How Do I Manage Need Responses?

Created by Brittany Crow, Modified on Tue, 06 Jun 2023 at 01:14 PM by Brittany Crow

❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site managers. If you're an agency manager, click here.

You've got some great Needs posted on your site and volunteers have started responded to them—now what? You can manage those responses from the Responses area of your site! From the Responses area, you can see who has submitted a response and when, as well as what Need they've responded to. Here we cover:

How to manage responses

ⓘ So you know: Agency managers can review and manage responses to Needs for their agencies from the Stats area of their agency manager dashboard.

How to manage responses

To get started, go to Volunteerism > Responses from your dashboard.

From here you can:
- Add, edit, or review Need responses
- Add default hours in bulk or individually
- Export responses data
- Filter the table to see the information you need
- Filter the responses by date range
- Email your volunteers directly

How to add a single response

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Add A Response > Add a single response.

3. Search for the Need title in the Need Lookup field and select it from the dropdown.

4. If the Need has scheduled shifts, select the shift for this response.

5. Type the volunteer's name in the User Lookup field that you want to add the response for and select them from the dropdown.

6. You can add any notes to the Notes field as necessary.

These notes are only shared between you and any other site managers.
This is a great place to share any important information with other site managers—like restrictions, preferences, or volunteer availability, etc.

7. Be sure to answer any required questions as applicable.

8. Click Add User Response when you're done!

That response now appears in the Responses table.

How to schedule multiple responses

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Add A Response > Schedule multiple responses.

3. Select the Need from the Select Need dropdown.

4. Check the boxes for the shifts you want to add these responses to.

✏️ Quick tips:

You can select all shifts by checking the box at the top beside the Shift Begins column.

Want to only see available shifts on Mondays? Use the Show all days dropdown to filter your shift results!

From here, you can see how many remaining slots are still available for those shifts.

5. Click Continue.

6. Type a volunteer's name or email to search for them and click Search.

✏️ Quick tip: You can also click Search by Category to filter your users.

7. Check the boxes for the volunteers you want to schedule these responses for and click Add To List.

8. Need to add more volunteers? Click Add More Volunteers and follow the same steps.

✅ Best practice: Want to send a quick message to your volunteers about these new Need responses you've submitted on their behalf? Click Message Volunteers to send them all a quick message.

We also recommend checking the box beside Send confirmation to these volunteers before you finish scheduling them.
- This sends them an automated notification letting them know that they've responded to a Need and the details about that Need.

9. Click the schedule button when you're ready!

A popup appears asking you to confirm you selections. Click Yes to confirm or Go back to cancel.
Those responses now appear in the Responses table!

How to add a team response for an existing team

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Add A Response > Add a team response.

3. Select the Need from the Select Need dropdown.

4. Click Continue.

5. Select Use An Exiting Team.

6. Use the Select Team dropdown to pick your team!

7. Check the boxes for the team members you want to include and click Continue.

If the volunteer has any scheduling conflicts or missing qualifications, an alert icon appears under the Alerts column.

8. Continue building your team as needed.

You can add yourself to the team by clicking Add Me.

Click Add Volunteer to add more volunteers to the team.
- You need to enter a valid email address and the volunteer's name, then click Add Team Member.

ⓘ So you know: If the volunteer is a new user, they may need to complete a required qualification for this response. A popup appears asking you to confirm this selection and to notify you if the volunteer hasn't met a required qualification. We recommend notifying the volunteer that they need to complete the required qualification response.

Click Add From A User Group to add more volunteers from a specific user group on your site.
- Start by selecting the user group from the Select User Group dropdown.
- Check the boxes for all of the volunteers you want to add and click Add To Team.
  - Some users may not be qualified for the Need. We recommend reaching out to those users to notify them that they need to complete the required qualification response.

9. Once you're done building your team, you can also update the number of additional slots with the dropdown beside Reserve Additional Slots.

ⓘ So you know: This option may not appear for other users when creating teams. To have this option appear for team creation, you must toggle the button beside Require Emails for Team Registrations to Off from your main settings page.

10. To select a team leader, check the box under the Leader column beside the user.

ⓘ So you know: Team leaders can manage their own teams without your assistance. This includes:

Adding or removing team members
Reviewing and emailing team members
Adding or removing responses for team members
Adding hours for team members

11. If the Need has scheduled shifts, click Continue. If the Need doesn't have scheduled shifts, click Finish.

12. Select which shifts you want this response to apply to—if the Need has scheduled shifts.

✏️ Quick tips:

You can respond to all available shifts by toggling the button beside Respond to All Shifts to On.
Want to only see shifts on Mondays? Use the Show All dropdown to filter shifts by days!

13. Click Finish.

Those responses now appear in the Responses table.

✏️ Quick tip: Click here for more information about managing teams!

How to add a team response to a new team

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Add A Response > Add a team response.

3. Select the Need from the Select Need dropdown.

4. Click Create A New Team.

5. Give the team a name.

6. Build out your team.

You can add yourself to the team by clicking Add Me.

Click Add Volunteer to add volunteers to the team.
- You need to enter a valid email address and the volunteer's name, then click Add Team Member.

Click Add From A User Group to add volunteers from a specific user group on your site.
- Start by selecting the user group from the Select User Group dropdown.
- Check the boxes for all of the volunteers you want to add and click Add To Team.
  - Some users may not be qualified for the Need. We recommend reaching out to those users to notify them that they need to complete the required qualification response.

7. Once you're done building your team, you can update the number of additional slots with the dropdown beside Reserve Additional Slots.

8. To select a team leader, check the box under the Leader column beside the user.

ⓘ So you know: Team leaders can manage their own teams without your assistance. This includes:

Adding or removing team members
Reviewing and emailing team members
Adding or removing responses for team members
Adding hours for team members

9. If the Need has scheduled shifts, click Continue. If the Need doesn't have scheduled shifts, click Finish.

10. Select which shifts you want this response to apply to—if the Need has scheduled shifts.

✏️ Quick tips:

You can respond to all available shifts by toggling the button beside Respond to All Shifts to On.
Want to only see shifts on Mondays? Use the Show All dropdown to filter shifts by days!

11. Click Finish.

Those responses now appear in the Responses table.

How to edit responses

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click the pencil icon under the Options column.

This opens up the edit response window.

ⓘ So you know: Not all responses can be edited from here.

Team responses can't be edited from here. Click here for more information about managing team responses.

3. If available, click Clear.

4. Look up the Need and select it from the dropdown.

5. If the Need has scheduled shifts, select the shift with the Select a Shift dropdown.

6. Add any notes if applicable and click Update User Response.

How to add default hours to responses in bulk

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Check the boxes for the responses you want to add default hours to.

✏️ Quick tips:

Toggle the button beside Hide Responses That Have Hours to On to only see responses without hours.

Check the box beside the ID column to select all of the responses on that page.

3. Click +Add Default Hours when you're ready!

ⓘ So you know: If you didn't hide the responses with hours, then a popup appears to let you know if any of the responses have hours already applied to them.

How to add default hours to responses individually

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click the hourglass icon under the Options column.

3. Complete the Hour Details and Description sections on the Add Hours page, as applicable.

4. Click Submit Hour Entry when you're done!

How to export responses data

To get started:

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Export Responses.

3. Your email address appears as the recipient but you can change the recipient email as needed.

4. You can also select the specific date range you want the report to cover.

5. Click Email Export when you're ready.

How to filter the responses table

You can filter the responses table to see the data you need!

1. Go to Volunteerism > Responses.

2. Click Table Filter.

3. Check the boxes for the columns you want displayed in the responses table.

How to email volunteers from the responses area

To email a volunteer, just click their email from the responses table. This opens up an email window where you can draft up a message, CC someone else in the message, and send it!