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Create an opportunity: Step 2 – Scheduling

The second step of the opportunity builder is where you choose the type of schedule that best fits your volunteer opportunity.

Shift schedules are for when volunteers are needed for specific times or dates, or a specified time range. For example, you may need someone to make recurring friendly visits within their community at times that suit the people they're visiting. You could also use a shift schedule for a driver taking service users to attend a regular community group at a specific time each month, or a football coach among many other examples.

Even if you're not sure exactly when the shifts will be, you can select this option and create shifts after you've received applications and gauged the availability of your volunteers or the needs of your organisation.

Flexible schedules are for when you have an idea of how much time you'd like a volunteer to commit, but you're happy to be flexible with when they do so. Flexible schedules can be created for a total commitment by a due date (e.g. 10 hours in total by 31 December) or recurring commitments by week or month.

This can be particularly useful for remote/work-from-home volunteering – for example, you may need a web designer to help build a new website by the end of the year but you're happy for them to work this around their existing commitments.

Get to Step 2 – Schedule

  1. Open your group management page

  2. Click Create opportunity, or open Opportunities and click Edit on a draft

  3. Complete Step 1 – Details and click Save and continue

  4. You will land on Step 2 – Schedule

Click on the opportunity type based on your organisation's needs and follow the step-by-step directions relating to times, dates and frequency.

Please note

An opportunity's schedule type cannot be changed after publishing.

For instance, if you create and publish an opportunity with a flexible schedule, you cannot change it to shifts – instead, you can duplicate the opportunity to create a draft copy which you can change to a shift schedule before publishing.

Shift schedules

If you choose a shift schedule, a calendar will appear. You can use this calendar to create a comprehensive schedule for your opportunity. This works in much the same way as setting up a meeting invite or task in your Outlook or Google calendar.

Create a single shift

  1. Click on the date you'd like to create a shift for in the calendar

  2. In the Add new shift panel, enter a start time, end time and the number of positions you'd like to make available for volunteers

  3. Click Save to return to the calendar

This can also be done later after publishing the opportunity if you prefer — simply click Save and continue to move on to the next step of the wizard.

Create multiple shifts on one day

  1. Click the three-dots button on the shift row

  2. Select Add time block to create an additional block of time on the selected day

  3. To remove a time block entered in error, click the three-dots button again and select Remove time block

Each time block will represent a separate shift, so you can assign different volunteers to, for instance, a 9am–12pm shift and a 12pm–3pm shift on the same day.

These shifts can also be edited or removed individually so, for instance, if you later decide you don't need the 12pm–3pm shift on a particular day, you can simply delete or cancel it. This will not affect any other shifts you've created.

Can I create shifts that overlap each other?

Yes! If you'd like separate shifts that occur at exactly the same time, simply create each shift one at a time with the same times used.

You can also create shifts that partially overlap, e.g. 9am–12pm and 10am–1pm.

Create recurring shifts

  1. Click on a date in the calendar to open the Add new shift panel

  2. Check Repeat shift

  3. Choose a monthly or weekly recurrence and configure the days or dates

  4. Click Save to return to the calendar

For a more detailed breakdown of how recurring shifts can be created, please visit How do I create recurring shifts?

I've created an individual shift but I need to make it repeat – what do I do?

Once an individual shift is saved to your opportunity, it cannot be changed to a recurring shift.

If, for instance, you've created an individual 9am–12pm shift on Monday 1 April and you intended to create a set of recurring shifts for every Monday, 9am–12pm, starting on 1 April, you can either:

  • Delete the existing 1 April shift and create a new shift on that day for the same time, set to repeat each Monday, OR
  • Leave the 1 April shift intact and create a new shift on Monday 8 April, set to repeat each Monday.

Once you're happy with your shift or recurring shift, click Save to return to the calendar view. From here, you can add more shifts (both individual and recurring) if you like.

Flexible schedules

If you choose a flexible schedule, you'll be asked to enter further details. The calendar will not appear as flexible shifts are not designed to be based on specific dates – instead, they can be used if you would like a volunteer to work with you at times that suit them.

  1. Enter the number of hours you require from each volunteer (all-time total, monthly total, weekly total, or check Hours yet to be determined...)

  2. Add a start date (optional) and end date (required)

  3. Select the number of positions you have available for volunteers

  4. Click Save and continue to move to the next step

Can I create an opportunity in the past?

Yes, you can! You don't need to set up shifts or flexible tasks with past dates – all you need to do is create your opportunity using the process shown above. It can be set up without shifts/tasks if you only need it to record past volunteering, or with shifts/tasks if you'd like to include past volunteering in a current, ongoing opportunity.

Once you've created your opportunity, you can add past volunteer hours against it at any time. See How do I record volunteer hours in the past?

Next steps

Earlier steps