Easily connect with volunteers by posting a volunteer listing from your organization’s Dashboard!
In order to post volunteer opportunities on Idealist, you must represent an organization with an approved profile and have administrator access to the account. Visit our other articles for more information on how to become an administrator, how to add your organization and what organizations can post.
Please note that organizations in any of our for-profit categories—such as Businesses, Consultants and Recruiters—are not able to post volunteer opportunities.
Posting a Volunteer Listing
1. Log in at idealist.org using an email address that has administrator access.
2. Navigate to your organization’s Dashboard by clicking your name at the top right corner and selecting your organization from the drop-down menu.
3. Click “+Create New Listing,” then select the “Volunteer Opportunity” listing type.
You’ll be led through a short form to fill out details about your opportunity, including the time commitment, description and location. Be sure to visit our other article for tips on creating a compelling listing.
You’ll also decide whether you’d like applicants to apply directly through Idealist, or through a different contact method like your organization’s own website or email.
Collecting Applications through Idealist
If you’d like to have candidates submit their applications through Idealist, select the “Allow volunteers to apply directly through Idealist” at the beginning of the posting process or on page 4 of our posting form in the “How to Apply” section.
When this setting is enabled, applicants will be able to express their interest in the opportunity by submitting their name and email address. You can also request additional materials like a resume, cover letter and more.
Setting Application Requirements
All volunteer listings require candidates to submit a First Name, Last Name and an email address. They also default to require a resume, but this can be deleted or toggled off to make it optional if you’d like.
If you’d like to require any additional information (such as a cover letter, portfolio link or answers to custom questions) be sure to add these fields into the "Application Materials" section of the listing.
Click the “+Add Question” button and a box will pop up allowing you to choose the additional application requirements you’d like to add. You can choose:
- Short text: Allows you to add custom questions for applicants to answer.
- PDF: Allows you to add additional document fields, like a cover letter.
- URL: Allows you to request a portfolio link or other URLs from applicants.
You can also toggle the blue “Required” button on or off. For example, if you’d like to make cover letter submission optional, toggle the “Required” button off so it turns grey. Candidates will be able to submit that document if they’d like, but it won’t be required for them to complete the application.
To delete the requirement entirely, click the trash can icon to the right.
Viewing Applications
To view applications submitted through Idealist, log in and head to your organization’s Dashboard. Click “Manage Listings” from the menu on the left, then click the specific opportunity from your Listings history.
To view or download a specific applicant’s information, simply click on their name. From this detailed view, you also have the ability to make notes about each candidate and add additional administrators to your organization's account so that they can view applications as well.
Contacting Volunteers
Applicants are not automatically notified of status changes you make to their application on Idealist. However, you do have the option to send bulk messages to each candidate group based on status. Click the “Contact All” button and you can customize a reply for each bucket of candidates.
Please note that candidates can be contacted multiple times throughout the recruitment process, but only once for each status type.
How long will the listing last?
If you’ve entered an end date for your opportunity, your listing will expire one day after that date. If you’ve entered a start date but no end date, the listing will automatically expire 14 days after the start date. If you don’t include a start date or an end date, your volunteer listing will expire automatically 6 months after the date of posting.
Can I change the expiration date?
The expiration date can’t be extended, but you can create a new copy of the listing using our repost feature if you’d like the listing to stay live beyond 6 months. Reposting will save you time by copying the information from your original listing, but the reposted listing is considered new and will appear at the top of search results after it has been reposted. It will also have a new public link.
If you’d like the listing taken down before 6 months, you can enter an end date to your opportunity. Listings can always be hidden earlier if you’d like as well. To hide a listing, navigate to your Listings history and click the "Hide" button next to the listing you would like removed. The listing will no longer be publicly visible, but will still be accessible to you through your organization's Dashboard.
