Our primary goal is to ensure volunteers have a great experience volunteering. Having a login is an important element of this.
How the Timecounts Login Benefits Organizations:
Volunteers will no longer receive multiple verification emails when they signup. They will only need to complete a verification once.
It prevents contamination of your volunteer database. As form responses are linked directly to profiles in the directory, this means a submission could accidentally overwrite contact information, which is very confusing.
It provides a consistent onboarding experience for volunteers. Prior to requiring that all new signups create an account, it was confusing for Admins to know who had an account and who didn't. Volunteers already thought they did have an account and it would be confusing and waste time unnecessarily. Some Opportunities also have permission settings that require a volunteer to be logged in to view, this makes it very clear and everyone has the same expectation
Timecounts has a smart form, which means we hide information that volunteers have already completed (unless you request otherwise). Without enforcing an account login, Volunteers will waste time completing questions you already have the answers to.
Alternative to Creating an Account
If you have a volunteer that is unable to create an account, you can still add and assign them to Opportunities manually.
There is no option to turn off account signup / login on Timecounts. Opportunities can be shared publicly, but anyone that wishes to signup via Timecounts will need to create an account as it's the only way we can ensure a great experience.
I am concerned that requiring my volunteers to create an account means that Timecounts will contact them or share their information.
Timecounts is not Facebook and our business model does not involve advertising. We do not communicate with volunteers. There are only a handful of administrative reasons we would email someone with a Timecounts account.
Initial verification email to confirm their email and rule out spam.
A one-time welcome email explaining how a Timecounts account works.
If they forget their password and trigger a reset.
Or, if they contact us directly via the Help Center.
All other communication comes from Organizations they are connected to on Timecounts, with their own privacy preferences and settings. We do not sell or create lists of contacts to use for sales or marketing purposes.