One of the most common questions from new organizations is how volunteer accounts work on Track It Forward! There are 2 options for creating a volunteer account: Active Volunteers and Managed Volunteers. There are some pros and cons to each option, so this article will help you assess which one is the best fit for your volunteers!

Active Volunteers: This is the most common way organizations add volunteers to their site. These volunteers are set up with their own user account that they can access at any point by logging in with their email address and password. From a pricing perspective, the subscription cost is based on the number of volunteers who need active accounts.

Active volunteers can: 

  • Log their own hours from the website or mobile app
  • RSVP to events on the calendar
  • Update their profile information
  • Monitor their own progress towards any milestones or requirement
  • Receive email updates and notifications

Additionally, site managers can perform bulk actions to quickly complete the same task for a group of active volunteers. For example, they can select a group of volunteers and then choose to archive everyone, bulk RSVP for an event, bulk update a profile field, or send a custom email message.

Please note: administrators can archive volunteers anytime if they are not actively using the site. 

  • Archived volunteers do not count towards the subscription capacity
  • All associated data for archived volunteers remains accessible for reports
  • Archived accounts can be restored anytime if the volunteer returns

Managed volunteers: These volunteers are added to the site without an email address so they do not have a user account or login credentials. There are some limitations to this type of account so it's generally only recommended in certain scenarios.

Managed volunteers:

  • Must have all hours logged on their behalf by a site administrator or by using a check in kiosk / digital sign in sheet
  • Need a site administrator to RSVP on their behalf to attend an event
  • Do not have access to the site to check their timesheet or milestone progress
  • Cannot receive any emails, notifications, or invitations through Track It Forward

Managed volunteers can be added from the volunteer page under Add Volunteers > No email. Or they can be imported via CSV file like active volunteers from the volunteer page > Add Volunteers > Import > Managed Volunteers > Import Volunteers. This is where you can import all profile fields on your managed volunteer accounts. 

Site managers cannot perform bulk actions from a drop down menu with managed volunteers as they do with active volunteers. Managed volunteers need to be imported, individually updated, archived, or added to an event.

Common scenarios for Managed Volunteers

  • Tracking hours for one-time or sporadic volunteers who don't need a Track It Forward account (most common)
  • Automatically created when one-time or group volunteers sign in through the check in kiosk or digital sign in sheet
  • Utilized by organizations that prefer to have select leaders manage hours for everyone (Ex. a committee chair is responsible for managing their committee members)
  • Workaround for organizations that are close to the volunteer limit and don't need everyone set up with an active account