Tagged Needs and Clustered Needs: A Guide for Site Managers

Created by Brittany Crow, Modified on Tue, 06 Jun 2023 at 10:53 AM by Brittany Crow

❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site managers. Only site managers can add Tags to Needs. Agency managers can select from Clusters that a site manager has created to use as Tags for their Needs. 


A tag is a keyword or term that you assign to a Need to indicate that the Need meets certain criteria or fits into a certain category. How you tag a Need is entirely up to you and the purpose of that tag. Tags can help match volunteers to Needs. For example, you could add a holiday-specific tag to Needs and then copy a link to those Needs for sharing with volunteers. This is just one example of how you can use tags to go beyond the provided default Interests for your site. Here we cover: 


Tagging Needs as a site manager

You can use tags to add additional categorization to your Needs. 

So you know: You or another site manager are the only ones that can create and manage tags. You and other site managers can also create Clusters. Clusters act just like tags but are assigned to Needs by agency managers. 


How to add tags to Needs 

You can add tags to new Needs when you create them or to existing Needs. 

1. Go to Volunteerism > Needs

2. Select the Need you want to add a tag to. 

  • The option to add a tag is in the same spot on the Create Need form as it is on the Update Need form. 

3. Scroll until you see Tags

4. Type the keyword or term you want to use as your tag in the field by Tags.  

5. Click Add


How to remove tags from Needs

Click the (X) beside the tag on the Update Need page to remove it. Don't forget to click Update Need when you're done! 


How to share tagged Needs

Now that you've added tags to your Needs you can start sharing them! You can share a link to your tagged Needs several ways: 

  • Share it in a spotlight or Rotator Image
  • Share it in a social media post
  • Send it out in an email blast
  • Add it to your blog
  • Include it on a custom page

However you wish to share the link, you can direct volunteers to those tagged Needs as you wish!

So you know: Tags can be used to search for Needs too! 

 

The general format of your tagged Needs link is http://[your domain]/volunteer/agency/needs/?tag=[assigned tag]

  • If your tag is more than one word and not hyphenated, use a (+) in place of the spaced, e.g., http://galaxyconnect.org/volunteer/agency/needs/?tag=holiday+need. 
  • If the (+) doesn't work, use %20 in place of any spaced instead. 


How to create Need Clusters for agencies

Like tags, Need Clusters are a way for agency managers to add additional categorization to their agency's Needs. You, or other site managers, are the only ones that can create Need Clusters. Once you have created Need Clusters, your agency managers can then add them to Needs when they create them or by editing them. 

So you know: Need Clusters are site-wide and can't be assigned to specific agencies. This means agency managers from any agency can select from the dropdown of available clusters that you create for the site. 

  • Need Clusters are not the same as Agency Clusters—click here to learn more about Agency Clusters. 

1. Go to Volunteerism > Needs

2. Click the Need Clusters tab. 

3. Type the name of the cluster you want to add. 

4. Click Add New Cluster

  • Now the Need Cluster is available for agency managers to add to Needs when they create or edit them for their agencies.
  • You can come back and remove a Need Cluster by clicking the (X) under the Options column on the Need Clusters page. 


How to share clustered Needs

Want to quickly share clustered Needs? You can from the Needs area of your site! 

1. Go to Volunteerism > Needs

2. Click the Need Clusters tab. 

3. Under the Needs column, click the number for the Need Cluster you want to share. 

4. This opens a page on the front-end of the site where you can copy the URL for those clustered Needs and start sharing! 

So you know: This only shares the clustered Needs—not the Needs you or another site manager tagged, even if the tag or cluster share the same name.