For Volunteer Coordinators

Configure volunteer settings

Open Settings → Volunteers to choose:

• Whether first-time volunteers need a one-time approval to join the team.
• Whether every shift signup needs separate approval, including signups by existing volunteers.
• Whether filled shifts allow waitlist requests.
• The hours recording method is configured separately in Organization settings → Hours.

Set the shared change deadline in Settings → Scheduling. It defaults to 24 hours before the shift and applies to employee, volunteer, and mixed shifts.

Creating a Teamcrest account alone does not join a volunteer team. Volunteers request a shift from the public board. With both approval switches off, eligible volunteers can claim an available shift immediately. Turning approval off does not clear requests already waiting for review; check the approval queue.

Public discovery is controlled separately in Settings → Features by Volunteers. Enabling the board does not make every shift public. You choose visibility on each Volunteer or Mixed shift.

The available controls depend on your permissions. Volunteer roster/settings, shift-request reviews, and attendance have separate management permissions; ask your account owner if the controls you need are missing.

Create and publish opportunities

1. Open Schedule → Create New Shift.
2. Set the position, location, date, start/end times, and meeting instructions.
3. Set Shift Type to Volunteer or Mixed.
4. Leave the shift unassigned for signup. Each shift is one slot; create additional shifts for additional people.
5. For public recruitment, enable the public board and choose Show on public volunteer board under Volunteer board visibility.
6. Publish the shift.
7. Share /volunteer/your-team-slug, replacing your-team-slug with your workspace slug.

Private shifts and drafts do not appear on the public board. Public discovery lists future published Volunteer/Mixed opportunities, including filled slots when waitlists are enabled. Volunteers must sign in and explicitly confirm a request; browsing a board does not reserve a slot.

Team members can also use Find Shifts inside the workspace.

Personalize the public page

While signed in as the organization’s owner or an admin, open the public volunteer board and select Admin to open Organization settings → General. Upload a team banner or update the team logo. Images must be JPG, PNG or WebP and no larger than 5 MB. The banner fills the board header behind the team name and introduction; the logo also appears in team invitations and the workspace.

In Settings → Volunteers → Public board details, choose whether the list shows descriptions, positions, and opening counts. Save your choices to apply them to everyone viewing the board. Shift names, times, locations, and signup actions remain available. Visitors can still open shift details.

Choose the volunteer experience

In Settings → Volunteers, choose Simple for a workspace focused on finding shifts and tracking commitments, or Full workspace for the standard navigation and tools each volunteer has permission to use. Save the setting to apply it to your team. This choice does not grant extra permissions or change signup approval rules.

Request links depend on your signup settings and outstanding requests. Volunteers can still reach pending requests when review is needed. Existing organizations keep their saved experience.

Review applications and shift requests

On Members, review New volunteers awaiting approval and the volunteer roster. Approving an application grants team membership and may confirm the intended shift if it is still available, prerequisites are satisfied, and separate signup approval is not required. Otherwise, review the resulting pending/waitlisted request, or ask the volunteer to claim again after prerequisites are verified.

Open Manage team → Approvals → Volunteers to review first-time volunteers, shift signups, and waitlists. Approve or reject pending requests, and approve waitlisted volunteers when a slot opens. Waitlists do not automatically promote volunteers after a cancellation. Approval rechecks availability and prerequisites.

Only a confirmed request assigns a person to the shift. An approved application alone does not guarantee a shift assignment.

You can set volunteer profiles to active, suspended, or archived on Members. Suspended and archived volunteers cannot claim new shifts. Existing assignments remain for coordinator follow-up; review those separately.

Coverage, swaps and unavailable dates

Use Approvals → Coverage and Approvals → Shift changes for team reviews. Named coverage invitations require the recipient to accept. Volunteer/Mixed coverage requires coordinator review before reassignment, and swaps exchange both assignments together after consent. Changed or canceled shifts invalidate pending requests.

Active volunteers can record unavailable dates without employee leave approval. New assignments check those dates; existing commitments remain for follow-up. Authorized coordinators can record an absence override with a reason, but cannot override overlaps or missing eligibility. For employee/volunteer Mixed swaps, both employee swap-review and volunteer coordinator permissions are required.

Personal My Requests tracks applications and signup requests separately, including before team access; its status updates automatically. See My Requests.

Verify prerequisites

Organization settings → Onboarding setup manages compliance requirements and onboarding plans. Create new volunteer prerequisites in Onboarding setup. These prerequisites are enforced only while Compliance Onboarding is enabled in Settings → Features. Open Members to record a person’s verification status and optional expiry date.

A requirement named “Background check” or “Waiver” is a checklist item. It does not run a background check, deliver a training course, or collect a signed waiver. Complete that process separately and record verification here.

While Compliance Onboarding is enabled, missing or expired mandatory volunteer prerequisites prevent shift confirmation. New visitors may have a pending application while their requirements are reviewed. For existing members, unmet prerequisites can block signup. General onboarding warning settings do not bypass mandatory volunteer shift requirements.

Pause or retire onboarding

Turn off Compliance Onboarding in Settings → Features to pause onboarding requirements, including prerequisites already attached to shifts. Existing assignments and completion history are kept. Eligible pending signups can resume, but coordinator approval and available places still apply.

Use Onboarding setup to delete a flow from use when you no longer need it. Existing assignments and completion history remain. Optional onboarding categories help suggest flows; they do not change a member’s role or account permissions.

Record attendance and service hours

Open Manage team → Hours → Service hours to review volunteer and mixed shifts alongside employee hours. Filter by period, person, or attendance status; review actual arrival and departure times; correct records; and export a service-hours CSV.

Choose the organization recording method in Organization settings → Hours: scheduled duration, actual clock-in/out, or coordinator-entered hours. In clock-in/out mode, volunteers can clock their own assigned shifts through My hours → Service hours. Organization work-zone requirements apply to self clocking.

Service hours stay separate from payroll. No-shows and excused absences receive zero hours. Missed checkouts longer than 24 hours are marked Needs correction until a coordinator fixes the actual times. See Volunteer service hours for the full workflow.

Related

• Volunteer management overview
• For volunteers
• Roles & permissions

Upcoming shift reminders

Published employee, volunteer, and mixed shifts can send email and text reminders 24 hours and 2 hours before the shift starts. Choose your Shift reminders channels in notification settings and enable email or SMS consent to receive them. Your organization must also enable shift reminders.

Organizers configure reminders in Schedule → Create or edit a shift → Shift reminders, below the description. Both reminders are enabled by default on new shifts and can be turned on or off independently. Each has a Custom message (optional) field, limited to 500 characters. Leave it blank to send the standard reminder with the shift title, date, times, timezone, location (if provided), and a link to My Schedule. A custom message adds to that standard content. Turning a reminder off keeps its custom message for later.

Reminders do not inherit the Team confirmation message or the shift's signup confirmation message. See Publishing schedules for reminder controls and confirmation message defaults.

Late signups receive only the reminder times still ahead. Canceled shifts and pending volunteer signups do not receive reminders. Times are displayed in the organization's timezone.

Highlight high priority shifts

When creating a Volunteer or Mixed shift, choose Show on public volunteer board and select High priority. The choice applies to every shift created, including repeated dates and additional places. Draft shifts appear on the public board after publishing.

For an existing shift, open its details from Calendar or Manage shifts and choose Mark as high priority or Remove high priority. Priority changes save immediately; other edits save when you submit the form. A grouped shift control applies to all shifts in that group.

The public board shows High priority above Other shifts, with each opportunity listed once. Empty sections are hidden. Both lists respect the active filters, and priority opportunities carry a label in Calendar. Matching one-person shifts are grouped when their public details, prerequisites, signup deadline, and priority match; each signup still targets one individual shift. Open spots appear by default; volunteers can include full shifts to see waitlists. Priority does not change signup rules, capacity, or eligibility. You need permission to manage volunteer shifts to change priority.

Cancellations and shift changes

Configure the shared policy in Settings → Scheduling → Shift management. It covers cancellations, exchanges, person-to-person swaps, coverage, and permitted edits for employee, volunteer, and mixed shifts. Saving the policy requires permission to manage both employee and volunteer shifts.

The shared deadline applies to cancellations, exchanges, and permitted edits. Set it to 0 to allow changes until the shift starts. Approval mode keeps the original assignment until a coordinator approves the change. Requiring a replacement shift prevents standalone cancellation; people must choose another eligible open shift or contact their coordinator.

Exchanges always need approval when either the shift-change policy or every-shift-signup rule requires review. Volunteer exchanges still require approval when every-shift signup approval is enabled, even if exchange approval is turned off. Shared shift editing permissions are under Advanced.

Customize the public board introduction

In Settings → Volunteers → Public board details, edit Board introduction to tell visitors about your organization and how they can help. The field starts with the standard introduction. Save board details to publish your text below the organization name. Clear it to restore the standard introduction. Introductions support up to 1,000 characters.