VolunteerMatters Support
If your organization would like to import hours worked by your volunteers prior to the implementation of VolunteerMatters then this tool is a welcome addition.
With the volunteer history import, the history is imported as self-reported hours on a project position. Typically the process is to create a single project and position in VolunteerMatters to import against. This will assign the volunteers to the position and created individual self-reported hours for each one of their past volunteer interactions.
This self-reported hours record will include the date of the interaction, the description (e.g. their assignment name/etc.), and the number of hours for each.
So for example if the volunteer had a shift on the "Company ABC Volunteer Training Day" event labeled "Front Desk Support" on 5/12/2023 for 2 hours, the record in VolunteerMatters would be:
- Project Name: Historical Volunteering
- Position: Volunteer History
- Self-reported Date: 5/12/2023
- Self-reported Description: Company ABC Volunteer Training Day: Front Desk Support
- Self-reported Hours: 2.0
However, there can be a more detailed approach if desired, where an organization creates more projects and positions to import against so they can get more specific with position names or even project names, but this will require more prep work preparing the system and the file for the import.
There may be a nominal fee required for importing this data. The cost depends on how much you would like VolunteerMatters to help in preparing your system and data for the import. For example, you can prepare the system and data import spreadsheet according to the below instructions (keeping costs lower) or you can hand over whatever information you have to our support staff and we can do the rest (extract data from 3rd party systems, manipulate/transform the data to comply with the import formatting requirements, etc.).
We are here to provide as much or as little assistance as you require. Please submit your needs to support via support@volunteermatters.com and we will provide you with an estimate.
Import Notes:
- The Project and Position must already exist in your VolunteerMatters system. Click here for more information on creating projects and positions.
- There may be many positions under an existing project with the same name. The position start date is required in the import file to distinguish which position the assignment and/or hours will be assigned to.
- If the contact does not already have an assignment to the project-position, one will be created automatically.
- The volunteer date must fall within the project-position start and end date.
- Dates should be formatted in the mm/dd/yyyy format - no periods, dashes, question marks, alpha text. Other date formats will cause an error during the "Verify" process. Multiple formats in one import should be avoided. For more information on date formatting with CSV files click here.
Please see the attached sample Excel document to help organize your data.
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