❖ Heads up! This article is intended for Site Managers.
Do you want to personally vet volunteers for special Needs? Are you looking for ways to build a network of volunteers who can respond to those special Needs? You may want to consider creating hand-raising Needs! Here we cover:
- What are hand-raising Needs?
- What do I need to do to get started?
- How it works for you and the volunteer
What are hand-raising Needs?
Hand-raising Needs are meant to be used as a pre-screener for the volunteers responding to them. These are great for building interest around your Needs before assigning or scheduling volunteers. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when determining if you should create your own hand-raising Needs:
- Do you want interested volunteers to complete a round of interviews, onboarding steps, paperwork, or special training before they can participate with your organization?
- Do you want to vet interested volunteers to ensure their skillsets and backgrounds align with your organization's goals and Needs?
- Would you like to compile a waitlist of interested volunteers to assign and schedule as necessary?
- Would you like to compile a group of volunteers that expressed interest in helping during events of a disaster?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then hand-raising Needs are a great way to meet those demands!
✏️ Quick tip: If you aren't sure or if you know you don't need a lengthy interview process to vet volunteers before they participate, you can always consider creating qualifications. Click here to learn more.
Why should I create hand-raising Needs?
Hand-raising needs allow you and your Agency Managers to build a network of vetted volunteers to call on for specific Needs that only they can respond to. It also builds a close-knit community for you and your volunteers as you get to know each other through the process. After interested volunteers complete the process and are approved, you can then place them into User Groups for future scheduling and reporting!
Can't I just create a qualification?
Absolutely! A hand-raising Need allows you to create a more robust vetting process for potential volunteers. However, if you only want volunteers to watch a video, sign a waiver, or submit a qualification response to be qualified, then you can do just that and skip the hand-raising Need set up. If you require that volunteers complete several steps before they're considered "approved", then the hand-raising Need may be the better fit. Click here for more information about qualifications.
What do I need to do to get started?
When considering if a hand-raising Need is right for you, start by identifying Needs that require a special vetting process. If you have a Need that requires more than just an eSign waiver or qualification, you can set it up as a hand-raising Need. Setting up a hand-raising Need requires:
1. A Need that has multiple steps in the vetting process to ensure volunteers are qualified and a good fit.
2. A public and private Need that you set up for the process.
- Volunteers show interest by responding to the public Need.
- These should clearly indicate to the volunteer that they're only showing interest in the Need and must complete the vetting process to be approved.
- The private Need is for after they've been approved.
✏️ Quick tip: We recommend selecting the Is Ongoing duration type when setting up this Need since it gives volunteers the chance to show interest through a specified date.
3. You to create a user group and assign the private Needs to it.
- You can then add the approved and vetted volunteers to that user group where they'll be able to access and respond to the private Needs you've created.
How it works for you and the volunteer
Here are the steps of this process:
1. The volunteer selects a Need that clearly emphasizes they're only showing interest in the listed Need—not signing up just yet, but rather raising their hand for it.
- Once they've found a hand-raising need, they click Respond.
- This doesn't ensure they'll be selected and scheduled for that Need. It only means they're interested in volunteering for it.
- You can include qualifications in this step that help you pre-screen the volunteers before they're processed through the more in-depth screening.
- Please note that depending on how you've set up your qualifications, you may have to approve it before they can click Respond to show interest in the Need.
2. You can then review the responses of interested volunteers and decide to move forward with the application and vetting process from there. 
- You can always filter your Responses table by the Need when reviewing them.
- Another option is to review responses directly from that Need. Go to Volunteerism > Needs > select the Need title > click View Responses.
- You can email those users directly from there too!
3. Once the volunteers you've selected to screen have completed all of the steps you require for the Need and are approved, they can then be added to a User Group assigned to the private Need.
✏️ Quick tip: Don't want volunteers to schedule themselves for the Need? Then you can keep that Need private without sharing it with a User Group, and use the private Need to schedule volunteers yourself.
4. When they're in the User Group, they can access and respond to the private Need.
- They won't see the private Need until after they've been added to the user group with the assigned Need.
- The private Need has a lock icon in the top right corner of the card, which indicates it's private.
5. Now, you can start scheduling them!