Custom Merge Tokens in GC Volunteer Management

Merge tokens fill in personal details when an email is sent, such as a constituent's employer or a custom field from your school's data. In GC Volunteer Management, you choose which fields admins and volunteers can use as merge tokens.

You can offer two kinds of fields:

Standard fields: fields GiveCampus maps from your school's constituent data, such as Employer or Majors.
Custom fields: your school's own constituent custom fields.

Turn on merge tokens for a field

In GC Volunteer Management, go to Settings › Fields & filters.
Find the field in the Standard or Custom table.
Under Merge token, turn on Admin, Volunteer, or both.
Click Save changes.

If you don't have permission to change settings, the page is read-only.

What you'll see in the Merge token columns

Built-in: every school offers this merge token, so it can't be turned off.
A dash (—): the field isn't available as a merge token.
A grayed-out Volunteer switch: the field is turned off on the constituent profile. Volunteers can only use fields shown on the constituent profile. To turn it on, adjust visibility in Constituent profile settings first.
A grayed-out switch for a household field: households are off for your school. Turn on households in Settings › Households to offer it to volunteers.

Insert a merge token

In the email editor, open the merge token menu and pick a field. Standard fields appear in their usual groups, such as Constituent or Giving. Custom fields appear under Other Fields.

How tokens are named

Standard fields use the field name, for example EMPLOYER or MAJORS.
Custom fields start with CUSTOM_ and use the field's label. A custom field labeled T-Shirt Size becomes $CUSTOM_T_SHIRT_SIZE$.
Custom fields with the same label add the field's data type to the token, and a number if needed, so every token is unique.

What volunteers see

Volunteers see only the merge tokens your school offers them and their role can see. If a volunteer's email includes a token that won't fill in, the editor explains why under the subject or body:

Message	Why
Your role doesn't include [field], so [token] will be blank when sent.	The volunteer's role doesn't include that field.
Your school doesn't offer [field] as a merge token to volunteers, so [token] will be blank when sent.	Volunteer is turned off for that field in Fields & filters.
Your school doesn't show [field] to volunteers, so [token] will be blank when sent.	The field is hidden from the constituent profile.
Households are off for your school, so [token] will be blank when sent.	The token depends on households, which are off.

The warning doesn't block sending. The email still goes out, and the token is left blank.

Good to know

Hiding a field hides its token. Hiding a field from the constituent profile also hides it from volunteer filters, merge tokens and outreach.
Misspelled tokens are left blank. A token GiveCampus doesn't recognize is removed when the email sends, so recipients never see text like EMPLYER.
Previews use sample values. In previews and test emails, a custom field token shows "Sample value" when there's no real value to show.
Blank values stay blank. If a recipient has no value for the field, the token is blank in their email. Write sentences that still read well without it.

Controlling Field Visibility and Custom Fields in GC Volunteer Management
Building Segments in GC Volunteer Management
Households, Outreach and Settings in GC Volunteer Management