❖ Heads up! This article is intended for site managers. Only site managers can create and manage user groups for a site.
If you have volunteers expressing an interest in participating in a group, then you might be wondering if you should recommend a Team or create a user group. Do you have an agency manager asking for advice on which to recommend? As a site manager, you can create a user group to help you quickly find and organize volunteers who share a similar interest or skillset.
Anyone can create a team in response to a Need, depending on how you've set up the Need. Both are very helpful features that work best in different situations. Let's look at how they're different and when you should choose one over the other! Here we cover:
What is a team?
A team is a chance for volunteers to create and manage their own group. They can build their own team when responding to Needs that have team signup enabled! Teams can be made for coworkers, families, or friends that wish to volunteer together. You or an agency manager can opt to enable team signup when creating Needs. You, other site managers, agency managers, and volunteers can create and organize teams in response to Needs.
When should I recommend a team?
Recommend a team, or create one on behalf of volunteers, when they express an interest in volunteering with their coworkers, family members, or friends. Teams are great because:
- They allow small or large groups to volunteer at Needs together.
- Can be managed by the volunteers' themselves by selecting a Team Leader from their members.
- They're a fun way for friends or families to share their contributions with their Team Resume!
What is a user group?
Unlike teams, a user group is created by you or another site manager! A user group helps you quickly identify users on your site that have shared interests or skillsets. You can assign a user group leader, but you or another site manager are still the ones managing the user group. It's also a great tool for filtering and reporting on users within those groups!
- Does your organization or one of your agencies offer Needs dedicated to operating an animal shelter and require volunteers that are trained and licensed veterinarians?
- You could create a user group for that!
- Does your organization or one of your agencies host court-mandated Needs?
- You could create a user group to protect the group members' data and information and to share private Needs specifically for them!
- With a user group, you can quickly filter the users within that user group with the User Filter for the reporting data you need!
ⓘ So you know: User Groups are created to help group individuals together for quick filtering, reporting, and scheduling. They can exist outside of a Need response.
When would I create a user group?
You would want to create a user group instead of a team when:
- You have court-mandated Needs that require discretion and privacy.
- You want to share specific or private Needs with only select volunteers.
- Just know that you always have the option to share private Needs with specific volunteers, but this is one tool that can help keep things organized!
- You want to quickly assign specific Needs to a group of qualified users.
- You want to quickly filter users by shared interests, causes, skillsets, etc.
- You need to report on a specific group of volunteers.
- You want to quickly send an email blast to a select group of volunteers.
- You want to manage the user group.
- When you want users in a user group to track their engagement and hours with their user group resume.
Which is best?
Follow the flow chart questions to see which one we recommend: 