Manage volunteers, roles, access, and assignments

VM2 availability: these controls are available to all schools using the newer Volunteer Management (VM2) interface as of November 3, 2026. No separate feature activation is needed. Staff roles, volunteer roles and access still apply; these are not the legacy Volunteer Management instructions.

How to use

Open Volunteers to inspect a volunteer’s assignments and manage their roles. Use Roles & Permissions to define the relevant role configuration. In Constituents → All constituents, select the intended records, preview assignments, and apply the manual assignment or access action. Review whether the action adds or replaces existing assignments.

Add volunteers from existing constituent records

In the newer Volunteer Management administrator portal, open Volunteers → Add Volunteers. The constituent list is inside this workflow; selecting a constituent for assignment is not the same as adding that person as a volunteer.

1. Search or filter the constituent list. Select the people to add, checking whether you selected specific rows or all matching rows. You can select up to 3,000 eligible constituents per operation. Each person must already have a constituent record at your school.
2. Select Next: Choose role, choose one existing Volunteer role, then select Next: Review. If a role must be created first, use the create a new role link to Roles & Permissions, then return to this workflow. Additional volunteer roles can be assigned after the person is added.
3. Review each person's name, selected email address and Eligibility. The volunteer must sign in with the listed email address. Resolve an Identity conflict instead of assuming that two records sharing an email represent the same person.
4. Select Add volunteers to submit the reviewed selection. Review confirmation expires after 15 minutes; prepare a fresh review if it expires before submission.
5. Review Addition progress, including Added, Skipped, Failed and any Unconfirmed results. Processing may continue after you close the dialog. Return through Volunteers → Recent additions → View status. Use Review unsuccessful invites when offered; inspect the roster before retrying unconfirmed results so you do not repeat an already accepted operation.

Recent-addition reports are available for up to 24 hours from review creation and may become unavailable sooner. The roster is the place to confirm the person's current status; a missing progress report does not prove that no volunteer was added.

This is an in-app selection workflow, not a CSV upload. Import Segment creates a constituent audience; it does not create volunteer accounts. Do not apply the legacy VMS volunteer-upload steps to the newer portal. Volunteer roster imports are not yet released. The released Data Import feature imports assignments for volunteers who already exist; it does not import the volunteer roster. Roster and assignment data are separate files/workflows.

Who can add volunteers or manage assignments?

Superadmin, Volunteer Management Superadmin and Volunteer Management Admin include the staff capabilities needed to manage volunteers and volunteer roles. Volunteer Management Reporting Admin does not provide those management actions. Ask an authorized administrator to review the assigned staff role; partners cannot add individual capabilities to a built-in staff role.

At least one volunteer role must exist before adding volunteers. It is not available while previewing as a volunteer or in a pre-launch preview that blocks additions. If Add Volunteers is missing, confirm that you are in VM2, your staff role and whether you are in a restricted preview with your administrator or Support. Do not change unrelated Online Giving roles or attempt to enable an internal feature switch.

Before you begin

Removing a volunteer with open tasks requires selecting another volunteer for reassignment. The target must exist and cannot be the volunteer being removed. Do not remove someone to solve an access problem without considering their open work.

Bulk selection can mean explicit rows or all matching rows with exclusions. Review the scope before applying a change. Assignment preview is a separate operation from committing the assignment.

Troubleshooting

For unexpected visibility, check role, assignment scope, and constituent access. For invalid role/segment references, refresh the current options. Use the authorized administrator workflow, not a write action while impersonating the volunteer.

Volunteer roles versus administrator roles

The role configuration described here applies to volunteers and their visible data/actions. It does not edit the built-in roles assigned to staff administrators. Staff administrator roles have fixed capabilities; an authorized administrator assigns or removes the appropriate role. Do not use volunteer Roles & Permissions or a legacy volunteer role’s datapoint settings to try to enable an action for an Online Giving campaign administrator.

Do volunteers receive an invitation email? What does Pending mean?

Adding volunteers does not send an invitation email. Tell them how to sign in using the exact email address displayed in the addition review. The term “invite” in progress/retry controls does not mean an email was sent.

In Volunteer Management → Volunteers, use the Active, Pending and Inactive tabs. Pending means the added volunteer does not yet have a linked GiveCampus account; the record may say No GiveCampus account. They move to Active when their account is linked. A Pending status is not proof that an email is queued or failed.

Recent additions → View status shows Added, Skipped and Failed results and reasons. Review unsuccessful invites reviews/retries the unsuccessful additions, not everyone originally selected and not an email resend. Review any Unconfirmed results in the roster before retrying.

Cancel someone added by mistake

Open Volunteers → Pending, open the volunteer and choose Cancel pending invite from the record's actions, or use that action on the row where offered. Review the confirmation. If the person has open tasks, select the required reassignment recipient and confirm Reassign & cancel pending invite. Cancellation deactivates the pending volunteer while retaining their data and history; it is not deletion of the constituent record. If the account has linked in the meantime, refresh and use the current status's appropriate action.

Import assignments for existing volunteers

Use School Dashboard → Data Import → Import Files and open the intended import configuration. In Portfolio Assignments, set What type of portfolio is this? → Volunteer, then map Portfolio Owner ID to the volunteer's constituent ID and Role Name to their existing VM volunteer role. Also identify the constituent being assigned. The volunteer must already exist in VM and hold the specified role; a staff administrator role name is not a substitute.

Run the configured import and inspect Data Import → Import History for the run's results. Later files synchronize the assignments managed by the import; assignments created in the app are not removed by a file. This does not mean every row in any file replaces every assignment in VM. Keep Gift Officer portfolio configurations separate and follow the configuration's selected product. Assignment imports do not add new volunteers, and an imported segment is not an assignment import.