Create Group-Specific Onboarding Forms for Volunteers, Members, and Staff
Whether you’re managing volunteers, members, staff, board members, or participants, one of the biggest challenges organizations face is creating effective volunteer onboarding forms and collecting the right information while keeping everyone organized.
For organizations with multiple chapters, locations, departments, ministries, committees, or teams, spreadsheets and paper forms quickly become difficult to manage.
That’s why the PlanHero Impact Plan includes Group-Specific Onboarding Forms, allowing organizations to organize people into Groups, collect important information, gather waivers and agreements, and streamline onboarding from a single platform.
What Are Group-Specific Onboarding Forms?
Groups are the foundation of volunteer and member management within the PlanHero Impact Plan.
Each Group can represent a chapter, location, department, committee, ministry, team, staff division, or any other organizational structure your organization uses.
For example, an organization called Community Centers might create Groups such as:
- Downtown Chapter
- East Side Chapter
- West Side Chapter
- Executive Committee
Each Group can have its own:
- Members
- Administrators
- Logo
- Description
- Onboarding Form
- Events and Signups
This allows organizations to maintain separate onboarding processes while managing everything within a single PlanHero account.
How to Set Up a Group
Creating a Group is simple.
After subscribing to the PlanHero Impact Plan, account owners can create Groups during onboarding or at any time from the dashboard.
For each Group, you can:
- Create a Group name.
- Upload a custom Group logo.
- Configure onboarding requirements.
- Invite members to join.
Organizations commonly create Groups based on:
- Chapters or locations
- Volunteer teams
- Staff departments
- Church ministries
- Parent organizations
- Leadership committees
- Board members
- Community programs
Each Group becomes its own management hub within PlanHero while remaining connected to your organization’s overall account.
Build a Customized Onboarding Form
One of the most powerful features of Groups is the ability to create customized onboarding forms tailored to your organization’s needs. The account owner can create a single onboarding form and then apply it to ALL Groups, or just assign it to a few Groups. In this manner, a Group with very specific information needs can have an onboarding form that is specific to their Group only. For example, you may have a Group that specifically works with children and therefore needs unique licensing and training requirements for those volunteers.
Contact Information
Collect standard member information such as:
- Mailing address
- City, state, and zip code
- Phone number
- Email address
Administrators can choose whether specific fields are required or optional.
Availability
Need to know when people are available to help?
PlanHero allows you to customize availability options to match your organization’s operations.
Examples include:
- Morning, afternoon, and evening availability
- Days of the week
- Seasonal schedules
- Overnight availability
- Shelter shifts
- Program-specific schedules
Organizations have complete flexibility to define availability in the way that works best for them.
Skills and Qualifications
PlanHero includes starter skill categories, but organizations can fully customize skills and qualifications to fit their needs.
Examples include:
- EMT Certified
- Nurse
- Physician
- Teacher
- Driver
- Translator
- Construction Experience
- Event Planning
- Fundraising
This helps organizations identify volunteers and members with specialized skills when opportunities arise.
Custom Questions
Need additional information?
Administrators can create custom onboarding questions using:
- Multiple-choice fields
- Checkboxes
- Dropdown menus
Examples include:
- Are you 18 years of age or older?
- Why are you interested in volunteering?
- Which programs are you interested in supporting?
- Have you volunteered with us before?
- Do you have any certifications or licenses?
Questions can be marked as required or optional depending on your organization’s requirements.
Collect Waivers, Agreements, and Consents
Many organizations require members to acknowledge policies or sign agreements before participating.
PlanHero makes it easy to collect these acknowledgements during onboarding.
Examples include:
- General liability releases
- Volunteer agreements
- Media and publicity releases
- Parent consent forms
- Code of conduct acknowledgements
- Organizational policies
Organizations can either:
- Enter the agreement text directly into PlanHero (e.g. copying and pasting the text)
- Upload a PDF document for review
Administrators can also determine whether an agreement is optional or required before a member can complete onboarding.
As always, organizations should consult their own legal advisors regarding the content and enforceability of any agreements they choose to use. PlanHero is not responsible for the legality of these agreements – neither in content nor enforceability of the format to which they are agreed.
How Organizations Use Group Onboarding Forms
Once a Group’s onboarding form is complete, PlanHero generates a unique onboarding link.
Organizations commonly share this link through:
- Email invitations
- Volunteer recruitment campaigns
- Staff onboarding programs
- Church communications
- School parent portals
- Community outreach initiatives
- Member newsletters
- Organization websites
When individuals click the link, they are guided through the onboarding process and automatically added to the appropriate Group.
This eliminates manual data entry and ensures consistent information collection across your organization.
Benefits of Group-Specific Onboarding Forms
- Centralize volunteer, member, and staff information
- Reduce administrative workload
- Eliminate paper forms
- Digitally collect waivers and agreements
- Better understand member skills and availability
- Organize people by chapter, location, or department
- Create consistent onboarding processes
- Improve reporting and member management
- Scale volunteer and member programs more effectively
Most importantly, onboarding becomes a repeatable and professional process that grows alongside your organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I create multiple Groups?
Yes. Organizations can create multiple Groups to represent chapters, departments, committees, teams, ministries, locations, or any other organizational structure. The basic Impact Plan includes five Groups, but customers can upgrade to add additional Groups.
Can each Group have a different onboarding form?
Absolutely. Each Group can maintain its own onboarding questions, requirements, waivers, and agreements.
Can I require members to accept a waiver?
Yes. Agreements and waivers can be made mandatory before onboarding is completed.
Can I upload a PDF waiver?
Yes. Administrators can upload PDF documents or enter agreement text directly within PlanHero.
Can I collect volunteer skills and availability?
Yes. Organizations can customize skills, qualifications, availability schedules, and additional onboarding questions to fit their needs.
Can onboarding forms be linked from my website?
Yes. Every Group receives a unique onboarding link that can be shared by email, included in recruitment campaigns, or added directly to your website.
Who can use Group Onboarding Forms?
Group Onboarding Forms are commonly used by nonprofits, schools, churches, community organizations, associations, membership organizations, and staff engagement and CSR programs.
Availability by PlanHero Plan
Group Management and Group-Specific Onboarding Forms are available as part of the PlanHero Impact Plan.
The Impact Plan was designed for organizations that need next-level management of volunteers, members, staff, and participants across multiple Groups, chapters, locations, and teams.
Ready to Simplify Volunteer and Member Onboarding?
Whether you’re managing volunteers, members, staff, board members, or participants, PlanHero’s Group-Specific Onboarding Forms help you collect information, organize people, manage agreements, and create a scalable onboarding process.
With customizable forms, digital waivers, skills tracking, availability collection, and dedicated Groups, your organization can spend less time managing paperwork and more time focusing on its mission.
Schedule a free demo today to see how the PlanHero Impact Plan can help your organization streamline volunteer and member management.
