Tech Success - Navigating our Website

Are you new to the Volunteer Center and wondering how to find a volunteer opportunity that works for you? Have you been signed up with the Volunteer Center but haven't been able to take the next steps to volunteer. There are a few simple tips that can help make your search for the "perfect" opportunity quick and easy!

1. Make sure your contact information is up to date on your profile. Once you log in there is a tab on the top of the page titled Personal Information. Review your Member Demographics, Address & Phone and Email to assure that you get the correspondence you need to volunteer.

2. Determine what type of volunteer opportunity will work for you and your schedule. Are you looking for a one time opportunity or would you prefer something you can participate in every week at the same time? Once you've determined what will work for you and your schedule you can decide on the best method to search for your "perfect" opportunity.

• Calendar - This search feature is best for volunteers who are looking for a one time opportunity. You can browse specific dates for an opportunity that will fit your schedule.
• Search - This feature is best for volunteers who have an idea about the type of opportunity they'd like to volunteer for or that have specific criteria (location, organization, age, etc) they're looking for in an opportunity. You can filter all the available volunteer opportunities by selecting your criteria. Just know that the more criteria you enter the fewer results you'll get. Sometimes it's best to only enter one or two criteria and then see what you get.
• Browse - This feature is best for volunteers who aren't looking for anything specific or who just want to see what's available. This option will allow you to see all the opportunities that are currently available.

3. Know that there are two types of opportunities you can sign up for on our website. One let's you "Sign Me Up" for the opportunity. In your confirmation email you receive the address and contact information for the Project Leader and can just show up at the date/time/location specified. The other type is a "Have Agency Contact Me" opportunity. When you sign up for this type of opportunity the Project Leader in charge of the opportunity will get your information and is required to contact you with the next steps to participating in the opportunity. They may call and/or email you which is why making sure your contact information is up to date is so important.

We recommend allowing a couple of days for the organization to respond in case the Project Leader is out sick or on vacation. However if a week or more goes by and you haven't heard from the organization, please contact the Volunteer Center (Volunteer@uwsn.org or 702.892.2300) right away so we can help you get connected. We immediately go to work to contact the organization to verify their contact information and that the opportunity is still something they need volunteers for. Sometimes organizations experience a change in staff and forget to notify us but when you let us know you're not getting a response we can work to resolve the issue.

Once you've found that "perfect" opportunity, signed up to participate and entered the wonderful world of volunteering be sure to click on the link in the follow up email you receive asking you how things went. We are continuing to work to better integrate every volunteers feedback so be sure to let us know how the experience went. Was it a great fit for a family or do you think it should have been 18+ only? Did the description accurately portrait what you ended up doing or was there something important we missed? Sometimes even with the best of intentions we don't think of that one piece of information that might have helped the volunteers better understand their role. When you share your feedback with us and track your hours we can better see what needs to be done to continue to improve the opportunities we offer.