The Volunteer Portal is where Tzu Chi USA volunteers find events, sign up for shifts, and check their volunteer hours. Coordinators use it to see who signed up and how they answered the registration form.
Behind the scenes, everything comes from Bloomerang Volunteer, the system where our volunteer records are kept. The portal gives each local office a simpler place to list its events and welcome volunteers.
This tour shows what each person gets from it, by permission level, and the pictures use Seattle Branch’s events with sample volunteers.
For everyone
Anyone can find events near them by zip code, without signing in, and see them as cards or on a calendar.
Every event has its own page, with when and where it happens, whether it’s open for sign-up, its next shift, and who to contact.
An event’s link can be shared anywhere: it shows a preview with the event’s name, description and picture. See Sharing an event.
Some locations, such as Seattle Branch, also have their own page listing only their events.
For admins
Want a page like this for your location? Contact the HQ IT Team; see Getting help.
More: Finding events and Event pages.
Volunteering
Every volunteer has the Volunteer level. Volunteers sign in with the email they use for Bloomerang. Once they’re part of an event, they can sign up for a shift right on its page. Within the same event, the portal won’t let them take two shifts at the same time.
They can look through every upcoming shift of an event, and find one with open spots.
On events at their location, they see who else signed up, by first name and last initial. My Hours shows the service hours on their record, from every event.
More: Signing in, Signing up for shifts, All shifts and My Hours.
Seeing everyone’s full names
With Roster Viewer, staff see the full names of everyone signed up for events at their location.
Checking volunteers in
With QR Check-in, staff check volunteers in and out at an event by scanning their QR codes, from the QR Code Check-in tab. With QR Admin, they can also link each volunteer’s QR code to their email, and print check-in cards.
More: Checking volunteers in with QR codes, Linking volunteers to their QR codes and Printing QR code labels.
Running an event
With Admin, coordinators see everyone’s answers to an event’s registration form in one table, including whether their waivers are signed, with columns they can arrange.
They can also review the service hours recorded for an event, and spot missed check-outs and no-shows before the hours are counted.
Outside events, Manage Volunteers lists the volunteers they look after and opens each one’s hours.
More: Registration responses, Reviewing service hours and Finding volunteers and their hours.
Setting up your office’s staff? Permission levels lists what each level can do, with a guide for each.
Screenshots and clips show sample data, not real volunteers.