Support Articles

What are you looking for in your team members?  Take the time to map this out before you begin reviewing your applications.  Here are a few things to consider: Qualities of your team members What personality traits are we looking for? Do they need to have certain professional skills? How many is our ideal team size? What if someone can’t make it? What types of cultural awareness is needed? What age ranges work best? Is this a mixed gender event or just for men or women? What expectations do you have for your team members (before, during, and after)? Creating a grading scale Write out each of the application areas by title (left column) Make a sheet for each individual who applies Score each individual with an objective tool like this Discuss with review team each applicant and their score Use comments area to expand your thought Download the ServiceReef Score Sheet

Getting started is simple while you also have the ability to load extensive details to any of your hosted opportunities.  Here are just a few things to consider as you set up an event and fields that you may use to make the presentation richer.   General Event Title or Name Start Date & Time End Date & Time Available for view on ServiceReef Registration Deadline Description Service Categories Medical Categories Privacy Needs Primary Event Contact Opportunity Location Requirements Maximum numbers of spots Restrictions Prerequisites Responsibilities Next Steps Preparation Meetings Name Description Location Meeting Date & Time End Date & Time Required Y/N Marketing Event website Event Twitter handle Event Facebook page Welcome video YouTube Photos Financial Raise Funds or not Total cost of trip Allow donations Y/N Deposits Milestones & Dates Accept donations to organization Accounting code (from your accounting system) Application Require approval or not Taking roll or not Record attendance or not Application fee Require an application or not Ability to apply elsewhere Application fields Admins Who has permission as an admin Permissions per admin Communications Automated Emails Custom Emails Communication Dates Forms Title File to Upload Required Y/N Due date

It’s important to have a way to learn about your opportunities through some important data points. ServiceReef automatically generates a report for each trip showing the following: Quantity of participants  Quantity of stories shared Quantity of reviews written Breakdown of age groups Breakdown of interest  Breakdown of geography  Review Average Rating Feedback Statements 

Each opportunity builds and aggregates stories from all team members into one “team blog”.  This is a great resource for organization so you don’t have to create a separate team blog for each event and stories shared from all team members all aggregate to one common place.  Four things happen to stories that are shared: Stories populate on a participant’s personal donation page (stories from all team members show up on that one team member’s page) Stories populate on the opportunity page Stories generate an email to the donor of each respective team member Stories populate in an HTML embed widget Embed widgets are simple ways for you to take the entire list of stories and drop them into your other web properties.  You simply need to copy this HTML code and paste this in your website - everything else will automatically populate stories for you.

If you have purchased the ability to manage stories, this is where you can view and manage stories shared by participants.  This gives you great control and review before any stories are shared and pushed to your public pages.  Let’s unpack how stories work: How does someone share a story? A participant can share a story at any point of their engagement (before, during, or after the event).  They can share a story by clicking the “Share Your Story” button on the opportunity page.   How are stories monitored? If you have the review feature enabled for your account then each story that is shared will generate an email to your organization admin (not your opportunity admin).  This will prompt the organization admin to review the story and approve the story.  The opportunity admin will also be able to approve these stories.   What happens once a story is shared? Several things actually happen.  Each story that is shared (and published/approved by admin) will populate on the opportunity page, the person’s personal donation page, the story embed widget, and each of each respective participant’s donors will receive an email notifying them of a story shared.  

This may be where you spend the majority of your time once you have launched your opportunity and move into managing the various aspects.  Managing your team is a core function for you.  Let’s walk through all the features you have available here: Participants Main Page Search for participants by name or email Export entire roster to excel View participants (click on their name to see their opportunity data like their application and fundraising progress) Amount Raised Remaining Balance Percent Completed  Forms Completed Date Applied Status (Approved, Incomplete, Declined) Actions Actions View Donations & Payments for this participant  View / Upload Forms View Profile Send Email to participant  Decline / Remove participant  View Personal Fundraising Page  Managing Applications  When you open your various opportunities and people begin to apply, management of these applications will follow these steps (most of the time): Participant applies for an opportunity  Opportunity admins receive an email alert of a new application  Organization reviews applications and make decision on participant  Choose to accept or decline participant (both will generate an automatic email to the participant) If approved, participant can access their management page and their personal fundraising page Where can I view application questions? Click on participants name Click “show/hide answers” next to Application 

It’s common to have multiple forms associated with any of your opportunities.  We have built a simple way for you to post your forms (and for you to load those forms back into ServiceReef).  Let’s get started... Adding a New Form Click the Add Form button in the top right Enter data about your form Form Name Form Instructions File Upload Due Date Required Save  Editing a Form Click on Form Title Edit form data Deleting a Form Click the trash can to the far right of your forms directory  Where are form located for the participant? Forms are found on the public page for each event and located in the information table located in the middle section of the opportunity page.  Here participants can view forms, see when they are due, and download forms.   NOTE: If the opportunity is private, only participants who have been approved will have access to these forms.   Uploading Participant Forms Please read this post for how to upload forms.

The user flow for ServiceReef is significant and this truly sets apart the journey of the various users (participants, donors, administrators, etc.). This PDF helps draw a picture for how the process works for all members interacting with one volunteer event.

We understand that the standard communications will not cover all of the touch points you need with you team.  To get started, click on the green “Schedule Email” button on the Communications tab of your opportunity management.   Building your Email Audience - Are you sending this to your opportunity participants, everyone who has applied, or to all who have donated?  The default is to your participants.  The donor selection will send an email to anyone who has donated to any of the participants of this opportunity (say for example you have ten team members and each have ten donors… this would generate an email to 100 people).  NOTE: These donors must donate to the participants through your ServiceReef organization account in order to populate in this email. Message Subject - What shows up in the title bar Message Body - Your message Signature - Your organization’s name, your name, etc. Attachment - Perhaps you need to send out a medical form or some waiver, simply attach that file here. Schedule - You can either send the email immediately or set a date/time for the email to send.  To send immediately simply click the “Schedule Email” button.  If you select a date/time then the email will sit in your email directory and send on the specified date and time.   We do recommend that you send a test email of your communication before sending out to your audience group - this simply helps you to make certain you’ve communicated what you intended to communicate. Customized emails will be posted in a list on the Communications tab page allowing you a view to see all emails (sent email and future emails).  You can edit emails waiting to send.  

Communicaitons to your team are extremely important as you need to keep participants up to date and informed.  We break down email communications into two major areas and will discuss in two separate postings.  This article will be to address the automated communicated while the next article will address the customized email builder.   Automated communications are the standard communications generated by ServiceReef.  You can de-select any of these communications to not be sent to your team.   Automated Communicaitons Directory  Registration Confirmation - Each participant is emailed after registering for this opportunity with the details about the opportunity (immediately following registration). Registration Notification - The Admins that you setup for this opportunity will get notified every time someone registers for this opportunity (immediately following registration). Participant Approved/Declined - An email will be sent to the participant after you approve or decline his/her registration (when admin approves/declines). Weekly Update - This email goes out every Friday reminding registrants of the trip date, upcoming meetings, and their financial progress (if applicable) (every Friday leading up to the event). Meeting Reminders - An email will be sent to all approved registrants reminding them of any upcoming meetings you have set up (3 days before meeting). Week Before Reminder - This email goes out the week before your event to remind your team about the details of the event. The date and time, location, and contact information are included (week before event). Day Before Reminder - This email goes out the day before your event to remind your team about the details of the event. The date and time, location, and contact information are included (day before event). Opportunity Follow-up - This email thanks your team for participating in the event and prompts them to complete the follow-up survey and share their story from the event (day after event). Week After Follow-up - This email thanks your team for participating in the event and prompts them to complete the follow-up survey (if they haven't done so already), share their story from the event, and sign up for another opportunity from your organization (week after event). Event Admin Summary - This email emails each event administrator weekly with the details about registrations and fundraising progress during the past week (every Friday while donations are active).   NOTE: ServiceReef also offers a premium feature to edit the content of the standard communications - contact us for more information - support@servicereef.com.  

This is one of our favorite features of ServiceReef because it empowers you and your team to manage an opportunity with ease by delegating responsibility and easily controlling who has admin permissions to various aspects of an opportunity.   NOTE: You do have two levels of ServiceReef admins - the first is at the organization level and the second is here, at an event.  We will unpack event level admins in this posting.   There are two admin options for event management.  You can allow the admin to have ability to edit the opportunity and/or the ability to get notifications.  Here’s what happens: Edit Opportunity - Allows for the admin to change any data related to this specific event. Get Notifications - Allows for the admin to receive notifications of new applications. To add a new admin they must have created a ServiceReef account.  Once they have created a ServiceReef account you can search for their name and then add them.  Make sure to select the admin functions required.  And don’t forget to click save!

Application questions are the specific pieces of information (questions) you want to ask those who are applying for one of your opportunities.  You do not have to build  application questions but most organization determine a need to ask a few basic additional pieces of information.  We also recommend that you do ask a few questions to help gain a better perspective on your applicants, their interests, and their fit with your organization.   Some example questions you might ask: How did you hear about us? How have you been involved in missional living? What other short term trips have you attended? What have you learned from other short term trips? Why are you applying for this opportunity? What do you hope to learn from this opportunity?   What fears/concerns do you have? How does your family feel about you attending this opportunity? What are your personal strengths? What are your personal weaknesses? What skills do you have to offer? What is your profession? Do you attend our church / are you a member of our organization? Do you have any dietary restrictions? Are you physically fit to perform the team tasks of this opportunity? Is there anything else we should know? You are given the ability to add various types of questions for an application.  Simply click and drag from the right listing of question types to start.  You can always add questions, edit questions, or delete questions.  Questions can also be noted as mandatory or not.   Here are the types of application questions you can build: Single Line Text - Perhaps you were asking how many global opportunities someone has participated in to date. Paragraph Text - Perhaps you were asking for someone’s reason for applying for this opportunity.   Drop Down List - Perhaps you want to know how someone heard about your organization. Single Selection - Perhaps you want to know which activity someone desires to serve in most.  Multiple Selection - Perhaps you want to ask all that apply to someone’s interests and or skills. Section Break - Perhaps you want to divide your questions into understandable categories  Page Break - This segments the user experience to move to a new page in answering questions.  We recommend this for two reasons - first, each time someone moves from one page to another the information is saved, and second, this helps make your application not seem to cumbersome in length.   Upload File - Here you can require a file to be uploaded during the application process - perhaps you require a copy of their driver’s license or their proof of insurance… or you require someone’s resume to apply.   NOTE: ServiceReef requires basic participant information, such as name, email, phone, and address.  You don’t need to add these as additional questions in your application.  When you view a participant’s application all of the ServiceReef data will be displayed with each user along with their answers to your specific questions.