Quick Start Guide

Before you begin

You'll need:

• An active PurposeTech account with Owner or Volunteer Admin access
• Your organisation's branding assets (logo, brand colours) — optional but recommended
• A list of locations/sites where you need volunteers
• The shift schedule for each location (times, durations, how many people per shift)

Step 1: Sign in to the admin portal

1. Open the invitation email and click the login link
2. You'll land on the admin dashboard — this is your home base
3. If the link has expired, go to your admin portal URL and enter your email to get a fresh one

The admin dashboard shows your campaigns, recent activity, and quick stats. On first login, it'll be empty — that's about to change.

Step 2: Check your tenant branding

Before creating a campaign, make sure your tenant (your branded volunteer site) looks right:

1. Go to Settings in the side navigation
2. Check the Display Name — this appears in emails and on the volunteer site
3. Upload your Logo if it's not already set
4. Review Style overrides if you want to use your brand colours

Step 3: Create your campaign

1. Navigate to Campaigns in the side navigation
2. Click New Campaign
3. Fill in the basics:

4. Save the campaign

Optional: Campaign branding

If this campaign needs different branding from your tenant default (e.g., a co-branded event):

1. Go to the campaign's Settings
2. Enable Override Tenant Settings
3. Upload a campaign-specific logo, colours, or copy

Most organisations skip this — the tenant defaults work for all their campaigns.

Set privacy

• Public (default) — anyone with the link can browse and sign up
• Private — requires a password. Good for soft-launching or invite-only events

Step 4: Build your geographic structure

Before adding specific shifts, set up the hierarchy that organises your sites:

Create regions

Regions are the top-level grouping (e.g., "Auckland", "Wellington", "Canterbury").

1. Go to Regions in the campaign
2. Click Add Region
3. Enter the region name

Create areas

Areas sit within regions and are what coordinators get assigned to.

1. Select a region
2. Click Add Area
3. Enter the area name (e.g., "Auckland Central", "North Shore")

Create jobs (sites)

Jobs are the actual locations where volunteers will be.

1. Select an area
2. Click Add Job
3. Fill in:

Step 5: Add shifts

For each job, create the time slots that volunteers can sign up for.

1. Open a job
2. Click Add Shift
3. Set the details:

Bulk creation

For campaigns with many locations running the same schedule, don't create shifts one by one:

1. Clone shifts — set up the pattern on one job, then clone it to others
2. Linked area groups — group jobs that share the same schedule, create shifts once for the group
3. Linked job groups — same idea but at the job level within an area

This turns hours of data entry into minutes. See Shift Booking — Bulk creation for details.

Step 6: Configure your emails

PurposeTech sends automated emails at key moments. Review them before going live:

1. Go to Messaging > Templates
2. You'll see the default templates: Welcome, Shift Confirmation, Reminders, Abandoned Cart, etc.
3. For each template:
   • Check the subject line and body content
   • Adjust the schedule if needed (e.g., change the first reminder from 7 days to 3 days before)
   • Enable or disable templates you don't need
4. Test each email — click on a template, go to the "Test Email" tab, and send it to yourself

Step 7: Set up your header and footer

Your volunteer site and emails share a consistent header and footer.

1. Go to Design > Header & Footer
2. Auto-generate — if your organisation has a website, enter the URL and click Generate. PurposeTech will extract your header/footer HTML to match your existing site
3. Or manually configure — paste your own HTML for the header and footer
4. Preview to make sure it looks right

This step is optional — PurposeTech provides clean defaults — but recommended for a professional, branded experience.

Step 8: Assign coordinators

If you have area or site coordinators:

1. Go to the area or job you want to assign
2. Select a user from the coordinator dropdown
3. Their role is automatically set (Area Coordinator or Site Coordinator)

Coordinators receive an email notification and can immediately access the roster for their assigned area/site.

Step 9: Test the full flow

Before sharing the campaign with the world:

1. Open your campaign site URL in an incognito/private browser window
2. Browse through the available shifts — check they show the right locations, times, and capacity
3. Sign up as a test volunteer — go through the full registration flow
4. Check that you receive the welcome email and shift confirmation
5. Go back to the admin portal and verify the test volunteer appears in the volunteers list
6. From the admin portal, try the roster view — make sure it shows the test volunteer

Checklist before going live

• Campaign is set to Public (or you have the password ready to share)
• All jobs are in Confirmed status
• Shifts have the correct times, durations, and capacities
• Email templates have been tested (sent to yourself)
• Branding looks right on the volunteer site (logo, colours, header/footer)
• Registration form has the right fields (standard + any custom fields)
• At least one admin or coordinator is set up to manage the campaign

Step 10: Go live

Share your campaign URL through your usual channels:

• Email — send to your volunteer database, mailing list, or previous year's volunteers
• Social media — post the link on your organisation's channels
• Website — link from your main site to the campaign signup page
• Partners — share with corporate partners, community groups, and stakeholders

Then monitor from the admin dashboard — watch signups come in, check coverage, and start filling gaps.

What to do next

In the days before the event

• Monitor the coverage dashboard — see which areas are filling up and which need more volunteers
• Recruit for gaps — target under-staffed regions with additional outreach
• Send reminders — these go out automatically, but check the email logs to make sure they're being delivered
• Assign coordinators if you haven't already

On event day

• Coordinators open the roster on their phone or laptop
• Add walk-ins directly from the roster
• Move volunteers to cover no-shows using the Move Tool
• Export PDFs for offline backup

After the event

• Review reports — attendance, fulfilment, hours contributed
• Sync to Salesforce if you're using it
• Send thank-you emails to volunteers
• Record feedback — flag great volunteers and blocklist any problems
• Archive the campaign — it stays accessible for historical reference

Further reading

• How It Works — understand the full workflow
• Campaigns & Events — detailed campaign configuration
• Shift Booking — advanced shift management
• Email & Messaging — email templates and scheduling
• Roster Management — day-of coordination
• FAQ — quick answers to common questions