do you have working with children?
  • What are your goals and expectations with this volunteer Need? 
  • Do you have specialized skills? Please share. 

These are only a few examples of the kinds of questions you can ask to get the information you need!