How Do I Show, Hide, or Enable a Waitlist When a Need is Full?

Created by Brittany Crow, Modified on Thu, Sep 19 at 3:24 PM by Brittany Crow

 Heads up! This article is intended for Site Managers. Only Site Managers can enable or disable the waitlist feature for a site. If you're an Agency Manager looking for information about waitlists, click here


One benefit of your site is that Needs and shifts can have capacities—that is, a set number of volunteer spots available. Once the maximum number of volunteers has responded and a Need's capacity is reached, one of several things can happen, depending on your site's settings:

These settings are available in the Needs section of the main settings (Settings > Main Settings) on your Site Manager panel. Each of these scenarios and their settings is described in greater detail in the following sections. Note that a setting applies to all Needs on your site; for example, you can't select to hide some full Needs and show others.

So you know:

  • Needs with a duration of Is Ongoing can't have capacities. 
  • The option to set a capacity for a Need is only for those with duration types like Runs Until Happens On, and Custom or Recurring Shifts. 
  • To learn more about posting Needs—click here


Hiding full Needs

If your site has several currently full Needs, you might want to hide those so volunteers can find your Needs with open volunteer spots faster. 

To hide full Needs:

1. Go to Settings > Main Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Needs area. 

3. Select No from the Show Full Needs dropdown.

4. Click Update Settings

Now when a Need is full, it no longer appears in the volunteer view. If a volunteer unregisters and the Need has available spots, then they can view and respond to it again.

 

Showing full Needs—no waitlist

Some Site Managers prefer to show all Needs, even when they're full. The default setting is to show full Needs without a waitlist. 

To show full Needs without the waitlist option:

1. Go to Settings > Main Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Needs area and select Yes from the Show Full Needs dropdown. 

3. Click Update Settings.

If a volunteer clicks on a Need with shifts, they can see how many spots are still open and how many are filled: 

If a volunteer clicks on a Need that doesn't have set shifts, they can still see how many spots remain for it: 


Showing full Needs—waitlist option

Within the Show Full Needs setting you have the option of providing a waitlist feature for volunteers who are interested.  

To show full Needs with the waitlist option:

1. Go to Settings > Main Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Needs area and select Yes, and enable a waitlist when full from the Show Full Needs dropdown. 

3. Click Update Settings.

Now, when a volunteer clicks on a Need, they see the waitlist button if it's full: 

When a volunteer clicks the Waitlist button, several things happen:

  • The button changes to Added to Waitlist, which the volunteer can click to be taken off the waitlist.
  • The volunteer gets a message (via email and in-app messaging) saying they've been added to the waitlist.
  • The volunteer appears in the Waitlist table available to Site Managers. To access it, go to Volunteerism > Needs, select the Need and scroll down. The table is near the bottom of the Needs page. 
    • You can export this list as necessary. 

If a spot opens up (either by someone unregistering from the Need, or a manager adding spots), everyone on the waitlist is notified. Newly available spots are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

So you know: Waitlists are available for volunteer Needs only—not events.