If you have specific requirements, like food or child safety training, that you need to track for each volunteer before they can serve, then let's discuss Certifications. This feature can be found in the People tool and allows you to create and track certification badges for volunteers as they complete additional requirements you have to serve.

This article will discuss how to create Certifications and add them to a volunteer's profile.

Create a Certification

Certify a Volunteer

View a Volunteer's Certifications

Create a Certification

Navigate to People in the left-hand menu in your Admin Dashboard and select Certifications. In the top right-hand corner select the + New Certification button.

*Permission Note: This button will be disabled for users that DO NOT have Admin access and will also NOT be able to edit existing Certifications.

After selecting + New Certification, begin filling in the details of your new Certification. Give it a Name, list out the Requirements needed for a volunteer to receive this Certification, establish a Default Expiration Date, and upload any Attachments (like guidelines or instructions) that might be necessary for other Admins on your team.

After filling in the details, click Create Certification in the top right corner of the page to finalize your new Certification. Don't worry, if you ever need to change anything, as an Admin you will have the ability to come back and edit your Certification.

Once you create a new Certification, it will be listed on the Certifications page and will become an option to select when certifying a volunteer. By the way, you can create multiple Certifications as well!

Certify a Volunteer

Now that you have a new Certification (or multiple), let's look at how to certify a volunteer with one or multiple Certifications. When certifying a volunteer, a small icon called a Badge will be placed next the volunteer's record in People as well as in their profile and on their Resume. 

First, go to People and find the volunteer(s) you're looking for. The Certifications column is on the right. Click the Add icon to add a badge and certify the volunteer for that specific certification.

Now you'll be able to do the following to certify the volunteer:

1. Select an existing Certification.
   
   
2. Select status (pending or completed).
   
   • A Certification may be in Pending status while you wait to receive documentation or some other confirmation from a volunteer.
   • Then you can edit the Certification to move it to Completed.
     
     
3. Select the date the Certification was completed and then the Expiration period.
   
   
4. Add any special notes pertaining to this volunteer's certification.

Press Submit to apply the Certification.

Now you have applied a pending or completed certification! Keep in mind that you can always go back and edit this if needed.

View a Volunteer's Certifications

Just like you can add certifications from the People screen, you can also view a volunteer's certifications there.

An orange Badge indicates a pending certification while a green Badge indicates a completed certification. 

Additionally, you'll be able to see these Badges in a volunteer's profile in your Admin Dash by clicking on their name.

The volunteer will be able to see them in their own Volunteer Resume.

Now that you've learned more about creating and viewing volunteer certifications, it's time to start adding them to your Opportunities and pulling certification data on your certified volunteers!