❖ Heads up! This article is intended for Site Managers. Click here if you're an Advanced Program Manager. If you're a Program Facilitator looking for more information about reviewing your programs, click here.
The first step in making great Opportunities to share with your volunteers is creating a Program on your site! In this article, we cover:
ⓘ So you know: You'll need at least one Program to post a volunteer Opportunity!
What is a Program?
A Program is an area on your site where you'll create volunteer Opportunities specific to your organization. For each Program that you create, you can set up its profile to share important information with your volunteers like:
- The Program's purpose
- Contact information
- Location
- The types of causes aligned with the Program, if you use causes, etc.
How do I use Programs?
Programs can be organized however is best to support your goals and mission. Once you've decided on how you'll use Programs, you can start making them just the way you want—and you can start creating and sharing volunteer Opportunities on your site! Ask yourself this:
- Do you offer Programs that need to be managed from different locations?
- You could create location-specific Programs.
- Do you want to organize your Opportunities by tasks?
- Maybe you want Programs to be task-specific.
✏️ Quick tip: Don't think you have a Program? We recommend creating a Program and naming it the name of your organization!
How do I set up a Program?
To set up a Program:
1. Navigate to Volunteerism on the righthand side of your site manager panel.
2. Click Programs.
3. Select the Add New Program button.
4. This will open the Create Program page where you can start customizing your Program! This page includes the following sections:
Basic Information
In this section, you'll establish important information about your Program:
- Status: There are four statuses to choose from in the dropdown.
- Pending: If you start creating a Program but don't want it to show publicly on your site, select Pending. You can continue to edit this Program and change its status to Active when you're ready to post it to your site.
- Imported: When you import a Program, its status is automatically set to Imported. As the Site Manager, you'll need to activate any imported Programs to change their status.
- Active: If you're ready to post your Programs on your site—select Active.
- Inactive: If you're ready to deactivate a Program—select Inactive.
- Primary Manager: Type the name of the individual you want to assign as the Program's primary manager—this is your Advanced Program Manager for that Program. Advanced Program Managers can:
- Manage volunteers in their Programs—including hours, information, qualifications, and responses
- Post volunteer Opportunities
- Schedule volunteers for Opportunities
- Edit the Programs they manage
- Launch the Check-in Kiosk
- Create and manage teams
- Send email blasts to volunteers in their Programs
ⓘ So you know: You can also assign a secondary Advanced Program Manager if needed! While you can add secondary Program Managers, only the primary Program Manager can add or remove other Program Managers from their Programs. Aside from that, all Program Managers have the same capabilities.
- Assign All Site Users to Program: Toggle this on if you want to add all of your site's users to this particular Program.
- When this is toggled to Yes, then that Program can schedule and add hours for all users on your site regardless of whether they're assigned to that Program or not.
- When users are added to the Program this way, that Program won't appear in the Assigned Programs from the user profile.
- This retroactively adds all users to that Program and any new users that register on your site.
- Customize link: You can add a custom ending to the URL for your Program's profile. Your custom link appears below this field when you visit the Edit Program page for a Program:
- Hours of operation: If your Program has specific hours of operation, list them here so your volunteers know when is the best time to contact them.
- Causes: You can align your Programs with as many causes as you'd like from this dropdown—including any custom causes you've created.
Additional settings:
- Tags: Tags can help you categorize and filter your Programs.
- Comments: If you'd like to add any private comments to a Program, this is where you can.
- These aren't publicly shown and are only shared between you, other Site Managers, and the Advanced Program Manager.
ⓘ So you know: If your site was upgraded to Amplify from another product, you may see the option to select a Cluster for a Program when creating it. Click here to learn more.
Contact Information
Here's where you can share important contact information for your Program, including email, phone number, fax, the name and title of a good point of contact, and any additional users' emails that you want to receive notifications for event RSVPs or Opportunity responses. Want to be notified about responses to a Program? Be sure to add your email here as well!
- Be sure to add each email address on a separate line, like so:
Links
Do you use social media for volunteer engagement and outreach? Copy the URLs to share those on your Program's profile page and start sharing your Programs and Opportunities with your community!
Location
Make it easier for your volunteers to search for your Programs and Opportunities by including the Program's location here! You can share the exact address and include identifying details (e.g., well-known landmarks or specific details like parking, suite numbers, or multiple locations) in the Additional Location Information field.
Descriptions
When a volunteer navigates to the Programs on your site, they are taken to the Program's profile page. The first thing they see is the description, logo, hours, etc. This is where you share your Program's mission and purpose.
- Who We Are: Share your Program's history, mission, or vision in this field. You can edit the description with the editor, add images, share links or videos, and be as detailed as you like. This is one of the first things the volunteers will see when they click on one of your Programs.
- What We Do: Now that you've shared a bit about who you are, use this field to explain what you do. This is a great place to highlight your Program's goals and impacts on the community. It's also where you can share how your Program achieves those goals and give volunteers an idea of what they'll be contributing to when they volunteer for an Opportunity.
✏️ Quick tip: Be sure to always click Submit Program when you're done editing to save your changes!