Managing Volunteers for Big Events

You can use the Opportunity Finder widget to promote volunteer opportunities.
You can manage event volunteers by creating a new group or using an existing group. When people agree to serve at your event, add them to the appropriate group and then associate the group with your event. This ensures the following things are possible:
- Each volunteer can respond to an opportunity to confirm participation.
- Team leaders organizing volunteer groups can communicate with them.
- On the day of the event, each volunteer can check in and get a name tag that lists their group and role.

Volunteer Registration Options for Big Events

For a large program such as VBS any of the following may be used to register volunteers depending on your organization's specific needs.

Create Opportunities and use Opportunity Finder. Tie the opportunities to the VBS event. Tie the opportunities to specific groups that serve in the event.
- Benefits: Each volunteer position can be added as a unique opportunity. Those who respond can be added directly to a group once their participant record is updated as "placed". Can use a Custom Form if needed.
- Limitations: Take some time to set up. Cannot collect money from registrants.
Create Groups and use Group Finder. Make sure the Groups are of a new Group Type that show on Group Finder. Connect the Groups to the VBS Event. Use My Groups to allow lay people to manage those who sign up.
- Benefits: Easy to set up and manage.
- Limitations: Cannot add a Custom Form. Cannot tie to a specific Event. Cannot collect money from registrants.
Create a Product with Add to Group and use an event registration for recruiting volunteers.
- Benefits: Can tie to a specific Event. Can collect money from registrants. Can add to a specific Group.
- Limitations: Takes some time to set up. Can only tie one registration to each event.