Volunteer Applications and the Approval Workflow

The Application requirement type lets you vet volunteers through a submitted form before they're allowed to fill certain roles. Instead of a document to sign, an Application requirement is backed by a form, and each submission goes through its own review-and-approval workflow.

Creating an Application-type requirement

Go to Volunteer Management → Requirements and create a new requirement with Type set to Application.
Select the vetting form the volunteer will fill out. (Application requirements use a linked form instead of the document content editor used by waivers.)
Set the RequiresApproval toggle:
- On – an admin must review and approve every submission before it counts as complete.
- Off – the application auto-approves as soon as it's submitted.
Set Validity (days) if the approval should expire and require re-application, or leave it blank for a permanent approval.

The form used for the application must include a field mapped to the contact's email address (using the contact-email mapping) so that submissions can be automatically linked to the correct contact record.

Volunteer submission experience

When a volunteer encounters an Application requirement (at signup or elsewhere), they fill out the linked vetting form. On submission, the system automatically creates an application record tied to the volunteer's contact, the requirement, the form, and the specific form response.

If RequiresApproval is off, the application is approved immediately and the requirement is satisfied right away. If it's on, the application sits in a Pending state until an admin reviews it.

Admin review workflow

Go to Volunteer Management → Applications.
Use the status filter chips – All, Pending, Approved, Rejected – to narrow the list.
The table shows Applicant, Requirement, Form, Submitted, and Status for each application.
Click a row to open the review panel, which displays the volunteer's full form responses.
Choose Approve or Decline:
- Approve completes the requirement for that volunteer.
- Decline requires entering a reason before it can be submitted.

Admins can also record internal-only review notes on an application; these notes are never shown to the applicant, unlike the decision reason.

What happens on approval or rejection

On approval, a completed fulfillment record is written for the volunteer, satisfying the requirement gate the same way any other completed requirement would. If the requirement has a validity period, the expiration date is calculated from that approval.
On rejection, the volunteer receives an email containing the decision reason the admin entered, along with a link to re-apply.

Re-apply behavior

If a volunteer re-submits after a rejection, their existing rejected application is re-opened for the new submission rather than creating a duplicate stacked record. An application that has already been approved is left untouched by a later resubmission — approval isn't overwritten by a new attempt.

Day-of enforcement

An org-level setting, BlockCheckInWithoutApplication, controls what happens if a volunteer shows up without a required application on file. Depending on how it's configured, the system can either show a warning at check-in/kiosk/walk-in or fully block check-in until the application requirement is satisfied.