Requiring Skills for Volunteer Jobs

Some volunteer jobs need a particular skill: a forklift certification, food handler training, or simply being able to lift 50 pounds. Volunteer skills let you attach those skills to a sign-up page or a single job, so the job is shown only to volunteers who have the skill, or flagged for those who don't.

How it works

Each skill you add to a page or job is either Required or Preferred.

A volunteer's skills come from their profile: the skills they chose in their volunteer preferences, plus any skills your staff gave them.

Before you start: set up your skill list

Skills come from a single list for your whole organization. If you already collect skills in the volunteer onboarding wizard, you can use the same list.

1. Go to Volunteer Management > Settings > Volunteer Preferences.
2. Under Skill options, type each skill and press Enter.
3. Click Save settings.

See The Volunteer Onboarding Wizard for how volunteers fill in their own skills.

Add a skill to a sign-up page or job

1. Open the volunteer page and click Edit.
2. Go to the Volunteer tab and find the Volunteer Skills card.
3. In Skill, pick the skill.
4. In Applies to, choose Every job on this page, or pick one job.
5. In Use as, choose Required or Preferred.
6. Click Add.

The skill appears in the table above the form. To change it later, open the three-dots menu on its row and choose Make preferred, Make required or Remove.

Page-wide and job-specific skills together

A skill set on one job overrides the page-wide setting for that same skill. For example, you can make "Heavy Lifter" Preferred for every job on the page, then Required only for the Loading Dock job.

Tip: When you copy a volunteer page, its skills are copied with it.

What volunteers see

On the sign-up page

• Jobs that need a Required skill the volunteer doesn't have are left out. A short message at the top tells them some roles need a skill you don't have on file for them, and that they can contact you to have it added.
• Jobs with a Preferred skill they don't have show a small note naming the skill.

Everywhere else volunteers browse

Jobs a volunteer can't take because of a Required skill are also hidden from:

• The "Recommended for you" card in the volunteer portal. Missing Preferred skills move a shift lower in the list.
• The public volunteer calendar and discovery page.
• Open-shift alerts.

At checkout

If someone reaches a job through a direct link without the Required skill, the sign-up is stopped with this message: "This volunteer role needs a skill we don't have on file for you. If you have it, please contact the organizer to have it added, then sign up again." When one person signs up several volunteers, each named volunteer is checked against their own job.

Volunteers can't get around this by moving to another shift, joining a recurring series, or taking a waitlist spot. Each of those checks Required skills too.

Adding volunteers yourself

Staff can still add a volunteer who doesn't have a Required skill, for example someone you know is qualified but whose profile isn't up to date. When you add them with Quick Add or move them into a job, you'll see a warning naming the missing skill, and the sign-up goes through.

On the day, the Who's Here board shows a Missing skill badge next to anyone checked in to a job whose Required skill they don't have. Hover over the badge to see which skill.

Staff-only skills

Some skills shouldn't be self-reported. If volunteers could give themselves "Forklift certified", a Required skill wouldn't protect anything. Mark those skills as staff-only:

1. Go to Volunteer Management > Settings > Volunteer Preferences.
2. In Staff assign only, pick the skills only your staff should give or remove.
3. Click Save settings.

Volunteers still see a staff-only skill on their profile once you've given it to them, but they can't add it or remove it in their volunteer preferences.

Note: A skill you just added to Skill options appears in Staff assign only after you save once.

Giving skills to volunteers

One volunteer

1. Open the contact's record.
2. In the Volunteer Interests & Skills section, click Edit skills.
3. Pick their skills and save.

Users with Full Access, Contact Edit or Volunteer Coordinator roles can edit skills.

Several applicants at once

1. Go to Volunteer Management > Review > Applications.
2. Tick the applicants.
3. Click Give a skill, pick the skill and confirm.

Anyone who already has the skill is left as is.

Everyone with an existing tag

If you've been tracking skills with contact tags, such as a "Heavy Lifter" tag, convert the tag into a skill instead of re-entering it by hand.

1. Go to Volunteer Management > Settings > Volunteer Preferences.
2. Under Turn a tag into a skill, click Convert a tag.
3. In Your tag, choose the tag. A preview shows how many contacts have it.
4. In Skill name, keep the tag's name or type a different one.
5. Leave Staff assign only ticked if volunteers shouldn't be able to change it.
6. Tick Remove the old tag from those contacts if you no longer need the tag.
7. Confirm the conversion.

The skill is added to your Skill options and given to every contact with the tag.

Skills and interests

Interests and skills do different jobs. Interests, set in the Volunteer Interests card on the same tab, only affect which pages are recommended to a volunteer and never hide anything. Skills decide who can sign up. Use interests for what volunteers would enjoy, and skills for what a job needs.

Good to know

• A job with several Required skills needs all of them.
• Skill names aren't case sensitive: "heavy lifter" and "Heavy Lifter" match.
• Renaming or deleting a skill in Skill options doesn't update pages that use it. Check the Volunteer Skills card on those pages afterward.
• Landing pages built in the Page Design Studio don't hide jobs, but the sign-up is still checked at checkout.

Related articles

• Skills and Interest Matching with Open-Shift Alerts
• The Volunteer Onboarding Wizard
• Gating Volunteer Signup Behind Requirements
• Walk-In Quick-Add for Volunteers