Bulk Operations & Import

Overview

For large campaigns, individual volunteer management doesn't scale. PurposeTech supports several bulk operations from the volunteers table.

Select volunteers using the checkboxes, then use the toolbar to assign, cancel, email, or export in one action:

Bulk assign

Select multiple volunteers in the table and assign them to specific shifts in one action. Useful for:

• Pre-assigning returning volunteers from last year
• Moving a group of people to a new location after a schedule change
• Assigning CSV-imported volunteers to their shifts

Bulk cancel

Cancel shift assignments for multiple volunteers at once with an optional reason. Useful for:

• Clearing out shifts that have been cancelled or rescheduled
• Removing a group of no-shows after the event

Bulk email

Select volunteers and trigger specific emails:

• Send registration email — for bulk-imported volunteers who haven't verified yet
• Resend confirmation — re-send shift details to a group
• Schedule missing — catch up volunteers who missed a scheduled email

Bulk export

Export the selected volunteers (or the entire filtered view) as CSV for offline analysis, custom reports, or import into other systems.

See Reports & Data Exports for all reporting views and export formats.

CSV import

For campaigns where volunteers are pre-registered — corporate groups, returning volunteers from last year, or partner organisations sending volunteer lists — you can bulk import from CSV.

The import flow

1. Download the template — click "Import Users" in the volunteers table to get a CSV template with the correct column headers
2. Fill in the data — required: email. Optional: first name, last name, phone, address, adopter organisation
3. Upload and preview — the system validates every row and colour-codes them so you can spot issues at a glance:

Each row is highlighted by status — white for ready, red for errors, orange for existing users, and blue when your CSV data differs from what's already in the system. Use the checkboxes to pick which rows to import.

4. Select rows — deselect existing users if you don't want to touch them
5. Import — selected volunteers are created in the system

After import

Imported volunteers are created but not yet assigned to shifts or verified. You can then:

• Assign to shifts — bulk assign them to specific shifts
• Send registration email — trigger the email with a login link so they can verify and see their booking
• Schedule missing emails — catch up on any automated emails they've missed

Import best practices

• Clean your data first — remove duplicates, fix formatting, verify email addresses before uploading
• Start small — test with a batch of 10 volunteers before importing the full list
• Check for existing users — the orange highlighting shows you who's already in the system. Review these carefully before importing
• Add the adopter organisation — for corporate group imports, fill in the "Adopter Organisation" column so their group affiliation shows on the roster

Next steps

• Volunteer Management — the full volunteer lifecycle
• Reports & Data Exports — reporting views and data exports
• Feedback & Safety — recording feedback and managing the blocklist