Volunteering opportunities let you get support from your community to complete specific tasks or activities. This guide walks through the Post Opportunity form section by section so you can publish with confidence.
đ Note: The opportunity types available to you depend on your app's configuration. If you don't see Volunteering as an option, it may have been switched off for your app - this is your programme manager's decision. Reach out to them if you think it should be available.
1. Open the Post Opportunity form
Click your profile in the top right corner, then select Post Opportunity from the dropdown.
đĄTip: The form has tips and explanations built into it as you go, so you can start filling it in straight away.
2. Choose Volunteering as the opportunity type
Pick Volunteering at the top of the form. Your choice here changes some of the questions further down, so it's worth getting right before you fill anything else in.
3. Link it to an activity
Every opportunity sits under an activity - the wider piece of work it belongs to. Activities group your delivery work, opportunities and hours together, so everything reports in one place.
Click Search for an activity and choose an existing one, or click Create new activity and fill in the short form that opens. You only need to do that once - the new activity will be in the dropdown next time.
đ See also: What is an activity? for a deeper look at how Activities work.
4. Check the fields that fill in for you
Once an activity is linked, these carry over from it:
Host - inherited from the activity, and you can change it here
Beneficiary groups - inherited. You can remove one here, but to add one you'll need to update the activity first.
Cause - inherited, and shown as a badge
5. Tell people about the opportunity
Opportunity title - the first thing anyone sees, so keep it specific
Your need - the challenge you're trying to solve
Your goals - what you want to come out of it
6. Describe the supporters you're looking for
Skills & experience - one main skill plus up to three more, and the experience level you need
Documentation - tick References, DBS check or Identification if you require any of them
Document uploads - templates or supporting PDFs for volunteers to read
Accessibility requirements - anything a supporter should know before applying
Timing - when it starts, or set it to Flexible
Commitment - how much time you're asking for
đ Note: If you're not sure how much time it will take, you can agree that with your volunteers later.
7. Set the parameters
Your involvement - whether you're taking part as a volunteer yourself. If you are, your hours are counted too.
Capacity - how many supporters you need
Location - On site, Remote or Flexible. For On site, search for the location and the postcode fills in for you.
Deadline - optional. Once the deadline passes the opportunity comes off the listings and no new applications come in.
8. Add an image
Add a photo to the listing. It's worth doing - posts with an image get noticed. You can find free, high-quality images on Pexels or Unsplash.
9. Set who can see it
The Privacy section sits near the bottom of the form, and it decides who your opportunity reaches. It's worth a moment's thought: set it too narrowly and the people you're hoping to hear from may never see it.
All individual stakeholders: Everyone who is a member of your app, whatever individual stakeholder type they hold. It stays inside your app, so connected organisations don't see it.
Custom audience - you choose who it goes to. Choose Select by type first, then narrow it down from there.
The types you can pick from are your app's stakeholder types. As standard these are Client, Supplier, Supported Organisation, Corporate Partner and Subcontractor, but each app can rename them - an admin sets the labels in Admin panel â Settings â Stakeholders, so the wording you see may be different.
Once you've chosen a type, you'll be asked whether to share with everyone of that type or with specific organisations. For example, you might share with all corporate partners, or with one named partner only.
When you share with an organisation this way, the opportunity reaches that organisation's admins, who then decide who inside their organisation sees it. It stays inside that circle - it isn't published publicly.
You can change the privacy setting later by editing the opportunity.
10. Post it
Click Post opportunity. If there's no approval step, your opportunity goes live as soon as you post. If approvals are tuned on, then an admin needs to approve your opportunity.
If you click and nothing seems to happen, scroll back up the form. Any field that still needs an answer is outlined in red with a message underneath it.
Changing something after you've posted
Open the opportunity from your list and click Edit Opportunity on the right-hand side. Your changes save straight away - you don't need to take the post down and start again.
What's next
đ See What does the "your involvement" question mean? to decide whether to log your own hours, and How to accept or decline participants once applications start coming in.
đŹ Need more help? Contact us anytime at support@goodsted.com.