Written by Jordan Galerkin

Over the past two quarters, the team at Track it Forward has been working to implement new updates to events, milestones and more. It's now easier than ever to manage events, signups, and track volunteer progress.

Events

We've implemented a variety of event feature updates for all users, as well as some specific features for advanced-plan users. Learn about all events features in this help article.

All Plans

Schedule to Publish

Events can now be scheduled to publish automatically at a chosen date and time, eliminating the need for manual publishing.

When creating or editing your event, change the Event Status to "Scheduled" at the bottom of the page. You have the option to schedule based on a date relative to your event date, or on a specific date and time.

Scheduled events will display in the updated Drafts & Scheduled tab of your event calendar.

Address and Contact Fields

Events now have dedicated fields for address, city, state, and contact person. The location field will display a map on your event with a hyperlink to Google Maps for directions.

The contact person field is designed for contacts outside of Track it Forward, or as a place to list a phone number. This contact will not receive event notifications. They will only receive messages if volunteers reach out directly through Track it Forward.

This update is found in the new Location and Contact section when creating or editing an event.

Note: Please update to the most recent version of the mobile app to see this update.

Item Signup

Organizers can now create an event specifically for item sign-ups. When creating your event, select "Items" as the event type. You can then add your items and assign an hour value to each item. Learn more in this help article.

Ongoing Events with End Dates

Ongoing events now support end dates, making it easier to manage multi-week or year-round activities. The end date will automatically remove the event from your calendar once it has passed. 

To add an end date, edit/create an event and check the box for “This is an ongoing event” in the Date section. An end date field will appear below where you can add your date.

Additionally, volunteers can associate multiple hour logs with the ongoing event for volunteer dates prior to the end date. Learn more in this help article.

Bulk Duplicate on Specific Dates

You can now bulk duplicate events onto specific dates. In the Bulk Duplicate tool, under "How do you want to duplicate your event?", select "Pick Specific Dates."  You can list as many individual dates within the next two years as you wish.

Link Duplicated Events Together

When you bulk duplicate events, you can now choose if you wish to manage the duplicated events individually, or if you would like to link them together.

If you link them together, when you edit any of the linked events, a new setting will appear at the bottom of the edit page asking you to confirm how you would like to save your changes. You can either keep the event linked and update all future events, or you can unlink the event to manage it individually. 

Learn how to manage linked events in this help article.

Advanced Plan Only

Registration Dates

Organizers can now set sign-up start dates and registration deadlines to fully control when volunteers can register or withdraw their sign up. Opening sign-ups on a scheduled date helps manage initial demand, while locking RSVPs before an event prevents last-minute cancellations and ensures more reliable attendance by requiring volunteers to contact you directly to make changes.

These features are available on the Advanced plan under the new "Registration" section when creating or editing an event. Start dates and deadlines can be set using a specific date or a date and time relative to the event date.

Event Waitlist

You can now enable a waitlist for each event on the Advanced plan. When enabled, volunteers can join a waitlist for a shift once it is full. When a cancellation occurs, they will automatically be signed up for the shift and receive a notification.

This setting is located under the shift section when creating or editing an event. Learn more about the event waitlist in this help article.

Milestones and More

Upcoming Milestone Improvements

Milestone updates launched to an early access list in August. These updates will roll out to all users over the coming months. Features include new functionality like multiple time periods, fixed time periods, inactive milestones, and more. The user experience will be improved with an updated interface and detailed milestone view. For a full list of improvements to the milestones feature, read this product update.

Enhanced Formatting for Custom Site Messages

You can now format volunteer site messages with bold, italic, underline, and adjustable font sizes and colors, making your messages more engaging and easy to read. Plus, you can now include up to 5 attachments with your message.

Find this functionality by going to Organizer Dashboard > Volunteers > select recipients > use the action menu to Send Message > Run