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Get Alerted When Volunteers Register

Goal: Make sure the right coordinator hears about every new sign-up — automatically, based on the kind of opportunity.

How it works​

Each volunteer opportunity has an activity type (Construction, ReStore, Administrative, and so on — set when the opportunity is created). Under Volunteering → Registration Alerts, you assign who should be notified for each activity type:

  • A staff member — picked from your people directory; alerts go to their current email, so address changes are picked up automatically
  • A notification email — any address, useful for shared inboxes like restore-volunteers@yourorg.org
  • Or both — everyone listed gets the alert

From then on, whenever a volunteer registers themselves for an opportunity of that type, the assigned contacts receive an email with:

  • The volunteer's name, email, and phone
  • The opportunity, its activity type, and date
  • The role and shift they picked, if any
  • Their status — including a "Pending your approval" flag for opportunities that require sign-off, so review requests don't sit unnoticed
  • A View Registrations button linking straight to the opportunity

New volunteer sign-ups​

You can also be told whenever a brand-new volunteer joins, so you don't have to spot unfamiliar names in your constituent list. At the top of Volunteering → Registration Alerts, the New volunteer sign-ups card works the same way as the activity types: click Assign and pick a staff member, a notification email, or both.

From then on, whenever someone becomes a volunteer on their own (by signing up on your website, or by opening their volunteer profile for the first time), the assigned contacts get an email. Each person sets it off only once, and later profile edits never send it. The email includes:

  • The new volunteer's name, email, and phone
  • A note if they haven't verified their email address yet
  • A View Volunteer button that opens their record

Volunteers added by staff or by an import don't trigger this alert. To turn it off, click the × on the card.

Example​

John Smith coordinates ReStore volunteers and Jane Doe runs construction days. Assign John to the ReStore activity type and Jane to Construction — each of them only hears about the registrations they manage.

Good to know​

  • Activity types without an assignment send no alert — nothing changes until you set one up
  • Alerts fire for self-service registrations (including public links and invites). When a staff member registers a volunteer by hand, no alert is sent — you already know
  • Removing an assignment stops the alerts immediately; registrations themselves are never affected
  • This is separate from the confirmation email the volunteer receives — customize that under Registration Messages