Many volunteer opportunities include the option to register as a team. If you're interested in registering a team for a volunteer need, this article is for you! It focuses on all things team-related. Specifically, it addresses the following topics:

In addition, this article touches on team-management and provides a link to learn more about your capabilities as a team leader.

Finding Team-Friendly Opportunities

After you've clicked to view a need, you can tell if it accepts team signups by looking at the Respond buttons to the right of the need title.note

All team-friendly opportunities include a Respond as Team button.

You can also filter the needs on your site to display only those needs that accept teams. To view team-friendly needs:

Click Needs in the left-hand column of your local Connect site.
Note: If your site manager has overridden the default term "needs," you may see the word "opportunities" or something similar instead.
From the Search by dropdown, select Teams.
In the Select Access dropdown that appears, select Accepting Teams.
Click Search.

Your site will display only those needs that accept team sign-ups. Click View Details to learn more about a need.

Filtering for your team size

You cannot register more team members than there are volunteer slots allowed. So you may want to add another filter to show only opportunities that will accommodate your team size.

Use the same filter dropdown as shown above, but pick Available Slots.
And then key in the size of your team and click search. You will only see opportunities with at least that number of slots available.

Note: You can apply more than one filter. For example, you can filter for teams and available slots. You can also use these filters in any of the views of the Needs page: grid, calendar, list, or map.

Signing Up with a New Team

If you have not previously created a team, or if you want to create a new team, follow these steps. While this looks like a lot of steps, they are intuitive and mostly error-proof.

Select a need that accepts team signups.
Click the Respond as Team button. If you do not see this button, you probably need to complete a qualification (such as signing a waiver) before you can respond.
On the Team Information form that appears, enter a Team Name.
If you will be a member of the team, click the Add Me button.
Click the Add Volunteer button to add your first team member.
Complete the email and name fields. If the email for the person is already in the system, you will be prompted to pick their name and information will prefill.
Click Add Team Member. If you are the leader of a user group, you will also be able to able to add people to your team from your user group. If you are not a user group leader, you will not see that button.
In some cases, you will be able to add reserved slots. Do that if you want to hold a spot for a volunteer to be named later. (Not all sites will have this capability.)
From your list, check the box to indicate at least one team leader. Typically, this will be you, but it does not have to be.
When you have added all of your team members, click Continue.
You will now have the chance to select shifts or confirm the information for a need that happens on a certain date. In the case of shifts, you will be able to filter for day-of-the-week as well as respond to all shifts.
Click Finish to complete creating a team and signing up for a need.

Note: If there are response questions or initiative questions included on the response form, you will be able to answer for your team. All team members receive an email confirming the sign-up.

Reusing One of Your Teams

Let's say you signed up a team for a volunteer need, and you worked so well together that your group would like to volunteer as a team again. You can reuse one of your existing teams and track your work and hours over time.

Follow these steps.

When you click to Respond as a Team, you will be prompted to Use One of My Teams or Create a New Team. Creating a new team will follow the same process shown above. Click the top button to reuse one of your existing teams.
From the dropdown, select which of your teams you want to use.
Your roster of teammates will be shown, and those team members who volunteered with you most recently will be checked off. You can select or deselect members within your roster.
The remaining steps are the same as outlined above - including adding new people and selecting shifts.

Signing Up for Needs with Qualifications

Some needs on your site may require that volunteers meet certain qualifications—such as showing that they've been through training, or signing a liability waiver—before responding. If you have not already met the qualifications, clicking the button to Respond or Respond as a Team will take you through the qualification process for that need.

When reusing one of your existing teams, any team members who do not meet the qualification for the need will be grayed out. You will not be able to select them for that particular need.

When you try to add a team member who does not meet a qualification, you'll get an error message saying they could not be added because they don't have the qualification.

You may want to contact those people to prompt them to complete the qualification.

Deleting a Team Response

If you must unregister your team from a need, the agency manager will be notified immediately via email and in-app messaging.

To delete your team's response:

From your profile dropdown, select My Teams.
You'll be taken to a table listing all of the teams you're a part of, whether as a team member or a team leader.
Click Manage Team, located in the Options column, for the team you wish to unregister.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Unregister Team.
Click Yes to confirm the unregistration.

Note: You cannot re-register a team once you have unregistered it.

Managing Your Team

You can manage your team from the My Teams area, which you can access from your profile dropdown. (See image above.) For more information on how to view your team details, change or assign a leader, adjust your team size, view and submit your team's volunteer hours, email your team members, and view your team resume, see our article titled Managing Your Volunteer Team.

Responding to a Need as a Team