The Incoming Volunteers tab is where you manage everyone in your onboarding pipeline — invitees who haven't responded yet, applicants in screening, profiles in progress, and volunteers ready to be activated. It gives you a single view across the whole intake process so you can see who needs attention and act on them.
The Incoming Volunteers Tab
Navigate to Volunteers from the main menu, then open the Incoming Volunteers tab. The page shows everyone currently in the onboarding flow as a sortable, filterable table.
Each row shows:
Name — the applicant's preferred name and email, with status chips showing which stage they're at
Comments — an icon and badge if there are internal notes on the applicant
Progress — a progress bar showing how far through onboarding they are
Source — whether they came in as an Applicant, an Invitee, or via a Funnel (with the funnel name shown)
Programs — the program(s) they're applying to
Last Updated — when their record last changed
Click any row to open the applicant's detail view, where you can review their tasks, comments, and take action.
Applicant States
An applicant's status combines two things: whether they're still working through onboarding, and where they sit within it.
Active — currently working through onboarding (the default state for anyone in the pipeline)
Inactive — removed or rejected; account deactivated
Pending — they've started but nothing's needed from a manager yet
Pending Review — waiting on a manager to review screening answers, profile, or tasks
Ready — all required onboarding tasks complete and approved; ready for you to fully activate
In practice you'll spend most of your time on Pending Review (your action queue) and Ready (people to approve and activate).
Filtering and Finding Applicants
The filters at the top of the page let you narrow down the list:
Status — All / Pending / Pending Review / Active / Ready / Inactive
Sources — All / Applicants / Invitees
Programs — multi-select dropdown of your programs
More Filters — opens additional options:
Activities — filter by which activity they're applying for
Roles — filter by activity role
Funnels — filter by which application funnel they came through
Task Field Search — advanced filtering by custom task field values
You can also search by name or email using the search box, and sort by Last Updated or Progress.
Permissions: Admins see all applicants across every program. Program Managers see applicants relevant to programs they manage.
Funnels
A funnel is a guided application flow created by an admin that locks specific programs, activities, or roles. Volunteers applying through a funnel see only the locked options pre-filled, which keeps targeted recruitment campaigns focused.
In the Incoming Volunteers list, applicants who came through a funnel show the funnel name in the Source column. You can filter by funnel under More Filters to see everyone from a specific intake.
For setting up funnels, see Application Funnels.
Acting on an Applicant
Click a row to open the detail view. The actions available depend on whether the row is an Invitee or an Applicant.
For Invitees
An invitee is someone you've invited via email but who hasn't accepted yet.
Resend Email — sends the invitation email again. Use this if they say they didn't get it.
Revoke Invite — disables the invitation link entirely. The invitee record is removed and the link they were sent stops working. Use this if you sent the invite by mistake or no longer want them to join.
For Applicants
An applicant is someone who has either accepted an invitation or applied directly through a sign-up page or funnel.
Send Reminder — sends an individual reminder email with an optional custom message. Useful when an applicant has stalled mid-onboarding.
Bypass — skips the applicant's remaining onboarding tasks and gives them immediate account access. They can complete the remaining tasks later from their My Elements page. Use this for trusted applicants who don't need to complete every task before getting started.
Remove Applicant — removes the applicant. Their account is deactivated and they're sent an automated rejection email. This is irreversible in terms of their onboarding progress, but the email template can be customised in Communications > Templates.
Reviewing tasks
Tasks an applicant has submitted appear in the detail view. Click into any task to:
See their submitted answers
Approve the task (which advances them through the workflow)
Complete the task on their behalf if needed
Some tasks block progress until they're approved — these are marked in the task list, and downstream tasks won't unlock until you approve them.
Comments
Comments are internal notes you can leave on an applicant. They're not visible to the applicant.
In the detail view, the comments section sits in the right sidebar (or below the tasks on mobile). You can:
Add a new comment using the rich text editor
Reply to comments to start a thread
Edit or delete your own comments
Comments are shared across all managers with access to the applicant. The list view shows a comment count badge on the Name column for any applicant with notes.
Use comments for context that other managers need but the applicant shouldn't see — for example, "Phone interview booked for Tuesday" or "Already volunteered with us in 2023 — no orientation needed".
Sending Reminders
For an individual applicant, use Send Reminder in their detail view.
For everyone matching your current filters, use the Remind All Volunteers button at the top of the page. This sends a reminder to every applicant matching your filters across all pages — not just the ones currently visible — so you can nudge an entire cohort of stalled applicants in one go. You can customise the reminder message before sending.
How Approval Works
An applicant's progress through onboarding is broken into stages, and you control whether each stage requires manual approval or auto-passes the applicant on. For full setup details, see Designing Your Volunteer Application.
Sign-up
The applicant submits their email and answers your screening questions. If the screening questions have incorrect answers, or you've set them to require review, the application appears in your Pending Review queue. Otherwise the applicant moves straight to the next stage.
Profile
The applicant fills out their personal profile (name, contact details, program selection, and any custom profile fields). If Manual Review is enabled on the profile stage, the applicant moves to Pending Review for you to approve. If not, they continue automatically.
Tasks
The applicant works through onboarding tasks, which are organised into stages you've defined in Task Management (e.g. Background Check, Training, Compliance). Each stage can require Manual Review or auto-approve when the applicant completes its tasks. Some tasks can also be set to block progress — these gate downstream tasks until you approve them.
Final approval
Once all required tasks are complete and approved, the applicant moves to Ready state. From there, you approve them as a fully activated volunteer and they get full access to Volaby.
In rare cases, the applicant can self-activate after all their required tasks are approved by clicking "Submit your profile" — but most setups have a manager do the final approval.
Notifications and Alerts
If you want to be notified by email when new applications come in or need review, set this up in Admin Console > Communications > Notifications & Alerts. You can configure who receives the alerts and which events trigger them.
The auto-rejection email sent to removed applicants can be customised in Admin Console > Communications > Templates.
Common Tasks
For tasks that have their own dedicated articles, see:
Designing Your Volunteer Application — setting up the application form, screening questions, profile, and onboarding tasks
Application Funnels — guided application flows for targeted campaigns
Notifications & Alerts — customising notification recipients
Email Templates — customising reminder and rejection email templates
Task Categories — tasks and task categories
Volaby Permissions — permissions for Program Managers and Admins