One benefit of your site is that needs and shifts can have capacities—that is, a set number of volunteer spots available. Once the max number of volunteers has responded and a need's capacity is reached, one of several things can happen, depending on your site's settings:

These settings are available in the Needs section of the main settings (Settings > Main Settings) on your site manager panel. Each of these scenarios and their settings is described in greater detail in the following sections. Note that a setting applies to all needs on your site; for example, you can't select to hide some full needs and show others.

So you know: 

  • Needs with a duration of "ongoing" can't have capacities. 
  • The option to set a capacity for a need is only for those with duration types like runs until, happens on, and shift needs. 
  • To learn more about posting needs—click here.

Note: Some sites use needs and others use opportunities; some use agencies while others use programs. You can also do a language override if you wish. Please contact our Customer Experience team for more information about language overrides on your site! 

Hiding Full Needs

If your site has several currently full needs, you might want to hide those so volunteers can find your needs with open volunteer spots faster. 

To hide full needs:

  1. From your site manager panel, go to Settings > Main Settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Needs area and select No from the Show Full Needs dropdown.
  3. Click Update Settings.

Now when a need is full, it will no longer appear in the volunteer view. If a volunteer unregisters and the need once again has available spots, then they can view and respond to it again. 

Showing Full Needs—No Waitlist

Some site managers prefer to show all needs, even if those needs are full. The default setting is to show full needs without a waitlist. 

To show full needs without the waitlist option:

  1. From your site manager panel, go to Settings > Main Settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Needs area and select Yes from the Show Full Needs dropdown.
  3. Click Update Settings.

If a volunteer clicks on a need with shifts, they can see how many spots are still open and how many are filled: 

If a volunteer clicks on a need that doesn't have set shifts, they can still see how many spots remain for that need:

Showing Full Needs—Waitlist Option

Within the "show full needs" setting you have the option of providing a waitlist feature for volunteers who are interested. Click here to learn more about using a waitlist. 

To show full needs with the waitlist option:

  1. From your site manager panel, go to Settings > Main Settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Needs area and select Yes, and enable a waitlist when full from the Show Full Needs dropdown.
  3. Click Update Settings.

Now, when a volunteer clicks on a need, they'll see the waitlist button if the need is full: 

When a volunteer clicks the Waitlist button, several things happen:

  • The button changes to Added to Waitlist, which the volunteer can click to be taken off the waitlist.
  • The volunteer gets a message (via email and in-app messaging) saying they've been added to the waitlist.
  • The volunteer appears in the Waitlist table available to site managers. To access it, go to Volunteerism > Needs, select the need, and scroll down. The table is near the bottom of the Needs page. 
    • You can export this list as necessary. 

If a spot opens up (either by someone unregistering from the need, or a manager adding spots), everyone on the waitlist is notified. Newly available spots are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

To learn more about how the waitlist works, click here.

Note: Waitlists are available for volunteer needs only—not events.