This article applies to all Connect site administrators.

The Settings menu is perhaps the most important part of the manager panel. These settings affect how everyone—site managers, agency managers, and volunteers—views, experiences and uses the entire site.

Accessing Site Settings

Access your site's settings from the Settings dropdown in the utility bar.

Categories of Settings

The Settings menu lists a number of different areas, as shown here. 

This article covers the Main Settings menu item at the top of the list shown above. Click here to access links to information on the other items in the settings menu.

The Settings tab features controls for the following elements of your site's settings:

Site Information 

The Site Information area is located at the top of the Main Settings page.

This area displays the following information about your site:

  • Site Information PDF — Click on the PDF icon to view your platform's access and domain details.
  • Domain Name — The URL or web address for your Connect platform.
  • Organization Name — The organization name appears in some automated notifications and in your platform's browser tab.
  • Organization Home Page — Your Connect platform's volunteer dashboard includes a button with the default text, Return To Our Website.
    If a link is provided in the Organization Home Page field, clicking the Return To Our Website button will take the volunteer to that link.

    Note: If desired, you can change the text of the Return To Our Website button. Contact our Customer Care team with your change request.

  • Default Manager Account — The dropdown lists all of your site managers, with the Default Manager Account being the person who was the site manager when the site was created. It's important to update this information if your site gets a new primary site manager.
  • Email From Name — If left blank, all emails sent from your Connect site will show a return address "from" name of "No Reply." To override this default, type the desired "from" name into this field.

  • Note: We do not recommend overriding the Email From Name or the Email From Address. Click here to learn more.

  • Email From Address — Volunteers will see this email address on system messages they receive. The recommended "from address" is our default, no-reply@galaxydigital.com. We recommend using the default. You can change the address, but the address must first be verified by Amazon Web Services. Click hereto learn more.

    Note: Galaxy Digital has previously given clients IP addresses to add to whitelists when attempting to increase email delivery. Galaxy Digital now recommends whitelisting the email address that has been approved for your site using the new Email From Address field in site settings. Please add that address to whitelists for best results.

  • Disable Email Delivery — Toggle this box to On to prevent all automated notifications from going to users.

    Note: This setting is recommended for sites that are just starting up and are still in the testing/learning phase of their launch.

  • "Contact Us" Email — Use this field to give your site's visitors a way to reach you if they have questions about the site. Once you submitted an email address for this field, a linked Contact Us button will appear on the front end of the site, at the bottom of the page, and right beneath the Privacy Policy link. (Click image for larger view.)

Site Design

The Site Design area of Main Settings is covered in a separate article, located here.

Social Media

The Social Media area of Main Settings is covered in a separate article, located here.

Approvals

Note: This section may not be available on all Connect sites.

You can choose whether changes to the site require a site manager's approval before being made public.

Approving Changes by Agencies

As a site manager, you can decide if approval will be required when the following items are added by agency managers to your site:

  • Agency Profile Updates — any updates to an agency's profile page
  • Needs— any new need posted by the agency

    Note: This setting does not apply if an agency updates or reactivates an existing need, or if a need is submitted from the site manager panel.

  • Events— any new event submitted by an agency

    Note: This setting does not apply if an agency updates or reactivates an existing event, or if an event is submitted from the site manager panel.

  • New agencies — any new agency that has been added to the site

If you want these changes to auto-approve, then toggle them On. If you want to review and approve them before they're live on your site, toggle them Off. 

Approvals for Volunteer Hour Submissions

You can decide how many steps are involved from when a volunteer enters hours to when an agency manager can approve them. You have three options under the Approval area.

  • Volunteers must submit hours for approval — When entering hours, a volunteer must verify the information before submitting it for approval. This option offers the opportunity to edit entries before finally submitting them. Once hours are submitted, an agency manager must approve them.
  • Hours logged will automatically be submitted for approval — (Note: This is our recommended approach.) The volunteer simply submits the hours, without any extra verification or editing. Once hours are submitted, an agency manager must approve them.
  • Hours logged will be automatically approved — Hours are approved upon submission. In fact, the agency manager may never see the logged hours except when viewing the agency’s Stats tab.

These settings apply for both regular need hours and individual hours.

Check-in Kiosk

With the Check-in Kiosk, volunteers can electronically check in to a volunteer opportunity when they arrive, and check out when they leave. The Kiosk is typically activated by agency and program managers. Click here to learn more about how the Check-in Kiosk works.

  • Time Zone — Select your platform's time zone.
  • Show needs from all agencies — When an agency or program manager accesses the Kiosk, do you want them to be able to see all needs posted by all agencies, or just the needs that their agency posted? Most Get Connected sites will want to have this setting at No since multiple agencies post on the site. Community Connect sites, which primarily feature needs from only one agency with multiple programs, will typically want to select Yes.
  • Kiosk front page message — As the first step of checking in through the Kiosk, volunteers see a page where they can click buttons to either check in using their Connect account or sign up for the site if they don't have an account. Above those buttons is a default message with instructions. You can edit or replace that message as needed in Site Settings.

    Tip: We recommend changing "Connect" to the name of your site in the message above. For example, if your site is called "Volunteer Connect," you would change the wording to begin with "You'll need a Volunteer Connect account to check in."

Volunteers

Additional settings that relate to volunteer signups and reporting are listed below.

Default User View — There are four possible views for volunteers who are looking up agencies, needs, and events: grid,  list, calendar, and map. 

  • Grid view displays agencies, needs, and events as rectangular boxes sometimes referred to as cards. 
  • List view displays them in a simple list. 
  • Calendar view displays items on a monthly calendar. This view is helpful for finding shifts on a specific date. Be aware that needs with a duration of "runs until" or"ongoing" will not appear on the calendar view.
  • Map view displays items as pins on a map, which volunteers can click if they want to learn more. 

To see examples of the different views, see this article.

By default, your Connect platform displays the grid view for all volunteers, which tends to be easier to view from a mobile device. To change the default, select your preference from the Default User View field.

Note: Volunteers have the option to switch to list view if they wish, as described in this article.

Value of a Volunteer Hour — By default, your Connect platform applies the accepted state rate. To change this rate, enter a new one in the Value of a Volunteer Hour field.

Require Emails for Team Registrations — This setting relates to when someone responds to a need as a team. You have two options here:

  • On — To sign up a team, a volunteer must provide the names and email addresses of all team members.
  • Off — The volunteer signing up the team only has to provide the number of people on the team. No names or email addresses are required.

    Note: A selection of Off makes sign-up easier for team leaders (since they don’t need to know the names and email addresses of each member). That means they can select reserved slots for team members who will join later. If you require emails for sign-up, that option will not be available for someone creating a team. 

Allow Individual Volunteer Hours — Individual hours are those hours performed by a volunteer on their own—not as a response to a need posted on your site. Individual hours are not required to be verified, but they do show up on the volunteer resume.

  • On — Volunteers can enter volunteer hours for a need not posted on your site.
  • Off — A need must be posted on your site, and the volunteer must have responded to it, in order to enter their hours.

When entering individual hours, the volunteer can specify where they volunteered, the name of the person who can verify those hours, and the email address of that person, in addition to the date and the hours they volunteered.

Require Contact Email for Individual Hours — If you allow individual hours (see above), you also have the option of requiring that the volunteer submit the contact email address of someone who can verify those hours.

  • On — Volunteers submitting individual hours will be required to provide an email address of someone who can verify the hours.
  • Off — Volunteers will have the option of providing an email address of someone who can verify the hours, but this will not be required.

Note: As the site manager, you are the only person who can approve individual hours in the system.

Allow Anonymous Hours — Anonymous hours are volunteer hours assigned to one or more individuals who do not have an account on your site.

  • On — Agency managers will have the ability to submit volunteer hours on behalf of volunteers who do not have accounts on your site. (This is done in the Time Tracking area of the agency manager view.)
  • Off — Agency managers will not be able to submit anonymous hours for needs.

Notes: Admins can post anonymous hours, regardless of the setting selected here; this setting applies only to agency managers. Anonymous hour data can be seen in the agency manager's Stats area (and in the accompanying export) and in the admin's Volunteer Hours Logged report.

Allow "Plus-one" Hours—This setting allows volunteers to submit hours for friends or family who volunteered with them but do not have a Connect account. Agency managers and site managers can also log plus-one hours on behalf of volunteers.

  • On — The hour-submission form will include an option to add "Plus One" hours. Click here to learn more about plus-one hours.
  • Off — The plus-one option will not appear on the hour-submission form.

Show Pop-up After Action — When a user fans an agency, responds to a need, or RSVPs to an event, they will see, by default, a pop-up that both thanks them for responding and offers the option of sharing the agency, need, or event on social media. If the volunteer has just responded to a shift need, the pop-up will include the option to create a Google Calendar event. If your site uses the Donations feature, the pop-up will also include a Donate button.

  • On — The pop-up appears following the actions described above, and the user has the option to donate (as applicable), share, or simply close the pop-up.
  • Off — No pop-up appears following the actions described above.

Agency Contact Information — As an admin, you can decide whether or not an agency's contact information (contact name, email, phone, and fax) can be viewed as part of an agency's profile.

  • Show publicly on agency profile — Volunteers will be able to see the agency's contact information as part of the agency's profile.
  • Hide - Contact information will be hidden.

Note: Some admins prefer to hide this information so that volunteers will respond to needs through the Connect platform (rather than by reaching out to the agency by phone or email), thus making volunteerism easier to track in Get Connected.

Agency Export Reflections — (SLM clients only) If Yes is selected, agency managers will be able to export student answers to course reflection questions from the Stats area. These answers will be included as part of the hours export. If No is selected, agency managers will not have access to student reflections.

Note: Agency managers do not have access to student reflections outside the hour export.

Events

Choose to Show or Not Show Events to agencies and volunteers — By default, Events will show up in the navigation for agencies and volunteers. You can toggle the Show Events field to OFF to hide Events from the standard navigation for agencies and volunteers. This feature is helpful if you do not typically use Events and do not want that field to show up for users.

Events Visible to Site Managers - If you toggle Show Events to OFF, you will still see Events in your Site Manager navigation. You will be able to create and edit Events as you normally would.

Send an Event as a private link - Even if you hide Events from users' navigation, you can send a link to agencies and volunteers. 

Surveys

Automatically Send Need Response Follow-Up Survey — Mark this box to have a short survey sent to a volunteer 72 hours after he or she has responded to a need. The survey asks the volunteer about their experience volunteering with the agency.

Need Response Survey — Select the need-response survey to be sent. If you wish to edit the default survey or create your own, you can do so in the Surveys area of the manager panel.

Automatically Send Event RSVP Follow-Up Survey — Mark this box to have a short survey sent to a volunteer 72 hours after an event to which he or she has RSVP'd "yes."

Event Survey — Select the event survey to be sent. Your site does not currently provide a default survey, so you will need to develop your own in the Surveys area of the manager panel. Once you've created and saved the event survey, it will appear in the Event Survey dropdown.

Needs

Your site settings offer two options regarding needs.

Site Manager Capability: Show Full Needs

Agency managers posting "runs until," "happens on," multi-date, shift, and advanced-event needs can specify how many volunteers they require for a particular need. Once the needed number of volunteers has responded, the need is designated as full. By default, full needs are hidden from the volunteer view, since no additional volunteers can sign up.

In this area of your site settings, you can opt to hide full needs (the default), show full needs with a waitlist option, or show full needs without a waitlist option. To learn more about each of these settings, see the article Showing or Hiding Full Needs. 

Agency Manager Capabilities

The Needs section of Main Settings includes options to allow the following capabilities for agency managers:

  • Agencies can assign initiatives to needs — Toggle this option On to allow agency managers to assign their volunteer opportunities to initiatives on your site. (Default is Off.)
  • Agencies can assign user groups to needs — If you want to allow agency managers to make volunteer opportunities privately available to specific user groups, toggle this option to On. (Default is On.)
  • Agencies can use the scheduling feature — All agency managers have access to the Volunteer Schedule calendar. To allow agency managers to both invite volunteers to respond to shift needs and schedule volunteers for shift needs, toggle this option On. (Default is Off).

Currently, the above options apply to all agencies; there is no option to give permissions to some agencies but not to others. 

Custom Codes

Code Areas for Tracking Pixels

The Header Code and Footer Code fields are for Galaxy Digital clients who wish to use a tracking pixel in the header or footer of their Connect platform. The code entered here applies only to the front end of the site—not the manager panel.

WARNING: Unless you are familiar with tracking pixels, you probably will not need to use these fields. If you want to use a tracking pixel and have questions, please reach out to our Customer Care team.

Also, they can give us their Google Analytics key and we will pass the info to their account.

Google Analytics

Use the Google Analytics field to add your Google Analytics tracking code to use your own custom analytics tracking.

Note: To get a tracking code, you must first open an Analytics account at google.com/analytics. You will receive your tracking code by email, but you can also access it by going to your Analytics account and selecting the Admin tab.

To learn more about setting your site up for Google Analytics, click here.

States and Supported Counties

Note: This section of the page only appears for clients in the United States.

Take time to select your state and the counties that will be served using your site. This information relates to volunteers’ ability to run searches by county. Note that, once you select a state, the counties show up automatically.

Note: To select multiple counties, hold the CTRL key down while selecting.

Settings Menu: Other Items

Below are brief descriptions of what's covered under the other items in the Settings menu. Click the accompanying links to learn more. 

  • User Registration — Indicate what fields a user should complete in order to register for your platform; create custom registration fields; set restrictions on who can open an account on your platform. Click here for more on user-registration settings.
  • Agency Registration — Indicate what fields an agency manager should complete in order to register their agency for your platform. Click here to learn more.
  • Interests, Causes — Make changes to the default volunteer interests and agency causes provided in the system. Click here to learn more.
  • Response Questions — Add custom questions to the need-response form (the form that appears when a volunteer clicks to respond to a need). Click here to learn more.
  • Hours Questions — Create up to two volunteer questions to be answered whenever a volunteer logs his or her volunteer hours. Click here to learn more.
  • Spotlights — Create attractive "spotlights" on the volunteer dashboard to direct visitors to certain needs, events, agencies, or web pages. Click here for more information on spotlights.
  • Rotator Images — Add images for a slideshow to be displayed on the volunteer dashboard. Click here for more on the image rotator.
  • Community Impact — Set volunteerism goals; these goals are used when generating certain graphs on your Volunteer Impact Pages (VIPs). Click here to learn more about setting community impact goals; click here to learn more about VIPs.
  • Donations — Set up your system to collect online donations. Click here to learn more.
  • DNS Information — Provides basic information on the URL you are using for your platform.