Volunteer debriefs

A short conversation after a shift is one of the best ways to bring a volunteer back. When you mark someone Worked on an event's Volunteers tab (see Shift confirmations and attendance), OrganizeOS gives one organizer a task to call or text them, and sends the volunteer a thank-you.

Who gets the task

Each volunteer gets one debrief task per event, however many shifts they worked at it. The task goes to:

1. the shift's leader, if they are an active member of your team;
2. otherwise the person who created the event, if they are;
3. otherwise your organization's longest-standing owner.

The task is called "Debrief with {first name} after {shift}" and is due at the end of the day two days after the shift ends, in the event's time zone. It shows in the assignee's Inbox under Needs you, in the CRM's task list, and on the Tasks tab of the volunteer's contact record. A volunteer who has no contact record in your organization gets a thank-you but no debrief task.

The debrief page

Select Log debrief on the task, in your Inbox, the CRM's task list or the volunteer's contact record. A debrief task has no checkbox to mark it done: logging the debrief completes it. Once it is logged, the contact record offers Open debrief to see what was saved. The page shows:

• the volunteer's first name, the shift they worked, and how many shifts they have worked with your organization;
• Call and Text buttons that use your own phone, when the volunteer has a phone number and you can view contacts. A volunteer whose contact is marked Do Not Contact or Deceased gets no Call, Text or shift link;
• a suggested opener, such as "Hi Dana, it's Sam from Riverside Tenants. Thanks for coming out on Saturday. How did it go?" Edit it however you like. It is never sent for you; Text puts it in a new message on your phone.

Logging the call

Fill in the form and select Save debrief:

• Reached? Talked, Left a message, or No answer.
• How it went: a few words, up to 500 characters.
• Next step: Signed up for a shift, Will look at shifts, Not now, or No answer.
• Next shift (optional): one of your upcoming shifts of a public event that still has places. With a shift picked, Send them the shift link opens a text on your phone with the shift and a link to its event page. The link is your own share link, so if the volunteer brings a friend through it, it shows in the referrals report under your name; if your own link cannot be made, the plain event link is used.

Saving adds a call (or a note, if you did not talk) to the volunteer's activity timeline and completes the task. If nobody answered, the task stays open so you can try again; saving again updates the same debrief and the same timeline entry. If the next shift you picked last time is no longer open, it is cleared from the form, so pick another before you save.

What you write under How it went stays in the debrief. It is not copied to the activity timeline, and it shows only on the debrief page, to the task's assignee and to team members who can log any volunteer's debrief.

The thank-you

Each volunteer you mark Worked also gets one thank-you per event, after their last shift there ends. It thanks them for the shift, is signed with the shift leader's first name when the shift has a leader, and offers your next open shift at a public event that starts more than a day later and still has places (or your volunteer sign-up page, if no shift is open). Shifts of members-only and private events are never offered. It goes by email, or by text to volunteers without an email who have opted in to texts, and never between 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM in the event's time zone. The email follows the Post-event survey switch in Email settings: volunteers with a shift get the thank-you instead of that survey. With that switch off, a volunteer who would get the email gets no thank-you, and it is not sent by text instead. Volunteers whose contact is marked Do Not Contact or Deceased get no thank-you.

When the volunteer has an OrganizeOS account and is a member of your organization, the thank-you email also carries Bring someone next time with their own share link, to the next shift's event or else your home page. People who come through it show under their name in the referrals report. The text thank-you has no link.

If a mark changes

If you clear someone's Worked mark, or change it to No-show, their debrief task is closed, unless another of their shifts at the event is still marked worked. Marking them Worked again reopens it, and sends the thank-you if it has not gone out yet. A debrief you already logged stays logged.

Who can log debriefs

The task's assignee can always open and log it. Team members whose role includes Create and edit volunteer shifts can log any volunteer's debrief. Other team members who can see the task in the CRM get no Log debrief and no checkbox on it. See Roles and permissions for your team.