'Listing Volunteer Roles on Volunteer Bucks is easy'

Your organisation’s listings on Volunteer Bucks are an excellent way of advertising your roles to potential volunteers. Here are some hints and tips to help get the best from our platform. First impressions count The image that you choose is important. Depending on the search criteria chosen by a potential volunteer, they may see a screen full of images relating to a whole host of opportunities listed by a variety of organisations. Volunteers are likely to click on a well-centred, clear image before investigating a blurry or truncated picture or an image that doesn’t seem to link to the role being listed or the purpose of the organisation. You can find advice on choosing and sizing your images in our blog on Using images when posting Volunteer Opportunities . Keep your listings up to date Once a volunteer contacts you to sign up for or find out more about a role, the system automatically logs this as “pending”. You can see the status of all your active roles by going into your organisation’s profile page. If there is a small number next to the “Opportunities” in the menu on the left-hand side, this means that there is something for you to do: In this example, there are 3 roles where the system has one or more “pending” applications. These may relate to applications where you are still in discussion with the potential volunteer, but often applications that are “pending” are simply those where the outcome of the application has not been recorded. Once you click on “Opportunities”, a list of all your organisation’s active listings appears. Next to each are small numbers which indicate how many volunteers have been accepted and how many applications are pending. Eg: Clicking on those numbers takes you to the details of all applications there have been for that role. From that screen you can access all messages to and from the volunteer, and message the volunteer and you can also change the status of the application. For example, means that the application is logged as “pending”. Clicking on that yellow dot allows you to change this the status to “accepted”, “declined” or “on reserve list”. Archive filled or expired roles If you have enough volunteers for the role you have listed, you can mark it as filled. Once you have filled a volunteer role or no longer need volunteers for that role, do archive the listing. This hides the listing from public view, but keeps it in a separate folder so you can reactivate it or copy it as a template for another role at a later date. Archiving helps to keep your organisation’s profile on Volunteer Bucks clearly focussed on your current roles that you would like volunteers to come forward for. You can find the mark a role as filled or archive it using the toolbar under the image on your role listing page: These steps can save you time in having to deal with messages from potential volunteers interested in roles that are no longer available. No response to your listing? If after two weeks or so you’ve had no interest in the role(s) you have listed, it is worth refreshing the listing. Things you might think about are: A new image Changing the role title to something more descriptive Changing the wording in the Summary part of your listing – this appears under the image on the volunteer’s search results page If you have a question or need help, you can get in touch by emailing [email protected]

A quick guide on how to structure listings on Volunteer Bucks

Getting the most out of the Volunteer Bucks platform can help organisations save time and costs when recruiting and managing volunteers. Once you know the basics, familiarise yourselves with the advanced features so that you can raise your organisation's profile, promote your opportunities effectively, and reach more potential volunteers. Here are some of Volunteer Bucks' advanced features: 1) Invite registered users to follow your organisation You can directly notify Volunteer Bucks registered users about your new volunteer opportunities or general updates if they are members of your organisation on Volunteer Bucks. To use this feature, simply invite them to become a member - read the How do I invite people to become a member? guide. Unlike moderators or administrators, members are not able to make any changes to your organisation profile or create opportunities (unless you specifically allow them to). 2) Display your Volunteer Bucks opportunities on other websites Increase the reach of your volunteer opportunities by embedding them on your own website, on social media, or on other websites that can share opportunities. This will also save you administration time as you will not have to rebuild custom posts for each website. Read this step-by-step guide to find out how. 3) Use data and analytics to manage users, opportunities, activity, and visualise your impact Data and analytics can help your organisation's administrators and team leaders identify trends in volunteer applications, member engagement, and other metrics. It can also help with reporting and checking how your organisation's profile is performing on the platform. Using the data tables, you can use your organisation page as your own customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It can help you to manage your organisation's interactions with past/ current/ new volunteers, or as a portal to export information to be used separately. Using analytics, you can generate reports on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis on a range of criteria. Read Best practices: using data and analytics to see how your organisation could access insights into your account. The Activity Reports and Impact Hours feature gives organisations the ability to not only find volunteers through the platform but also to measure the impact they are making with the help of those volunteers. 4) Streamline your onboarding process using forms To gather more information about the volunteer when they apply, add custom forms to your activities or opportunities. You can also use one form for multiple activities or opportunities. Read this guide about adding forms. 5) Request files from volunteers You can ask a volunteer to upload a file when they apply for your opportunity/ role in cases where you need specific information. For example, a CV, drivers' licence, or application form. Find out more by following this guide. Our Advances Features webinars go through all these tips for organisations in more detail and give the opportunity to ask any questions. To book your place at the next available date, visit our Webinars for Groups page.