Create Shifts for Recurring Events

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Create repeating volunteer jobs and shifts for the campaign.
• Assign a volunteer to a recurring job.
• Understand how recurrence schedules work.

Create Jobs

Now it’s time to move to the next level down in your structure—the jobs. Before we go on though, let’s review the three parks where EarthCorps hosts volunteer events. Dianna sets each one up as a job.

• Magnuson Park
• Cheasty Greenspace
• Seward Park

1. From the Campaign Detail page for the campaign you just created, click New in the Volunteer Jobs related list.

2. In the Volunteer Job Name text box, enter a job name. Dianna enters the first park in the list, Magnuson Park.

3. Select Display on Website. We haven’t yet talked about website integration. But if you select this option now, you don’t have to come back and select it later.

4. Enter the description and location information. The job description appears on the website, so make it as appealing as you can. You can use formatting, pictures, and links to jazz up the listing. For the location, be sure to enter the exact street address, because it triggers a Google map to the volunteer event. We’ll talk more about maps in the Volunteers for Salesforce Website Integration module. Lastly, in the location area, enter any additional details the volunteer needs, such as parking restrictions or availability. Here’s the information that EarthCorps entered.

• Description: Join EarthCorps as we continue to work and beautify one of Seattle's greatest parks. Magnuson Park is located near a mile-long stretch of Lake Washington’s shoreline in northeastern Seattle. The Park offers ample opportunity to explore a range of natural areas: grasslands, wooded hillsides, wetlands, and lakeside beaches. For this volunteer event, we will be planting plants native to the Pacific Northwest along the northern boundary of the famous “Kite Hill”.
• Location: 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115
• Location Information: We will meet at the Northwest Corner of Kite Hill. Park in the north parking lot of the park and look for EarthCorps signs. They will direct you to our work location.

Your screen looks something like this.

5. Click Save. You will see your new job in the Volunteer Jobs related list of your campaign.

Excellent. You created your first job. Now repeat the process for each of your other jobs. Dianna creates a job for Cheasty Greenspace and Seward Park.

Create Shifts

We’ve said this a lot, but we’re going to say it one more time—structure is everything!

We’ve created the top level of our structure, the campaign (City of Seattle). We’ve also created the second level of our structure, the jobs (Magnuson Park, Cheasty Greenspace, and Seward Park). The last thing we need to do is create the third level—the shifts.

Shifts are the dates and times your volunteers are supposed to work. Here once again are the specific shifts EarthCorps needs.

Agency	Park Name	Event Schedule (events run from 10 AM-2 PM)	Total # of Events
City of Seattle	Magnuson Park	October 1	1
City of Seattle	Cheasty Greenspace	Saturday, October 8, and every Saturday after that for the next 3 months, ending December 31.	14
City of Seattle	Seward Park	Sunday October 9t and the 2nd Sunday of every month after that for the next 6 months, ending April 9.	7

As you recall from the Create Job Shifts unit, shifts are located under their associated jobs. To create a shift, you open the job record. Let’s start with the job that has only one event. We’ll cover the shifts with recurring events after that.

You can follow along with Dianna or use your own data.

1. From the Campaign Detail page, click the Related tab and scroll to the Volunteer Jobs related list.
   
   In the EarthCorps example, the list is on the Related tab of the City of Seattle Campaign Detail page.
   
   
2. Click the job name. Dianna clicks Magnuson Park.
   
3. Click the Related tab and click New in the Volunteer Shifts related list.
   
   
   
4. Enter the shift details, including the start date and time, duration, and the desired number of volunteers.For EarthCorps, Dianna enters the following:

• Start Date & Time: 10/1/2016 10:00 AM
• Duration (Hours): 4
• Desired # of Volunteers: 50 (This value determines the number of volunteers who can sign up for this shift.)

5. Click Save. You can see your new shift in the Volunteer Shifts related list.

Now let’s create those other shifts.

Create Shifts with Job Recurrence Schedules

When you have a job that has more than one shift, use the job recurrence schedule to create all those shifts in one fell swoop. Let’s see how this works.

1. Click the Volunteer Jobs tab and then select a job with multiple shifts from the Recent Volunteer Jobs list.

Dianna clicks Cheasty Greenspace.

2. To create the job recurrence schedule, click the Related tab and click New in the Job Recurrence Schedules related list.

3. Define how this job and its shifts repeat. You can use your own data or follow along with Dianna as she creates the 14 shifts for the Cheasty Greenspace park events.

• Days of the Week—The days of the week the event occurs. Dianna selects Saturday.
• Weekly Occurrence—How often the event occurs (every week, every other week, the first week of the month, second week of the month, and so on). Dianna selects Every.
• Scheduled Start Date and Time—The date of the first event and what time it starts. Dianna enters 10/1/2016 10:00 AM. The date and time format must look exactly like this.
• Scheduled End Date—Date of the last event if it has a finite number of events. Dianna enters 12/31/2016.
• Duration—How long, in hours, the event lasts. Dianna enters 4.
• Desired Number of Volunteers—The maximum number of volunteers who can sign up for each shift. Dianna enters 50.

4. Click Save.

5. To view the shifts you just created, click the JRS ID in the Job Recurrence Schedules related list. On the Job Recurrence Schedule detail page, click the Related tab.

Wow! You just created multiple shifts in a few short steps. Wasn’t that easy? You have to love the Job Recurrence Schedule button in V4S.

We’re in the home stretch! Dianna just needs to create the shifts for the Seward Park Job. To create the last set of shifts, repeat the steps using the details for your next job. Here is what Dianna enters for the shifts at Seward Park.

• Days of the Week: Sunday
• Weekly Occurrence: 2nd (This means that the event occurs on the second Sunday of each month.)
• Schedule Start Date & Time: 10/9/2016 10:00 AM
• Schedule End Date: 4/9/2017
• Duration: 4
• Desired Number of Volunteers: 50

Don’t forget to save when you’re done.

Confirm Your Shifts on the Shift Calendar

Now let’s look at all those wonderful shifts you created on the shift calendar.

1. In V4S, click the Shift Calendar tab.
2. Use the arrow keys to scroll to October 2016 and the months that follow. You see all the shifts you created. Hover over a shift to see the number of confirmed volunteers and the number of volunteer positions still available. (Right now, the number of confirmed volunteers is zero.)

Congratulations! You created multiple events in multiple locations, all using the campaign, jobs, shifts structure. You’re a volunteer management rockstar!

Sign Up a Recurring Volunteer

Many nonprofits have dedicated volunteers who sign up for multiple shifts at recurring events. Using the V4S Volunteer Recurrence Schedule, you can easily specify a recurring schedule for a particular volunteer. You can add when the schedule starts and ends, and which days of the week and month the volunteer works.

EarthCorps is lucky to have an enthusiastic volunteer named Peter Delauranti. You might remember him from the last unit when he volunteered at the REVIVE event. Peter works near Cheasty Greenspace and is passionate about cleaning up the park. He wants to volunteer at the park the first Saturday of every month. So let’s use the Volunteer Recurrence Schedule to set that up for Peter.

Feel free to follow along or use your own volunteer info.

1. Click the Volunteer Jobs tab and then select a job that has multiple shifts from the Recent Volunteer Jobs list.Dianna clicks Cheasty Greenspace.
2. Click the Related tab and click New in the Volunteer Recurrence Schedules related list. These steps probably feel familiar by now.
3. To automatically populate the job details, scroll to the Copy Schedule From section and select the appropriate Job Recurrence Schedule. Change any value as necessary.Dianna selects from the drop-down list Every Saturday 10/1/2016 10:00 AM.
4. Enter the contact’s name. Dianna enters Peter Delauranti.

5. Update the start date, end date, and duration as necessary. Dianna leaves everything as is.

6. For the Volunteer Hours Status, select Confirmed. EarthCorps uses the Confirmed status for anyone who signs up to volunteer.

7. Update the days of the week and weekly occurrence as needed.

Because Peter is volunteering only the first Saturday of each month (instead of every Saturday), Dianna removes Every from the Weekly Occurrence list and adds 1st.

8. Enter the number of volunteers for this schedule.

Because this schedule is just for Peter, Dianna enters 1. Your screen looks something like this.

9. Click Save.

If you go to the Cheasty Greenspace volunteer job, you see Peter’s recurrence schedule and shifts listed.

Easy! And after the event, you can use what you learned in a previous unit to reconcile hours for all the volunteers who worked.

By this point, you’ve accomplished a great deal in Volunteers for Salesforce. You’ve created a single fundraising event and assigned volunteers to it. You’ve also created a complex volunteer event that can track multiple volunteers at multiple locations for recurring volunteer events. Fantastic! There’s just one problem: Your volunteers can’t sign up for these events themselves on your website. We’ll show you how to let your volunteers do that in the next module, Website Integration for Volunteer Management.

Resources

• Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud Basics
• Volunteers for Salesforce Documentation
• Volunteers for Salesforce Chatter group in the Power of Us HUB