This article is geared toward agency managers who wish to manage their shift needs. If you are a site manager, check out this article on the volunteer scheduling for site managers.

Prefer a short video? You can view Calendars & Scheduling for Agency/Program Managers.

The Schedule section of your agency management area features a calendar that displays your agency's shift needs (custom and recurring shifts), as well as your volunteers' responses. With this calendar, you can:

  • see how many slots have been filled for a shift, and how many remain
  • see which volunteers have responded to shifts
  • schedule people for shifts that still need volunteers
  • perform edits to needs and responses
  • print a list of volunteers who are scheduled for any date

Note: The calendar displays shift needs and "happens on" needs. It does not display "runs until" or "ongoing" needs. For information on managing non-shift needs, see Scheduling Volunteers for Needs.

Navigating the Calendar

To access the calendar:

  1. Go to your agency manager toolbar and click Schedule.
  2. The calendar has two views: one to view the volunteers who are registered for shifts on a particular day, and another to view the shifts. Click the blue Shifts or User Responses tabs near the top of the page to select the view you want.


The "User Responses" View

The User Responses view lists all volunteers that are scheduled to work on a given day. If more than five users are listed for a single day, you can click the View More button to open a full listing. Icons indicate if a response was for an individual or as part of a team.

Hover your cursor over a volunteer's name (don't click) to view the details of the shift.

Click on a volunteer's name to edit that response. 


The "Show Shifts" View

The Show Shifts view lists all shifts for each day in the calendar. If more than five shifts are scheduled on a single day, you can click the View More button to open a full listing. The icons indicate remaining capacity for a shift.

Hover your cursor over a shift to see its details, including how many slots have been filled and how many are still available.

Click on a shift name to edit that shift.

Scheduling Volunteers for a Shift

  1. You begin by clicking the main Schedule Volunteers button at the top right of the calendar.
  2. You will get an overlay that prompts you to pick a need/opportunity name and select shifts. After you click Continue, you will be taken to the page to begin building your roster.
  3. You build your list of volunteers for the shifts by 
    • Searching for them by name, or
    • Searching for them by a category, such as a User Group. 
    • Then click the Add to List button.
  4. You can review and complete scheduling these volunteers, or you can add more volunteers to the list.

If you get a pop up with warning about conflicts or missing qualifications, you can either back up and make edits, or (in some cases) you have the ability to schedule those volunteers anyway. You cannot schedule a volunteer who is already scheduled for that time.

Now those volunteers are scheduled for those shifts, and you can see them on the User Responses tab of the calendar.

Once a volunteer has been registered for a shift, they'll be notified by email an in their in-app messaging inbox that they've been registered.

Note: Site managers have the same capabilities described here. If you see that a volunteer has been invited to sign up for a shift and you didn't send the invitation, it may be because a site manager (or another agency manager) has already taken this step.

Volunteer Engagement: Automated Notifications

Volunteer invitations and scheduling from the areas described above will trigger the following automated notifications:

  • Schedule Recruitment - Sent to a volunteer when you've used the Invite Volunteers button described above to let them know about an available shift.
  • Schedule Assignment - Sent to a volunteer when you assign them to one or more shifts. This message includes the dates and times of the assigned shifts.

Related Articles

Check out these related articles on how you as an agency manager can manage volunteer responses to your agency's needs: