How to Set Up a Volunteer Application Form in WordPress

by Lindsay Liedke on Aug 2, 2018

Are you looking to recruit volunteers for your nonprofit? Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization, and recruiting them on your website can give your organization a huge boost.

In this article, we’ll show you how to set up a volunteer application form in WordPress.

Step 1: Create a Volunteer Application Form

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see this step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Next, you’ll need to install and activate the Form Templates Pack Addon.

With this addon, you’ll be able to access the pre-built volunteer application form template, as well as tons of other industry and niche specific templates for creating customized forms for your site.

This saves you the time needed to manually add volunteer application form fields to a simple contact form.

Click Install Addon and Activate.

Next, 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 Additional Templates.

Type “Volunteer” into the search bar and the Volunteer Recruitment Form template will appear.

Click on the template and WPForms will create a volunteer application form for you.

Step 2: Customize Your Volunteer Application Form

WPForms makes customizing forms easy to do.

In addition to the standard form fields Name, Address, Email, and Phone Number, you’ll notice the following volunteer application form fields:

• Multiple Choice
• Checkboxes
• Paragraph Text

With these form fields, you can ask prospective volunteers about:

• The programs or events they’re interested in
• How many hours they can dedicate to your organization
• What days of the week they’re available
• Previous volunteer experience
• How they heard about your organization

You can add additional form fields to your volunteer application form by dragging them from the left hand panel to the right hand panel. You can also customize the fields by clicking on the field.

For example, if you do not want to show Address Line 2 in the address field, you just need to click on the address field on the right side.

Then, in the left section, under Field Options, click Advanced Options and click the checkbox near to the Address Line 2.

Make sure to set the compulsory fields as required, so users can’t submit the form without filling those fields.

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

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

Step 4: Configure Your Volunteer Application Form Settings

To start, go to Settings » General.

Here you can configure the following:

• Form Name. Rename your form here.
• Form Description. Give your form a description.
• Submit Button Text. Customize the copy on the submit button. In our example, we’ll change our submit button to say “Volunteer Now.”
• Spam Prevention. Enable the anti-spam honeypot feature to prevent fake applications and keep your website secure. This feature is automatically enabled on all WordPress forms. If you decide to use another form of spam prevention, unclick this option.
• GDPR Enhancements. You can disable the storing of entry information and user details, such as IP addresses and user agents, in an effort to comply with GDPR requirements. In addition, check out our step by step instructions on how to add a GDPR agreement field to your site’s forms.

When you’re done, click Save.

Step 5: Configure Your Volunteer Application Form’s Notifications

Notifications are a great way to send an email whenever an application is submitted on your website.

In fact, unless you disable this feature, whenever someone submits a volunteer application form on your site, you’ll get a notification about it.

If you use smart tags, you can also send a notification to the user when they apply to volunteer, letting them know you received their application and will be in contact shortly. This assures people their application has gone through properly.

For help with this step, check out our documentation on how to set up form notifications in WordPress.

And if you need to send more than one notification, for example to yourself, a volunteer coordinator, and the volunteer applicant, check out our step by step tutorial on how to send multiple form notifications in WordPress.

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.

Step 6: Configure Your Volunteer Application Form’s Confirmations

Form confirmations are messages that display to site visitors once they submit an application on your website. They let people know that their application has been processed and offer you the chance to let them know what the next steps are.

WPForms has three confirmation types to choose from:

1. Message. This is the default confirmation type in WPForms. When a site visitor submits a volunteer application form, a simple message confirmation will appear letting them know their application was processed. Look here for some great success messages to help boost customer happiness.
2. Show Page. This confirmation type will take site visitors to a specific web page on your site thanking them for applying. For help doing this, check out our tutorial on redirecting customers to a thank you page. In addition, be sure to check out our article on creating effective Thank You pages for boosting customer loyalty.
3. Go to URL (Redirect). This option is used when you want to send site visitors to a different website.

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 Confirmation tab in the Form Editor 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 out documentation on setting up form confirmations.

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

Step 7: Add Your 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 post/page embed option.

To start, create a new post or page in WordPress and then click on the Add Form button.

Next, select your contact form in the modal popup and click Add Form.

Then, publish your post or page so your volunteer application form will appear on your website.

More Forms to Support Your Nonprofit

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:

• Donation Forms: Raising funds for your charity is as important as recruiting volunteers. To receive donation funds, you’ll need the PayPal or Stripe payment addons. Here’s how to create a donation form.
• Newsletter Signup Forms: By integrating a newsletter with your application form, you can keep in touch with your volunteers. You can connect your form with popular email marketing tools including AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, or Drip.
• 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. Here’s how to split your form into multiple pages.
• 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, by creating a survey form on your site. For help with your survey forms, check out this article full of sample Likert scale questions you can use for inspiration.

And there you have it! You now know how to set up a volunteer application form in WordPress.

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.

And don’t forget, if you like this article, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.