Online volunteer registration

The shared spreadsheet and the overflowing inbox are where the mess begins: duplicate rows, availability written out in prose, missing phone numbers. With Volunteo you share one link; applications arrive complete, in a consistent shape, already attached to the teams the volunteer picked.

One link, one QR code, and you are live

Every edition of your event has its own permanent sign-up address. You paste it on your website, in a Facebook post, in an email to last year's volunteers. The event's "Share" page also gives you its QR code, ready for a poster or a flyer: the volunteer scans it and lands on the form.

You can also register someone yourself, or import an existing list of volunteers: regulars then have nothing to do, they receive a login link that takes them straight to their page.

A form that asks your questions

The basics — first name, surname, date of birth, address, phone, photo — are there by default, and you decide which ones are mandatory: a festival serving alcohol needs the date of birth, a Saturday morning collection has no use for a postal address.

Beyond those, you add your own questions, in whichever shape suits you:

• yes / no — "Do you have a driving licence?", "Are you a first aider?"
• number — "How many editions have you already done?"
• free text — allergies, dietary needs, remarks
• single or multiple choice — t-shirt size, means of transport, skills
• file upload — first aid certificate, parental consent, insurance certificate

These questions are copied from one edition to the next, along with the rest of the configuration. You write them once.

Availability, your way

This is the part that makes or breaks a schedule, and no two events handle it alike. Volunteo therefore offers three regimes, chosen in the event settings:

• Free-form availability — the volunteer declares their own time ranges, to the hour. This is what a festival running non-stop over four days needs.
• Predefined slots — you list the slots that exist ("Saturday 9am-1pm", "Saturday 1pm-5pm"…) and the volunteer ticks boxes. Far quicker to fill in, far quicker to read back.
• No availability asked — for events where everyone is there from beginning to end.

Whichever regime you pick, declared availability then acts as a guard rail: when you assign someone, the tool refuses to place them at an hour when they are not there.

The teams a volunteer would like

The form shows your teams and lets the volunteer say which ones appeal to them — bar, welcome desk, set-up, shuttles. You can cap the number of wishes, offer an "any team" box for those who do not mind, automatically hide teams that are already full, or switch the choice off entirely if you would rather allocate people yourself.

The result: when you open your volunteer list, it can already be sorted by preferred team. You are not starting from a blank page.

You are the one who accepts

A sign-up is an application, not a confirmed place. You accept, you decline, you leave it pending. A declined volunteer costs you nothing: billing only counts accepted volunteers. And when you need to catch your breath, you close registration with a checkbox.

And then the volunteer has their own page

Once accepted, everyone gets their own space: their assignments, times and places, the documents meant for them, the contact details of their team leads. That is what silences the phone the night before the event — the answer is online, up to date, and the volunteer reaches it from their mobile.

Frequently asked questions

Do my volunteers have to create an account?

Yes, and that is what spares them from typing everything again next year: they find their account, their details and the history of what they have done for you. A volunteer you register yourself never chose a password; they receive a login link that lets them pick one and opens straight onto their own page.

Can I close sign-ups once I have enough people?

Yes, with a single checkbox in the event settings. The link stays valid but says that registration is closed. You can also automatically hide the teams whose positions are all filled, without closing anything else.

Does my event have to be publicly listed?

No. A private edition is reachable through its sign-up link only: it appears neither in the volunteer search engine nor in the site map. The setting is per edition, so an event can alternate between a public occasion and a closed one.

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