Frequently Asked Questions

When identifying which custom questions you would like to ask new volunteers as part of the registration process, it is often useful to know what questions are already asked.  To do this you  can either go through the registration process, or I have included a list of the standard questions below (as of TeamKinetic version 7.2).

Note: Bold are mandatory fields

1. Email Address
2. Password
3. First Name
4. Last Name
5. DOB
6. Gender (Female, Male, Not Listed, Prefer Not To Say)
7. Ethnic Origin (standard UK government list of ethnicity)
8. Address
9. Contact Number
10. Special Requirements (Disabilities or illnesses that the opportunity provider should be aware of)
    1. Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
    2. Details of that disability
11. Opt Into Receiving Emails? (this does not include emails related to opportunities they have joined)
12. T&Cs Confirmation checkbox

 

NOTE: As admins are often also setup as providers, remember that if an email is related to an opportunity it is probably being sent from and replies are being received to the providers email address, so check that your email address is setup against the relevant providers.

HOW TO CHECK THE ADMINS EMAIL ADDRESS

You can check which email address is setup by going to [SUPER ADMIN LOGIN] SETTINGS > PROFILE and edit the FORWARD ALL SITE EMAILS TO box.  This is the email address that your emails will appear to come from, so if a volunteer or provider REPLIES to your email it will go to this email address.

If this email address is correct then double check that you are not receiving an email by sending an email (no attachments) to a volunteer and seeing if they receive it, then get the volunteer to reply and see if you receive the reply.

If this doesnt work then check your JUNK folder in your mail box to make sure it has not been put there.

If you still havent received the email then raise a support ticket by going to HELP > CREATE SUPPORT TICKET

If a volunteer cant login then follow the checks below:

Are they using the correct email address?

You can check this by going to [ADMIN MENU] VOLUNTEERS MANAGEMENT > FIND VOLUNTEERS

Then search the the volunteer and click on their name, this will take you to their volunteer profile page.

From here you can see the email address that the volunteer used to register.

Get them to reset their password

If they are using the correct email address then they can reset the password via their login screen, they just need to click on the FORGOTTEN YOUR LOGIN DETAILS? link beneath the password box.

They can type in their email address and it will send them an email requesting them to reset their password.

PS: Admins can also reset the volunteers password via the volunteer profile page, but this is not recommended as volunteers will often want to use a password that is used for other accounts they hold.

Unless you are working from an oil rig, then the system has probably not picked up your postcode.

– Goto SETTINGS > PROFILE
– Click on the POSTCODE box and hit the TAB key on your keyboard
– If you see a green tick appear next to your postcode then it has been accepted, so just click the SAVE SETTINGS button at the bottom of the page.
– If you see a red tick then the system has NOT accepted your postcode, you will need to raise a support ticket so we can get it added to the system with the correct Longitude and Latitude.

When a volunteer attempts to join an opportunity, or searches for an opportunity, there are quite a few variables that are being checked against the opportunity details to see if it is suitable for that volunteer.

These include their DBS and INDUCTION status, their age, gender, which group if any they belong to, the current number of volunteers already signed up for the opportunity, if the opportunity has been suspended, or if their DBS will be invalid by the time a session occurs.

It is usually due to the opportunity not being authorised or due to their DBS or induction status, so these are the first things that should be investigated.

All emails generated by the contact us form are sent to the VK administrators email account that is setup when the new site is launched.  You can see this address by going to  SETTINGS > APPLICATION SETTINGS and looking at the SITE EMAIL ADDRESS field.

You have access to this email account from the administrative pages and it is usually setup to forward all emails to whatever email address you provide during setup.

VolunteerKinetic is a licensed product, which means there is an on-going yearly fee to use it.

You can view how long your current license has to run from the admin settings page. One month before your license expires you will receive a message at the top of your screen when you login asking you to email a purchase order number.

You can see when your annual license renewal is due, and also how long in years you have been using the system by going to SETTINGS > OPTIONS and looking at the bottom of the page.

When you login you will also get a message asking you to email us a Purchase Order number one month before it is due to expire.

If you are unsure of how a feature works, one of the best ways to understand how it functions is to use the VolunteerKinetic demo site.  This is a full system identical to your own but it contains dummy data.

You can access the DEMO SYSTEM by going to: demo.volunteerkinetic.com

The three buttons on the homepage of the demo site allow you to login as either a Volunteer, Provider or Administrator.  The data is refreshed every night so you can test the various functions without the worry of effecting your data.

You can always do a manual export of data from the system via the REPORTS > DOWNLOAD VOLUNTEER DATA page.

But if you require an automated link between VolunteerKinetic and another system then this would require more bespoke work.

VolunteerKinetic can export opportunity and volunteer details as a CSV file to a specific folder which an external system can access and import from.  In terms of injecting volunteers or opportunities into VolunteerKinetic this is more tricky.  If you are interested in setting up a link then please raise a support ticket.

If you are unsure about the finer details of an opportunity or event then you can either create a dummy opportunity, then once you have finalised the details you can manually transfer the volunteers onto the appropriate sessions. Or alternatively you could guess when the sessions will take place, then change the dates/times once they have been finalised. Volunteers will be automatically emailed about any changes to sessions dates or times.

Organisations can request bespoke reports to suite their own needs.  These reports are chargeable and can be requested via HELP > SUPPORT TICKETS from the main menu.  The cost of the report would depend on its complexity, but could potentially be split between a number of beneficial organisations.

If it is deemed that the report would be utilised by all organisations then it would be developed as part of the Standard Reporting library and would be free of charge.

You will be asked to generate a dummy report using Excel so that the developement team have a clear understanding of what data you are expecting to use and to show in the final report, but dont worry the support team will talk you through how to do this.

How are the emails sent?

1. When you send an email to a volunteer it is sent from the VolunteerKinetic email server.
2. So when the volunteer receives the email it will appear to come from YourOrganisation@volunteerkinetic.com
3. When they REPLY to the email it will be sent to YourOrganisation@volunteerkinetic.com
4. The system then forwards it onto the administrators email address, which is defined in the profile screen (SETTINGS > PROFILE from the upper menu).

Why cant you make it appear to come from the admins email address?

We could make it appear to come from the administrators email address but this would mean ‘spoofing’ your email.  The problem with this method is that email SPAM filters will probably send your email to JUNK.

How Does It Work

By linking to their Facebook or Twitter accounts, volunteers can post updates to their social media when they join opportunities or log hours.

What Are The Benifits

If volunteers share their opportunities it helps promote your system to their friends/followers.  The Facebook and Twitter posts include a link to the volunteers opportunity, if their friends/followers click on these links they will be shown the details of the opportunity and asked to register if they are interested in joining the opportunity, meaning more volunteers joining your programme.

How Do Volunteers Link To Facebook or Twitter

Volunteers are asked to link to Facebook and Twitter as part of their registration.  But they can link to their social media sites at any time by going to PROFILE > SOCIAL NETWORK from their menu. When they link to Facebook or Twitter it asks them when they would like to send posts, this is either when they join an opportunity or log hours.

This is a common issue, with some simple checks which can identify the problem. Start by writing down the names of some of the people who you believe have not received the group email.

Have they opted out of emails?

1. Goto VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT > FIND VOLUNTEERS page
2. Click on the TOGGLE MORE SEARCH OPTIONS button
3. Select YES for OPTED OUT OF EMAILS option, then click on the SEARCH button.

This will show you all volunteers that have opted out of the emails, if the people on your written list are in this list then that is why they are not recieving your emails.  You can still contact them via the FIND VOLUNTEERS page, and send them an email that way.  But any email sent via the GROUP EMAILS or WEEKLY DIGEST EMAILS will not be sent to them.

Are The Attachments Too Big?

If you have included an attachment in the email and some people are recieving an email but others are not, it may be due to the size of your attachment.  Large attachements are often blocked by volunteers mail clients.

If it is a word document try saving it as a PDF (this can be done in MS Word).

If it is a picture, try reducing the quality or size of your picture attachment.

It may be removed by their spam filter

Email servers often block emails that it thinks are suspicious, or puts them in the JUNK folder.  Ask the volunteers to check their junk folder to see if it is in their.

It is none of the above reasons, what do I do?

Raise a support ticket and we will check that it was definitely sent from the system.

1) Login as Admin and goto CONTENT > EDIT HOMEPAGE SLIDER

2) Click on the sliding image that you want to change.

3) You can either change the text TITLE or CONTENT, or you can change the IMAGE

4) Click UPDATE button.

PS: You can also ADD or REMOVE sliders, and you can also change the order of the sliding images by dragging and dropping.