Feedback & Safety
Recording volunteer feedback and private notes, blocking a volunteer from signing up again, and practical safety steps for coordinators.
Overview
Admins can record feedback and private notes against any volunteer, and can block a volunteer from signing in or booking. All of it is done from the Feedback & Notes tab of the volunteer's side panel in the Volunteers table. See The volunteer detail panel for how to open it.
Feedback and notes are admin-only. Volunteers never see them, and neither do area or site coordinators.
Volunteer Feedback
Recording feedback
Click Add Feedback or Note, choose a Type and fill in the form.
| Type | When to use | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | A volunteer who went above and beyond | Recorded for your reference. Shows as a "Positive feedback" pill under the volunteer's name in the Volunteers table |
| Negative | An incident or concern, such as lateness or behaviour | Recorded with the details. It does not stop the person signing up again. Shows as a "Negative feedback" pill |
| Blacklist | A serious issue where the person should not volunteer again | Blocks the volunteer. See How the blocklist works. Shows as a "Blacklisted" pill |
| Private note | Anything you want to keep for other admins | Recorded without a rating |
The form asks for:
- Reporter – search for a person on your site, or type a name
- Date of Incident (not asked for private notes)
- Description (called Note for a private note)
- Location, Witnesses and Evidence (not asked for private notes). Witnesses are picked from the people on your site
You can edit an entry later with the pencil button. Delete removes it permanently, after a confirmation, and there is no undo.
In the Volunteers table you can filter on feedback type, including Blacklist and Has notes.
Do not confuse a private note with the Notes field on the Details tab. Details-tab notes are visible to the volunteer from their own account. Use a Private note on the Feedback & Notes tab for anything the volunteer should not see.
How the blocklist works
A blacklist entry sits on one volunteer's record, for your whole site. It applies to every campaign you run there, past and future.
While the entry exists:
- The volunteer cannot sign in. They see "Sign-in failed. Please contact support."
- They cannot register for shifts. They see "Registration failed. Please contact support."
- A coordinator or admin cannot book them onto a shift. The message reads "Cannot register shifts for this user. Please contact support."
- If they are already signed in, their session is cut off within about 30 seconds.
The messages do not say the person has been blocked.
The block follows the volunteer's record, so someone who registers again with a different email address creates a new record and is not blocked. The Volunteers table's Potential Duplicates filter and merging duplicates can help you spot this.
Adding a blacklist entry does not remove the volunteer's existing shifts. Remove them from the roster or their Shifts tab yourself. When an admin removes shifts, they can choose whether to email the volunteer, which is useful if you want to speak to the person first.
To lift a block, delete the blacklist entry from the Feedback & Notes tab.
Use the blocklist carefully, and put the reason in the description. PurposeTech does not keep a separate history of who added or removed a blacklist entry, and deleting an entry erases it. If you need a record for a dispute, keep it in your own files.
PurposeTech does not mediate blocklist decisions. If a blocked person contacts you, the decision and the process sit with your organisation.
Volunteer safety
Where safety matters, which is most events, these are the tools PurposeTech gives you:
- Emergency contact details – add a text or phone field to the registration form under Design > Registration Form, and mark it required. Answers appear in the volunteer's side panel. See Custom registration fields
- Briefings in the booking email – a shift type's email note arrives with the shift details, so "Check in with your site coordinator on arrival" or "Enter via the loading dock" reaches everyone booked
- Contact details on the roster – coordinators see each volunteer's email and mobile on the roster card
- Offline rosters – coordinators can download a PDF or CSV roster before the event. Mobile reception at some sites is unreliable. See Reports & Data Exports
- Site documents – a consent form uploaded for a site can be downloaded from the roster by the coordinators of that site
- Incident records – record anything that happens as Negative feedback, with the date, location, witnesses and evidence
Think before you record medical or other sensitive details in PurposeTech. Only collect what you will use, keep it out of the volunteer-visible Notes field, and follow your organisation's privacy policy.
The roster shows who is booked, not who arrived. On-the-day check-in is on the roadmap.
Next steps
- Volunteer Management – the full volunteer lifecycle
- Roster Management – day-of coordination and roster views
- Bulk Operations & Import – bulk actions and CSV import