A project is any event, program or initiative around which you would like to organize volunteers. You must be have an 'administrator' or 'organizer' in order to edit project setup. Once a project is created it can be assigned to an 'organizer' who then can manage the project completely (without copy/delete privileges and the ability to add additional organizers).

To edit an existing project, once logged into the volunteer portal with the appropriate role:

1. Click "Projects" (Briefcase Icon) from the main menu.
   
   
   
   
2. Click Dashboard to the right of the project you wish to edit. 
   
   
   
   
3. On the project dashboard, click the "Manage" drop-down button () and select "Project Setup".
   
   
   
   
4. Click the "Edit" button () under the project summary panel.
   
   

Once there you can edit any of the following:


Identification
There are several fields that help to organize the important aspects of a project you may want to label for the benefit of your potential volunteers.

Branch/Site/Location – Identify the primary branch/site/location this project should be associated with. If the project is not affiliated with a specific site, it is recommended to select the corporate/main or association site.

Unique Name – Provide a unique name for this project.

Description - The project description is intended to provide a summary of the initiative to existing and potential volunteers. There are several other fields designed to help provide a well-round description of the project. These include an image, address, community partners, goals, contacts, safety information, and the cancellation policy. We suggest a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 500.

Project Image URL – Designate an image that reinforces the branding or goals, or intended beneficiaries of the project.  An image can be uploaded to your project image library within your VolunteerMatters site.

Background Image URL – Designate a background image that reinforces the branding or goals, or intended beneficiaries of the project.  An image URL is an internet address that points directly to a specific image, rather than an entire index, webpage or website. Image URLs typically include the image filename and almost always ends with JPG, GIF, PNG or BMP.  

Publish Mode – the mode defines which types of users should be able to see this project in the catalog. If set to public, for example, any type of person may view the project. The different mode settings are as follows:

• Public – Any user, whether they are logged in may see the project.
• Volunteers – Only users who are logged in may see the project.
• Administrators – Only users who are logged in and have administrative rights may see the project.
• Hidden – The project does not appear in the project catalog for any user and is accessible only via its Project Page URL.  It has similar accessibility to the "Public" mode where if you have the URL you can access with or without being logged in.
• Kiosk - The project only appears via the kiosk for sign-up.  It does not appear in the project catalog.  These are typically projects that only have on-site, same day sign-up.

Publish Start Date – The date the project should start appearing in the project catalog.

Publish End Date – The date the project should stop appearing in the project catalog.  This is also the date used for the default display filter in the projects list in the backend as well. 

Extended Information
There are several fields that help to build on the Identification section to organize the important aspects of a project.

Project Address – Enter the full address/location for the event.

Community Partners – Enter any community partners with which your organization is working for this project.

Project Goals - Describe the goals that this volunteer project hopes to achieve. If there are actual metrics (e.g., number of meals served, event participants, books read, or trees planted) then by all means describe them here. This should serve to inspire the volunteer to help in achieving that goal. We suggest a minimum of 50 words and a maximum of 500.

Contact Details - Please list the names and contact information for any volunteer liaisons. These may be from your organization or a partner.

Safety Information - List anything the volunteer must know to be safe when working this project. Examples might include the proper attire, policies, or other instructions.

Cancellation Policy - Describe the policy for event cancellation including methods of notification.

Project Classification
When you are creating or editing a volunteer project, you may identify any number of "tags" to classify your projects.  Tagging helps with several aspects of the VolunteerMatters systems and tools. Create and select one or more tags that best represent the project in each of your defined groups.

For more information on creating groups and tags click here. 

Settings
Here you can define advanced options on the project needs.

Attendance

Shift Attendance Mode - Allows volunteers to self-sign-in from their personal mobile device. Click here for more information on the different modes available.

Enable Personal Kiosk Geolocation – System will check volunteer’s physical location to make sure they are  within a specific range of the project address before allowing them to sign-in from their personal device

Kiosk Geolocation Range – Distance (in meters) the volunteer can be within the project address to consider them to be on-site.

Group Sign-Up

Enable Group Sign-Up for Shifts – If you have a project that allows group participation, you just need to configure the project settings to allow group signup. Click here for more information.

Group Sign-Up Mode – If you have a project where you have enabled group sign-up (above), this setting determines the method of attributing credited hours for this project. The options are "Individual Credited" and "Leader Credited". The leader is the volunteer who signed up the group.  With "Individual Credited", the leader only gets credited for the hours they themselves worked. So if the leader signed up 5 people (including themselves) for a 5 hour shift they would just get 5 hours. With "Leader Credited", the leader gets credited for the total hours the group worked.  So if the leader signed up 5 people (including themselves) for a 5 hour shift they would get 25 hours (5 hour shift times 5 volunteers). Click here for more information.

Self Management

Enable Volunteer Self-Report Hours – Each project position has a default number of credited hours. Many times the volunteer will go over this default number of hours. An administrator can manually update those credited hours but a volunteer can also submit their own additional hours if this setting is enabled.  If disabled, the ability to submit hours will not appear as an option to the volunteer. Click here for more information.  Note: Self-reported hours will always appear to the administrator/organizer on the back end when managing the assignment.

Sign-up View/Comment

Allow Volunteers Comments – This feature allows the volunteer to add a comment to their assignment. This can be done during sign-up or returning to their assignment. Comments are visible to all logged in volunteers.  An administrator can manually update or remove any comments deemed inappropriate. These are only shown if the "Show Current Assignees" are enabled. If that configuration is disabled volunteers will still be able to submit comments but will only be visible to the volunteer and administrators/organizers on the project.  If this setting is disabled, the ability to submit comments will not appear as an option. Click here for more information.

Show Current Assignees – This feature displays the list of current volunteers signed up for the assignment when a volunteer goes to the need detail from the project page as well as their assignment page.  It will display the volunteers first name and last initial as well as their profile photo if one exists.  If this setting is disabled, the current volunteers on the assignment will not be displayed.  Click here for more information.

Show Current Assignee Contact Detail – This feature is used in conjunction with the "Show Current Assignees" setting above where the volunteer will see a list of volunteers already assigned to the project need.  When this setting is enabled they will not only see the volunteer's first name and last initial but their email and mobile number.  If this setting is disabled, the current volunteers on the assignment will not have their contact information displayed.  Click here for more information.

Gratitude and Feedback

Send automated Thank You messages –  Thanking your volunteers is a critical ingredient to an extraordinary volunteer program.  With this setting, which is enabled by default, the system will automatically send thank you messages 2 days after a completed assignment.  However, sometimes we may prefer to thank them in ways other than an automated email and this setting allows the administrator or organizer to not send those emails on assignments for this project.  For more information on automated emails within VolunteerMatters click here. 

Enable Volunteer Feedback – With this setting enabled, which it is by default, Volunteer Feedback will be requested for the completed assignments on this project. The volunteer will receive prompts on their Volunteer Dashboard and My Profile page to provide ratings and feedback via a short 3 question survey.  In addition, this feature can be used in conjunction with the "Send automated Thank You messages" setting above where the volunteer will receive a Thank You email after their assignment concludes.  That Thank You email, if enabled, will include information on the Volunteer Feedback and link the volunteer back to their Volunteer Dashboard to fill it out if both settings are enabled. Feedback is not required for Thank You emails and vice versa.  However if Feedback is enabled, it will be included in enabled Thank You emails unless the email template is updated by support to specifically not request it. Click here for more information on Volunteer Feedback. 

Communication

Email From Name –  This allows an administrator to override the default system email from name on any emails sent from this project.  For example, they can set the email from name to be the project's contact person's name. 

Email Reply-To Address – This allows an administrator to override the default system email reply-to email address on any emails sent from this project. So when someone clicks reply on those email it will automatically be address to this address. For example, they can set the email reply-to address to be the project's contact person's email.  

Enable Automated Reminders for Volunteer Self-Reported Hours –  This allows an administrator or organizer on the project to enable automated messages to volunteers encouraging entry of their self-reported volunteering hours on a position assignment.  For more information on automated reminders for self-reported hours within VolunteerMatters click here. 

Reminder Frequency – If you have a project where you have enabled automated reminders for self-reported hours (above), this setting determines the frequency of those notifications.  The options are "Daily", "Weekly", or "Monthly".   For more information on automated reminders for self-reported hours within VolunteerMatters click here. 

Project Need Types
Here you can exclude specific types of needs from this project. This should be done at project creation. Disabling need types once volunteers have already been assigned has complicated side-effects. However, enabling a need type that was originally disabled is safe.

Exclude Items
Select if Items will not used used for this project

Exclude Tasks
Select if Tasks will not used used for this project

Exclude Positions
Select if Positions will not used used for this project

Exclude Shifts
Select if Shifts will not used used for this project