Volunteer Time Off (VTO)

Employers can choose to offer a VTO program that allows employees to request that their volunteer participation is counted as "on-clock" volunteering during regular work hours.

Work with your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to activate and set up VTO for your community. Get started with Volunteer covers the VTO settings your CSM manages for you.

VTO eligibility

The following requirements apply for volunteer hours to be VTO-eligible:

  1. The charity must be included in the VTO program.

  2. Participation must occur within the program eligibility dates.

  3. For any non-Add Your Own (AYO) events, the VTO eligible checkbox must be selected.

In communities with an active VTO program, event creators can set whether an event is VTO-eligible so volunteers are aware before signing up.

When an event creator creates an event for a charity included in their community's VTO charity list and the event dates occur within the VTO program dates, the VTO eligible option appears on the event draft page, and it defaults to being enabled. The checkbox also appears in the Manage Event, Edit Event Details, Benefiting Organization section.

When VTO eligible is selected, the VTO program information appears in Eligible for on the event page. Participants can then apply for VTO when signing up for the event. Likewise, if VTO eligible is not selected, users will not see the VTO program information in Eligible for and cannot apply for VTO when signing up for the event.

Note: Although the VTO eligible option may not appear when creating an event for an AYO benefiting organization, these events are always set to VTO-eligible.

When applicable, users can sign up for an event with associated VTO hours.

  1. Navigate to Search Opportunities.

  2. Select an event. The event banner indicates if it is eligible for VTO.

  3. Select Sign Up.

  4. Select Add Shift to add the applicable shift(s) for each event occurrence.

  5. Select Next Step.

  6. Complete any required or applicable fields.

  7. In the Eligible for: section, select the button to apply for VTO. The label may vary between communities.

  8. Select the shift(s) and add applicable hours.

  9. In communities with manager approval enabled, select Search for Manager and select your manager's name.

  10. Select Sign Up. Depending on community settings, a manager or admin may need to provide approval before users receive credit for VTO.

After event completion, users can:

  1. Navigate to Volunteer, My Volunteering.

  2. Under History, select the event they participated in.

  3. In the event, select Edit Participation.

  4. Select the button to apply for VTO. The label may vary between communities.

  5. Select the shift(s) and add applicable hours.

  6. In communities with manager approval enabled, select Search for Manager and select your manager's name.

  7. Select Save. Depending on community settings, a manager or admin may need to provide approval before users receive credit for VTO.

  1. Navigate to Volunteer, Record Hours.

  2. Select Get Started.

  3. Complete all necessary and applicable fields to create a new activity.

  4. In the Eligible for: section, select the button to apply for VTO. The label may vary between communities.

  5. Select the shift(s) and add applicable hours.

  6. In communities with manager approval enabled, select Search for Manager and select your manager's name.

  7. Select Save. Depending on community settings, a manager or admin may need to provide approval before users receive credit for VTO.

VTO approval

VTO programs can be set to automatic approval, admin approval, or manager approval. This setting is configured by your Customer Success Manager when they set up your VTO program.

For communities using admin approval, admins can manage volunteer time off approvals from CSRconnect Admin Portal, Volunteer, VTO Approvals.

Managers can approve VTO requests from the CSRconnect community and do not need access to the CSRconnect Admin Portal.

  1. From the CSRconnect Community, navigate to Volunteer, VTO (label may vary between communities).

  2. Select Need Your Approval.

  3. For each request listed, select Manage Request.

  4. Select Approve Request or Decline Request. The VTO request is either approved or declined.