Volunteer NOW is a volunteer management platform that helps students sign-up to volunteer with local non-profits (Community Partners). It also tracks a volunteer's hours and provides a "volunteer resume" to assist with job applications. To learn more, click the FAQ topics below.
Volunteer NOW FAQs
For Volunteers
You’ll be greeted with this page when logged in. It’s a page that is tailored to your preferences. This page is great if you want to catch up on your volunteering stats or opportunities.
These metrics go over your overall stats. To know more details about each of the categories presented. You can hover your mouse on top of it, as show in the image below and it will show a brief information on what that category represents.
If you go back to your dashboard and scroll down, you find your suggested opportunities. These show you the upcoming opportunities you can participate in. These suggestions are based on your interest. To refine this suggestion, you can edit your interests and fanned Community Partners. To know more about these breaks, click on view details.
Our Community Page shows you recent activities that are taking place or has taken place recently in JMU community. Recent Opportunities shows the available opportunities that were available in that community.
Click on the "Volunteer Resume" link to view your volunteer stats - where you volunteered, how many hours, etc.
This page shows you your stats from the time given mentioned on the left; start and end. You can highlight the causes you have been part of to prevent and interests . It also shows the community Partners you have been a fan of/liked. There are stats on the left of the screen, which includes the data you signed up for Volunteer Now and the total logged hours you have had since then.
To view an overview of your volunteer hours, first select the dates you want to view. Then, click “Volunteer Resume” and it will automatically download a report.
This is what your volunteer resume will look like.
This page allows you to completely customize your profile. You can upload your picture, update it with your name, email, mobile, graduation and the distance you're willing to travel for service.
There is a whole section for your availability. It is divided by days and time. You can choose the day and the time you want to work, there is also an option "Don’t schedule me" which you can use if you don't want to work on a specific day. For example, if you can work on Monday and Wednesday mornings, you'll check on those boxes and the community partner will know what time you're available.
In Setting section, you can turn off the email notifications and text messages from volunteer now platform. You can turn on, "Allow Scheduling" which will let the Community Partner let you sign up for open slots based on your availability.
On this page you'll enter your volunteer hours after you have service for that day.
You can click on "Add Hours", which will guide you the sections, "Hour Type" and "Hour Details".
In Hour Type, you would choose the Opportunity you were a part of that was published on Volunteer NOW.
In Hour Details, Choose the date from the "Date Worked", Write the down the hours you have volunteered in "Hours Worked" and amount of distance you have travelled, in miles for that opportunity in "Miles Travelled".
Write a brief description of the service was and what you did.
Click on "Submit Hour Entry" at the left bottom of the screen to submit.
This page shows you all the available opportunities you can volunteer for.
You have the option to filter the opportunities to find ones that you are interested in.
Search By Phrase – You can search a specific opportunity by using keywords.
Sort By – You can search by “newest first” which shows you the breaks that have been recently added. “Oldest first”, shows you the one that were added first. “Alphabetically”, orders the break in an alphabetical order. “Soonest First”, arranges the break according to the date they’re taking place (they don’t count in on-going breaks).
Filter by – You can search a break that has a relation to the specific filter you have entered. For example, you can choose the filter – “County”. You then can choose a specific county you want to volunteer for.
It shows the current available events from all community Partners.
You can filter through these breaks via Search by Phrase or Filter by option:
Search By Phrase – You can search a specific opportunity by using keywords.
Filter by – You can search a break that has a relation to the specific filter you have entered. For example, you can choose the filter – Community Partner, you’ll then can choose a specific Community Partner you want to volunteer for.
It shows all the Community partners in our community. You can click on a specific community partner to know more about the organisation and their mission.
Clicking "Become a Fan" button will add that community partner to your recommended and suggested. You'll be updated whenever that community partner is active or post anything new.
Search By Phrase – You can search a specific opportunity by using keywords.
Sort By – You can search by “newest first” which shows you the community partners that have been active recently. “Oldest first”, shows you the community partners that weren't active recently. “Alphabetically”, orders the community partners in an alphabetical order.
Filter by – You can search a break that has a relation to the specific filter you have entered. For example, you can choose the filter – County, you’ll then can choose a specific county you want to community partner to be from.
This is the page where you can contact our team to let us know if you need assistance.
When you click on the "contact us", it'll open new page. Click "Next".
A form will open. Fill the form accordingly and hit "Done". We will reach out to you as soon as possible.
In the Edit Profile section, you can click on the red at the bottom of the screen to completely deactivate your account.
Volunteer with a class
You will be given a link by your professor to join your own class-specific "user group". This group contains volunteer opportunities specific to your class that your professor has approved.
Click on your profile icon, at the top right. Choose "My User Groups" from the drop-down menu.
Head to the "Opportunites" page, and browse for the opportunity that you want to volunteer for. This page contains all of the opportunities that are approved for your class.
After finding the opportunity that interests you, click "view detail" to get more information about the opportunity. If you want to volunteer for that opportunity, click "respond". ONLY respond to one opportunity.
After responding, go through the Opportunity Information one last time, add any comments if you want to and press "Submit Opportunity Response"
After responding, you should hear back from the organization within 5 business days. If you do now hear back after 5 business days, contact csl@jmu.edu.
For Student Org Leaders
Contact cevc@jmu.edu or call (540) 568-6366 and ask to have your student org set up in Volunteer Now. You will be able to track your group's hours and see the impact you all are making! We can also help you find volunteer opportunities specific to your group's needs.