In Unison, an opportunity is the event or program your volunteers will support. Think of it as the “container” under which you manage related schedules, volunteers, and roles.
In this article:
How It Works
In Unison, each schedule is associated with exactly one opportunity. When you begin using Unison, you will pick an initial opportunity—all schedules will tie to it.
Use one opportunity for a single activity (e.g., bingo nights).
Use multiple opportunities for independent activities (e.g., bingo, soup kitchen, festival—one per type).
Opportunity types
Open opportunities allow anyone with the link to sign up. By signing up, that volunteer is added as a participant in the opportunity.
Qualified opportunities mean that only volunteers already qualified as a participant for the opportunity can sign up. Those participants may be in a list of participants, or part of a particular group.
Participants
Any time a volunteer is assigned to a position in a schedule, they are added as a participant in that opportunity.
In open opportunities or qualified opportunities that are tied to a group, the list of participants is the list of volunteers who have actually signed up for a position in that opportunity (unless you manually added a volunteer as a participant without putting them in a position).
In qualified opportunities that are tied to a specific list of participants, the list of participants is the list of volunteers who are allowed to sign up for a position in that opportunity.
Sub request emails
In a schedule with sub requests, participants are the ones who receive the sub request emails. If a volunteer is not assigned but wants to get sub requests, you can add them as a participant in that opportunity.
Non-qualified participants
In the instance where a qualified opportunity is tied to a specific group, there may be an instance where that person is removed from the group but still listed as a participant. In this case, they will be shown in red and will not be able to sign up or recieve sub requests unless they are re-added to the group.
Best Practices
| Scenario | Suggested Approach |
|---|---|
Multiple distinct programs (e.g., meals, tutoring, events) |
Create separate opportunities for each |
| You want to keep volunteer pools isolated | Create separate opportunities for each |
Public signups |
Use Open opportunities (anyone with link can join). |
Specific volunteers only |
Use Qualified opportunities (only added volunteers see schedules). |
Use clear, descriptive names for opportunities so both admins and volunteers know what each one is for (e.g. “Saturday Park Cleanups” vs just “Cleanup”).
Troubleshooting
Not able to manually place a volunteer on the schedule? Ensure they're added to the right opportunity as a participant.
Volunteer can't sign up? If the opportunity is qualified, be sure to add them to the opportunity as a participant.