Leader Guide
How to set up and run an opportunity on Voluntold
Creating an opportunity
An opportunity is a chance for folks to volunteer and help your organization: a show, an event, a recurring meeting, or a weekly program. In the description, include any information new volunteers might need: who to contact with questions, where to go at the start of their shift, and the orientation process for new volunteers.
Once you've created the opportunity, you can add roles and shifts.
Roles
Within each opportunity, roles define the types of work volunteers can sign up for. If the opportunity is a children's play, you might need volunteers for roles like "Usher", "Box Office", and "Stage Crew".
You can create as many roles as you need. If your opportunity only has one kind of work, a single role is fine. Roles can have a description as well, and it is important! Your volunteers will appreciate knowing exactly what they need to do when they arrive,
Shifts
Shifts are the individual time slots volunteers sign up for. Each shift belongs to a role and has a date, a start time, an end time, and a capacity — how many volunteers you need for that slot.
When you add a shift, fill out the date and times carefully. Volunteers will see this information and use it to plan their schedules, and it feeds the calendar export.
Shifts can also have short labels that help to differentiate them. These help keep things organized, especially if you have many overlapping shifts for the same role at the same time. Labels might be an individual teacher's name or classroom, a location ("Front Gate" / "Back Gate") or similar.
Things worth knowing
Platform behaviors that aren't always obvious at first.
Duplicate shift detection
When a volunteer tries to sign up for a shift, Voluntold checks whether they're already signed up for another shift that overlaps. If there's a conflict, they'll see a warning before confirming. This reduces scheduling chaos without blocking signups entirely — the volunteer can still proceed if they want to.
Signing people up yourself
As a leader, you can sign any volunteer up for a shift directly. You don't have to wait for them! This is useful when you're coordinating over email or phone, or when you're filling gaps as an event approaches. Open the shift and use the sign-up form to add them by name or email.
Calendar view
The landing page for your event has a calendar view in addition to the default list view. Volunteers can switch between them to see the full week at a glance, or jump to the next available shift.
Questions or issues?
If something isn't working the way you expect, or you have a question about a feature, reach out to support@voluntold.fyi. This is a small shop! But we'll try to help with account issues, permissions, and anything else outside the scope of this guide.