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SUMS Guide – Volunteering Dashboard

The Volunteering Dashboard is a centralised area in which staff can view and manage their organisations and opportunities.

This links directly to the External Volunteering Organisations dashboard, from where organisations can register opportunities available for your students and track their interest and placements.

Setting up your External Volunteering Organisation Portal

Please contact SUMS to obtain the links for your external volunteering portal registration form and login page._

These are unique to each organisation as they are customised with your relevant branding.

We would recommend that you create an easy to remember/public facing URL which redirects this the URL’s we provide for you.

When you enter the Volunteering Dashboard, you will be able to access your:

  1. Opportunities (approved Opportunities)
  2. Pending Opportunities
  3. Interest
  4. Organisations (current, approved organisations)
  5. Pending Organisations
  6. Categories
  7. Frequencies (here you can create frequencies for your opportunities, i.e. daily, weekly, monthly)

The dashboard will also show:

  1. The number of new opportunities listed in the last 30 days;
  2. The number of interests registered in the last 30 days.

Organisations - Management

How do I review new organisations to approve or decline?

  1. Click ‘Pending Organisations’ to view a list of any new organisations that have registered via the online Volunteering portal;
  2. Select the ‘Review Pending Organisation’ button alongside the relevant entry to review the details of the new organisation;
  3. All details regarding the organisation will show, including:
    1. Organisation type (internal or external);
    2. Address details;
    3. Email address;
    4. Website;
    5. Details of the main contact;
  4. You will be able to edit any of the details given if required, such as to amend any errors or adjust the organisation type; Note: ensure you click ‘Save Changes’ if you have made any adjustments before making a decision – if you do not these changes will not be saved against the organisation upon approval, and will be removed if you refresh the page;
  5. Once you have reviewed the organisation, you will be able to ‘Approve’ or ‘Decline’ the organisation to be added to the online portal:
    1. ‘Decline’ – a pop-up will show asking you to reconfirm that you would like to decline the organisation, with a box for you to be able to provide feedback as to why the application has been declined.
    2. ‘Approve’ – a pop-up will show asking you to reconfirm that you would like to approve the organisation. Once approved, the organisation will move to the current ‘Organisations’ tab.

From the ‘Pending Organisations’ page, there are also shortcuts at the top for you to be able to view your ‘Approved’ and ‘Declined’ organisations.

What information can I view/manage once an organisation is approved?

  1. Click the ‘Modify’ button alongside the relevant organisation to view and adjust the following information:
    1. Organisation Name;
    2. Address;
    3. Organisation Contact Details;
    4. Details of the ‘Key Contact’ for the Organisation;
    5. Default Interest Email (all organisations will be able to add default email content to be sent to any member that registers interest in one of their opportunities. This can be edited by staff if needed via the Employability module).

Can I merge an existing organisation and their opportunities after they have signed up to the portal?

When you go to approve an organisation that has applied to the online portal, a dropdown menu will show giving you the option to select from any organisations that already exist within your system and have been previously manually added.

Select the relevant organisation, and all details and opportunities relating to that organisation will merge with their new online profile. Their opportunities and placements will be available to view on their portal.

How will an organisation be notified once their application has been reviewed?

Organisations will receive an email (to the email address they provided within their application) confirming the outcome of their application:

  1. Approved – if their application has been approved, they will receive 2 subsequent emails:

    1. The first to confirm approval of their application, and providing a link to the portal login page, along with their username;
    2. The second to confirm their password.

  2. Declined – if their application has been declined, they will receive an email confirming this, along with any feedback that has been provided.

How can I adjust the auto emails sent to organisations during the application process?

All of the auto emails that are sent during the application process can be found within the ‘Emails’ section of the ‘Admin’ module.

The text and HTML can be amended where necessary to suit your organisations operations.

Please Note: The standard templates provided include HTML to be able to provide the relevant links and login information when applications have been approved. We would strongly advise this area of coding is not changed to ensure the relevant details are provided upon approval.

Opportunities - Management

How do I review new opportunities to approve or decline?

  1. Click ‘Pending Opportunities’ to view a list of any new opportunities that have been added via the online Volunteering portal;

  2. Select the ‘Review’ button alongside the relevant entry to review the details of the new opportunity;

  3. All details regarding the opportunity will show, including:

    1. Opportunity name (click ‘Update Name’ if you wish to change this);
    2. Location (these can be added via the ‘Locations’ area within the Employability module – this can be changed if required);
    3. Skills (these can be added via the ‘Skills’ area within the Employability module – these can be added/changed if required);
    4. Categories (these can be added via the ‘Categories’ area within the Employability module – these can be added/changed if required);
    5. Schools (this data is obtained from your university’s data feed – these can be added/changed if required);
    6. Frequency (if your Union does not use this feature and has not created any frequencies within the Volunteering dashboard, this dropdown will not be shown);
    7. Date range;
    8. Available places;
    9. Hide on web (this will be selected in the Organisation does not wish for the Opportunity to be advertised on your SU website);
    10. DBS (whether or not this is required);
    11. Feedback provided (if the application has been reviewed and feedback has been provided by another member of staff, this will show here for reference);

  4. The following information will have been provided by the organisation and can be edited prior to approval if required;

    1. Tasks;
    2. Location Details;
    3. Support;
    4. Qualities;
    5. Availability;
    6. Additional Information;
    7. Initial Interest Email (this will override the ‘Default Interest Email’ content for that opportunity, if the organisation has included this within their profile)

  5. Once you have reviewed the opportunity, you will be able to ‘Approve’ or ‘Decline’ the opportunity:

    1. ‘Approve’ – a pop-up will show asking you to reconfirm that you would like to approve the opportunity. Once approved, the opportunity will move to the current ‘Opportunities’ tab;
    2. ‘Decline’ – a pop-up will show asking you to reconfirm that you would like to decline the opportunity, with a box for you to be able to provide feedback as to why the application has been declined;
    3. ‘Feedback’ – if you require some further information but do not wish to make a decision on the application yet, you can simply provide some feedback to be sent to the organisation via email. They can then go back and amend the application where necessary and resubmit.

How will an organisation be notified once their opportunity has been reviewed?

Organisations will receive an email confirming the outcome of their opportunity application:

  1. Approved – the email will confirm that their opportunity has been approved, and direct them to login to their online portal for their information;
  2. Declined – if their application has been declined, they will receive an email confirming this, along with any feedback that has been provided.

Can I edit the details of an opportunity after it has been approved?

Yes, once you have approved an opportunity, it will show in the current ‘Opportunities’ tab on the Volunteering dashboard.

From here you can ‘Remove’ any opportunity, and also ‘Modify’ the details and make any adjustments necessary. Any changes made to opportunities that are shown on the website will be updated.

You can also create opportunities directly via this page, for example for any internal opportunities you wish to advertise on your website.

Interest – Management

How do I view students who have registered their interest in an opportunity?

Navigate to the ‘Interests’ area of the Volunteering dashboard to view a full list of all student who have registered their interest in volunteering opportunities.

On the initial page, you will be shown:

  1. Student ID;
  2. Member Name;
  3. Opportunity;
  4. Organisation;
  5. Status (the options listed for selection need to be added by the SUMS team. Please contact us via [email protected] and confirm what options you require and we will add these in for you);
  6. Date interest was submitted;
  7. Type of opportunity.

From here you will be able to view and ‘Modify’ the details of the interest, where you can adjust the:

  1. Opportunity;
  2. Status;
  3. Add notes if required for reference.

You will also be able to mark an entry either as ‘Did not proceed’ or ‘Move to placement’ to confirm how the student proceeded with the opportunity.

If you have selected ‘Move to placement’, the entry can then be found within the ‘Placements’ area of the Employability module.

How will I know if a student has started their placement?

Once you have moved a student to a placement, they will show on the organisations external volunteering portal.

From here, they will be able to mark when a student has begun their placement, which will then be confirmed alongside the student within the ‘Placements’ area of the Employability module.

Updated 16th September 2022