Volunteer Tracking

eTapestry Best Practices: Learn how to manage and track volunteer information in eTapestry. In order to start tracking volunteers, you will need specific fields. There is an easy way to have the database create these fields for you along with some queries and reports that you may find useful.

System and User Defined Fields

You can import what eTapestry calls defined fields sets. We have different defined field sets available depending on what kind of organization you are and what best practices you set up. For more information on how to add the Volunteer defined field set, see Add Defined Field Sets.

There is one value you will need to set up if you do not already have it. You will need to create a Contact Method for tracking each time someone volunteers.

Create a Contact Method system defined field
  1. From Management, select System Defined Fields.
  2. On the System Defined Fields page, select Contact Method.
  3. In the Name field, enter "Volunteer" and click Add Value.
  4. Click Save And Finish.

Now, let’s look at the different fields in that set, where they are located in the database, and why they are located there.

There are a few locations in eTapestry where your volunteer information will be stored: the Defined Fields page and the Journal page in the form of contact journal entries.

The Defined Fields Page

This page is the best place to keep track of facts about your constituents, like their interests and availability. These fields apply to the constituent because they are not likely to change, and they describe the account as a whole.

The Journal Page

Contact journal entries are the best place to keep track of each time a person volunteers, so that you can keep an historical record of their activity. The fields apply to the contact journal entry so that each event they volunteer at will have a unique entry that describes it.

DIY Volunteer Page

Now that you have all of those fields set up to track your volunteers, you can start gathering your potential volunteer’s information online.

Note: If this is your first DIY form, please review our Do-It Yourself Forms guide.

A Volunteer Signup Page is a special type of DIY form that will allow you to gather volunteer contact information, availability, interests, skills, and any other information that you want to know about them.

Settings

The Settings page for a Volunteer page will look different from a regular donation DIY form. You will notice that there is a Journal Contact Subject field and no information for Fund, Campaign, or Approach listed. That is because when someone submits on this form, it will create a contact in their journal. They will not be required to submit any kind of donation or payment in order to sign up to be a volunteer.

Volunteer Information

You can add all of the fields you use in eTapestry onto your DIY form so that you can track the information the same way. Use the fields to ask your potential volunteers their Availability, Skill Sets, and Emergency Contact information. You should have all of these fields set up prior to building your DIY form. If you have not already, see more information on how to add the Volunteer defined field set.

Watch a video on how to add volunteer information fields to a DIY form

Query and Report on Volunteer Information

Now that you have all of that information in your database, you can query and report to find who is available certain days and times or how many hours someone volunteered in a time frame.

Availability

Let’s say you have an event for which you need volunteers. The event takes place on the weekend, so you want to find people that have that kind of availability on their account. After we find these volunteers, we want to send them a mass email letting them know about the event.

Query on volunteer availability
  1. From Queries, select Manage Queries.
  2. To select a query category, click the category name.
  3. Under Tasks, select New Query.
  4. In the Name field, enter "Query Volunteers Available on Weekends or Saturday."
  5. Set the Starting Query to Base - All Constituents.
  6. In the Data Return Type field, select "Accounts."
  7. In the Criteria Matching section, under Criteria Options, select Match at least one criteria.
  8. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "UDFs – Constituent," and click Volunteer Availability – Days of the Week.

    9. Note: Because the Volunteer Availability – Days of the Week field has more than one possible value, you will need to search for at least one value listed.

  9. Select Saturday and Evenings.
  10. Select "Preview" from the drop down menu and click Save.

Next, you will want to review the list before you send them communication about the event. You can add columns to the query preview to include the Volunteer User Defined Fields.

Preview your query on volunteer availability
  1. From the Query Preview page of your query, click Choose Columns.
  2. On the Choose columns to show in the list screen, select "Account Fields" from the drop down menu, then select Email and Phone.
  3. From the drop down menu, select "User Defined Fields: Account," then select Volunteer Availability – Days of the Week, Volunteer Availability – Times of the Day, Volunteer Skill Set, Volunteer Interest Areas, or any other fields that you may need.
  4. After you add all needed columns, click Apply Changes.
  5. Arrange the columns into order by dragging and dropping the columns to your preferred order.
  6. Click Export Results on the Query Preview page, and select the preferred method of export.
  7. Click Export.

After you preview your query, you will want to send your constituents a mass email from Communications to invite them to volunteer at your event.

Volunteer Hours

At the end of the year, you might want to recognize the volunteers that gave their time and energy to help you accomplish your mission. Each time someone volunteers, you will want to enter a contact journal entry that contains information about their volunteering activity.

Query on contact entries volunteering in a calendar year
  1. From Queries, select Manage Queries.
  2. To select a query category, click the category name.
  3. Under Tasks, select New Query.
  4. In the Name field, enter "Query Volunteer Hours in [Year]."
  5. Set the Starting Query to Base - All Constituents.
  6. In the Data Return Type field, select "Journal Entries."
  7. In the Criteria Matching section, under Criteria Options, select Match each criteria.
  8. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "Commonly Used Fields," and click Journal Entry Date. Include journal entries from 1/1/[Year] – 12/31/[Year].
  9. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "Defined Fields," and click Volunteer.
  10. Select "Preview" from the drop down menu and click Save.

Then, you can run your query through a report to show all of the information about those contact entries. You can re-use this report year after year, so the name can be generic (for example, "Volunteer Activity") to describe the type of information it will be displaying.

Report on contact entries volunteering in a calendar year
  1. From Reports, click Manage Reports.
  2. To select a report category, click the category name.
  3. Under Tasks, select New Report.
  4. In the Name field, enter "Report Volunteer Activity."
  5. Under Group Results, in the Group By drop down menu, select "Account." 
  6. In the drop down menu, select "Show Group Totals."
  7. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "Sets" and click Name and Address.
  8. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "Commonly Used Fields" and click Email and Phone - Voice.
  9. From the Browse Fields drop down menu, select "User Defined Fields: Journal," and click Volunteer Hours, Volunteer Date, Volunteer Project and any other contact related user defined fields you may need.
  10. Arrange the columns into order by clicking on the column and dragging.
  11. Under Tasks, click Save and Run.
  12. From the Launch page, select your category and choose your Volunteer Hours in [Year]-JE query .
  13. At the bottom of the page, select a delivery option from the Report Format drop down menu.
  14. Click Submit.

Additional Resources

eTapestry Blog – Volunteers: Where Would We Be Without Them?

Best Practices: User Defined Fields