How to Create a Volunteer Application Form in WordPress

You’re running a nonprofit, and volunteer applications are pouring in. Awesome, right? Well, not so much when you don’t have a streamlined system in place and are relying on email applications from potential helpers. That can turn into a nightmare very soon!

But this entire process can be simplified if you systematically accept applications using a volunteer application form on your WordPress site.

While that might sound daunting, I assure you that it’s anything but!

In this article, I’ll show you how to set up a professional-looking volunteer form on your WordPress site without writing a single line of code.

Create Your  Volunteer Recruitment Form Now ✋

How to Set Up a Volunteer Application Form in WordPress

Follow these step-by-step instructions to create your volunteer form for your website and start recruiting people to help your nonprofit.

Step 1: Install WPForms

WPForms is the most beginner-friendly option for building a customized volunteer application form in WordPress. I recommend using the WPForms Pro license to take advantage of features that can help your application form grow your nonprofit even faster.

After purchasing WPForms Pro, go ahead and install the plugin on your website. Never installed a plugin before? Don’t worry, it’s easy as pie as explained in our guide on installing WPForms.

Done with the installation? Excellent! It’s time to start building the volunteer form.

Step 2: Create a Volunteer Form

Open your WordPress admin menu and go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form.

On the setup screen, name your form and scroll down to the bottom of the templates screen, where it says Select a Template.

Type “volunteer” into the search bar. You’ll see several form templates for volunteer organizations that you can customize with more than 1,800+ template options to choose from the template library.

I’ll be using the Volunteer Recruitment Form template for this tutorial by clicking on the Use Template button under the template.

Your template will then load in the form builder.

This template covers all the details you’ll likely need for your form. But if you’d like to edit some parts of it, feel free to do so.

In the next step, I’ll tweak some things with this template by adding a few extra fields.

Step 3: Customize Your Volunteer Form

I’m going to change one thing in this form template – I’ll remove the Paragraph field that asks volunteers to list relevant experiences and add several more specific fields instead.

It’s perfectly fine to use the existing Paragaprh field to capture details of all relevant experiences. But if you want to take information in a more organized and precise manner, using the Repeater field is going to be ideal here.

Add Repeater Field for Experience Details

First of all, let’s remove the Paragraph field related to relevant experiences by clicking on Trash icon.

After that, I’ll add 4 new fields as follows:

• Organization – A Single Line Text field where volunteers can insert the names of organizations they previously worked for.
• Role – A Single Line Text field for adding information about the role a volunteer performed for the organization.
• Start Date – A Date/Time field to let the visitor specify when they started volunteering for the organization.
• End Date – A Date/Time field to indicate the date they quit volunteering for the organization.

Now, I’ll add the Repeater field just above the new fields.

Once you’ve added the Repeater field to your form, click on it to open Field Options on the left.

Here, you can change the field name label (I changed it to “Past Volunteer Experience”) and adjust other settings. For example, I’ll be using the 4-column layout because I’d like to include 4 fields related to a volunteer’s past experience in the repeatable section.

After selecting the layout, you’ll notice 4 separate drop zones appear inside the Repeater field. You can now simply drag the 4 fields underneath the Repeater section one by one in the drop zones.

That looks neat, right?

Now, the volunteer filling out the application will be able to duplicate this entire row of fields by pressing the ‘+‘ button on the right.

Other Customizations

You can also customize any field by clicking on it to open its field options.

For example, if you do not want to show Address Line 2 above the postal code in the address field, you just need to click on the Address field in the preview.

Then, under Field Options, click Advanced and toggle on the Hide setting near the Address Line 2 field.

When you’re done adding and customizing all your form fields, click Save.

You’re now ready to configure your volunteer application form’s notifications.

Step 4: Configure Your Volunteer Form’s Notifications & Confirmations

WPForms lets you customize form notifications. You can access this setting by going to Settings » Notifications inside the form builder.

By default, a notification for the site admin is already enabled. However, you can change the email’s content, subject line, and recipient’s address if you’d like.

You can also send a notification to the volunteer when they’ve submitted the application. This assures people their application has gone through properly.

Check out our step-by-step tutorial on how to send multiple form notifications in WordPress for more details.

Adding to this, if you want to keep branding across your emails consistent, you can check out this guide on adding a custom header to your email template.

Next, let’s see how to set up a simple form confirmation in WPForms so you can customize the message site visitors will see when they apply to volunteer for your nonprofit organization.

To start, click on the Confirmations tab under Settings.

Next, select the type of confirmation type you’d like to create. For this example, we’ll select Message.

Then, customize the confirmation message to your liking and click Save.

For help with other confirmation types, see our documentation on setting up form confirmations.

Now, you’re ready to add your volunteer application form to your website.

Step 5: Add the Volunteer Application Form to Your Website

After you’ve set up a volunteer application form, you need to add it to your WordPress website.

WPForms allows you to add your forms to many locations on your website, including your blog posts, pages, and even sidebar widgets.

Let’s take a look at the most common page embed option.

Start by clicking on the Embed button at the top of the form builder.

And when the Embed in a Page notification pops up, go ahead and click on Create New Page.

Next, WPForms will ask you to name your page. Type the title for the page into the box and click Let’s Go!

Now, WPForms will open a new page for your volunteer form where you’ll find your form embedded as a block.

Before you proceed to publish the form, I’d highly encourage you to add stylistic changes to your forms. This is a great way to make your forms more attention-grabbing with visually impressive designs.

If you’re on WPForms Pro, you can select a ready-made theme to instantly glam up the look and feel of your form. Click on the area around the form to open the block options on the right-hand panel. Then, try different themes from the list of available options.

I’m using the Range theme in this example.

You can also manually customize the styles of individual form components without any code.

Happy with your form’s appearance? Great! Let’s go ahead and click Publish at the top to go live with this form.

Don’t forget to check out your form on the frontend. It’s also a good idea to fill out the first test entry yourself.

Fantastic! Now, you can easily take volunteer applications using this form and track applications conveniently on your WordPress backend.

Bonus Tips for Your Nonprofit Website

With WPForms, you can accomplish more things for your nonprofit organization than just creating a volunteer application form.

Let’s take a look at a few possibilities.

• Set a Deadline For Volunteers to Apply
• Accept Online Donations
• Use Nonprofit Newsletter Signup Forms
• Try Multi-page Forms
• Make Survey or Poll Forms

Set a Deadline For Volunteers to Apply

The WPForms Form Locker addon includes tons of settings to restrict access to your form. For example, you can:

• Close applications on a certain date by adding an automatic expiration date to your form.
• Limit the number of people who can sign up to volunteer for a specific event.
• Only allow people who are over 18 years old to volunteer by adding an age restriction.
• Require new volunteers to create an account on your website.

Accept Online Donations

Raising funds for your charity is as important as recruiting volunteers, and it can help you to fund special events or objectives. To receive donations online, check out how to create a donation form.

Use Nonprofit Newsletter Signup Forms

By adding a newsletter signup checkbox to your form, you can keep in touch with your volunteers.

You can connect your form with popular email marketing tools including:

• Constant Contact
• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
• AWeber
• Mailchimp
• GetResponse
• Campaign Monitor
• Drip
• ActiveCampaign
• and more…

Try Multi-Page Forms

You’re more likely to get more form submissions when your form is broken down into multiple pages rather than presented as a long form. In this example, we put the street address fields on page 2 to make the form more compact.

Here’s how to easily split your form into multiple pages.

Make Survey or Poll Forms

You can ask existing or potential volunteers which events they’d most like to see your organization put on by creating a poll form for your website.

You can also get more detailed information from volunteers, including how they feel about your nonprofit organization and volunteer services, by creating a survey form on your site.

Explore More Volunteer Form Templates

The WPForms library includes many variations of volunteer form templates tailored for different nonprofit scenarios such as:

• Volunteer Agreement Form Template
• Volunteer Signup Form Template
• Volunteer Availability Form Template

And there you have it! You now know how to set up a volunteer form in WordPress using the WPForms Pro plugin.

More Questions on Volunteer Application Forms

If you’ve got other questions about volunteer application forms, the following commonly asked questions might provide some additional context. Feel free to leave more questions in the comments!

Why create an online volunteer form?

You may be wondering what the benefits of having a WordPress volunteer form are. There are a lot, but here are some key reasons:

• Keep contact information secure and organized in your WordPress dashboard.
• Set up automated marketing campaigns to email interested volunteers immediately.
• Reach way more people who may be browsing your website and willing to help you by volunteering.
• and more…

Is it possible to limit the number of applications I receive?

Yes, you can limit the number of applications you receive using the Entry Limits & Restrictions settings offered by the WPForms Form Locker addon. This allows you to set limits both for individual applicants and the overall number of applications you can accept.

Can I add a file upload option for resumes or other documents?

Yes, you can add a file upload field with WPForms. This lets users upload documents in various formats (docx., .pdf, .xlsx.) as well as other files like images and audio.

How do I add a digital signature field to my volunteer application form?

To add a digital signature field, you’ll need the WPForms Signature Addon. The addon gives you the ability to collect digital signatures from applicants when they submit the form. The signature is saved as an image file in your entry for future reference, too.

Can I create different versions of the form for different volunteer positions?

Absolutely. With WPForms, you can save any form as a template and then duplicate multiple copies of it as you need. Essentially, you’ll be starting from the same blueprint for the form and then modifying it to create different unique versions. This is much easier than creating a new form from scratch every time.

Is it possible to set up automatic responses to applicants after they submit the form?

Yes, you can send an automated response directly to the applicant’s inbox as they submit the form. You can use the automated response to confirm to the applicant that their application has been received and provide some information about next steps.

Next, Get Your WPForms Nonprofit License

Did you know that WPForms offers a nonprofit discount?

WPForms Pro is available to qualified nonprofits at a 75% discount. That’s only $99/year for the world’s most powerful form builder for WordPress.

Get Your  WPForms Nonprofit License Now

So you’ll find it easier than ever to get volunteers and accept donations right on your WordPress website.

And if you’re thinking about creating a donation page on your website, be sure to check out these exceptional donation page examples to inspire your fundraising efforts.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today.

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