Recognizing volunteers with milestones

This feature is available on the Pro Plan.

Reaching an hours goal, celebrating a volunteer anniversary, or making a special contribution are all reasons to say thank you. Milestones help the team keep track of those moments and make recognition a regular part of the volunteer program. Timecounts can record milestones automatically as volunteers meet the criteria, or an admin can award one for something that numbers don’t capture. Some teams think of these as awards or recognition levels.

Milestones appear on the volunteer’s profile card under Checklist → Milestones. The checklist is only visible to admins with the appropriate permissions, but you can add an email action to share the celebration with the volunteer. Milestones don’t expire, and repeatable milestones are recorded each time they’re reached.

For things volunteers need to complete or renew, such as training or a background check, use Requirements.

You don’t need a full recognition program to get started. Begin with a few milestones, like a volunteer’s first 25 credited hours or a year with the organization, and build from there. Most milestones are tracked automatically, so once they’re set up, the team doesn’t need to check off each one. You can also create milestones to award manually for special contributions.
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Give some thought as a team to what you’d like to celebrate and how. Milestones can reflect what matters to your organization and connect to a personal thank-you, a celebration, or a special reward. Let volunteers know what you’re recognizing and how it will be celebrated, so they have something to look forward to.

Go to Settings → Checklist and open the Milestones tab. Select Add Milestone in the top right and enter a name. Set up the criteria and any actions using the steps below, then select Save. Once saved, the list shows how each milestone is reached, such as “Once a volunteer is credited 100 hours”. Repeat for each milestone on the list.

Under How is this milestone reached?, select what you’d like to recognize:

​Hours volunteered: A set number of volunteer hours. Select Hours credited or Hours scheduled.
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Activities volunteered: A set number of shifts, events or logged time entries, such as 10 in a month. Each logged entry counts as one activity, including time logged outside a scheduled shift.

​Volunteer anniversary: A set time since the volunteer’s join date, such as one year.

​Birthday: A volunteer’s birthday, if their date of birth is recorded. Use it to send a birthday email. Birthdays aren’t added to the volunteer’s milestones.

​Leaderboard: A place among the top volunteers, such as number one or the top 10, In a month, In a year, or All time.

​Awarded manually: A contribution an admin recognizes, such as helping another volunteer or going above and beyond. Select Once or More than once.

For hours and activities, also select the period to measure: All time, In a year, In a month, or Custom start, which measures a yearly period from a date you choose, such as April 1.

Some milestones only happen once. Others are worth celebrating again. How often a volunteer can reach a milestone depends on its settings:

​All time: Reached once, such as a volunteer’s first 100 credited hours.

​In a year, In a month or Custom start: Under Can be reached, select Once to recognize only the first period a volunteer meets the goal, or More than once to recognize every period they meet it. This also applies to monthly and yearly leaderboards. Each time is recorded with its date.

​Awarded manually: Select Once or More than once to decide whether the team can award it again.

If a milestone can be reached more than once and has an email action, the volunteer receives the email each time, so write it in a way that still makes sense the next time.

When you save a new milestone, Timecounts doesn’t email volunteers who have already reached it. The milestone is added to their profile quietly, and any tag action still runs. This avoids a volunteer receiving several emails at once, such as for 25, 50 and 100 hours, or a thank-you for something they did long ago. If the milestone has an email action, you’ll see a Milestone Emails message before saving as a reminder.

Where volunteer records show when the milestone was reached, that date is recorded on their profile.

From then on, volunteers who reach the milestone get the email. To celebrate volunteers who already have it, use the Milestones filter in the Directory to find them and send a personal message.

Under Additional actions, select Add Action. Use Send an email to select a custom recognition email template, or Add a tag to apply a tag to the volunteer’s profile. For automatic milestones, actions run when a volunteer reaches the milestone from then on. For manual milestones, they run when an admin awards the milestone. Select Save when the milestone is ready.

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For example, a 100 Hours tag could help the team find volunteers to invite to an appreciation event.

A thoughtful thank-you tells the volunteer which milestone they’ve reached and why their contribution matters. Keep it personal and specific to the milestone, and include any next step, such as an invitation to a celebration. If the milestone can be reached more than once, use wording that will still make sense the next time.

Create the message under Settings → Email Templates, then select it in the milestone’s email action.

Open the volunteer’s profile card in the Directory and go to Checklist → Milestones. This view only shows milestones the volunteer has reached or been awarded, newest first, including each time a repeatable milestone was reached.

For a contribution the team would like to recognize personally, create a milestone with Awarded manually selected. Open the volunteer’s profile card in the Directory and go to Checklist → Milestones. Select Award Milestone, then select the milestone to award. Only manually awarded milestones appear in this list. Any email or tag actions attached to the milestone run when it’s awarded. To remove a manually awarded milestone or change its date, open it on the volunteer’s profile card. Automatic milestones can’t be removed or edited this way.

Automatic milestones are based on volunteer records, so they can’t be unchecked or removed directly on the profile card. If a milestone was added because of incorrect information, check and correct the hours, activity records, or other details behind it. If the corrected records no longer meet the criteria, the milestone is removed. Emails already sent and tags already added stay.

In the Directory, use the Milestones filter to find volunteers who have or haven’t reached a milestone. For example, you could find everyone who has reached 100 hours and invite them to a celebration, or combine the filter with other Directory filters to find a specific group.
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See Filtering volunteers by requirements and milestones for the filter options.

In Settings → Checklist → Milestones, drag the handle beside a milestone up or down. You can group related milestones or arrange the list to make it easier for the team to manage. This changes the order in Settings only. Milestones on volunteer profiles stay newest first.

Go to Settings → Checklist → Milestones, hover over the milestone, and select the pencil icon. Make the changes, then select Save. These settings apply across the organization.

In Settings → Checklist → Milestones, select the trash icon beside the milestone. Deleting it permanently removes the milestone from every volunteer’s profile. This cannot be undone, so make sure those records are no longer needed before deleting.