Overview
- Team: 6 coordinators; ~300 volunteers onboarded per year
- Tools in use: Airtable/Google Sheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, DocuSign, LMS platform links
- Goal: Faster volunteer onboarding, fewer drop-offs before first shift
Challenges
- Disjointed forms and manual email sequences — coordinators were chasing volunteers individually
- Background checks and training module links sent manually, often delayed by days
- No automated availability matching — coordinators built shift rosters from scratch each week
What we built
- Single intake form — triggers DocuSign agreements, background check request, and LMS enrolment automatically
- Shift matcher — compares volunteer availability against open slots and proposes matches for coordinator approval
- Expiry reminders — alerts coordinators before DBS checks, training certificates, or agreements expire
Stack & Integrations
- n8n (workflow automation)
- Airtable / Google Sheets (volunteer records)
- Gmail, Google Calendar
- DocuSign (agreements and DBS consent forms)
- LMS platform links (training module dispatch)
Results
- Time from application to first shift reduced by 60%
- Coordinator admin reduced by ~8 hours/week
- 90-day volunteer retention up 12% — fewer drop-offs from slow onboarding
Timeline
- Total build: 10 business days (discovery through handover)
Governance
- Role-based access — coordinators can view their own volunteers only
- Audit log for all onboarding stage transitions
- DocuSign-encrypted agreements; minimal PII in workflow logs
- UK GDPR compliant — data processing agreement signed with all tool providers