Did you know you could add a waitlist to any event you create in VolunteerHub? Waitlists are a great way to manage interest on your popular events once they’re full as well as maintain a fair, first-come-first-served system for cancellations and subsequent sign-ups.


Scroll down to read all about VolunteerHub’s waitlist option, or click on a link below to jump to the corresponding topic.


What is a waitlist and how does it work?
How do I apply a waitlist to my event?
Can I add or remove users from the waitlist manually?
Can I report on waitlisted users?

What is a waitlist and how does it work?


Generally, volunteers are added to a waitlist if they are interested in an event that is already full. Then, once a slot opens up, a user from the waitlist is added to the event.

Once enabled on an event, the waitlist in VolunteerHub is fully automated, requiring no effort on the coordinator’s part to add or remove volunteers from the waitlist. When waitlisting is enabled, the registration process for the volunteer is as follows:


Step 1: As soon as the Event Slot Limit for the event is met (meaning the event is full), the Join Waitlist button becomes active.

Step 2: If a user clicks on the Join Waitlist button, the event registration wizard will notify them that they’re being added to a waitlist for the event and that they will be registered automatically if a slot opens up.

Step 3: If someone who was registered for the event cancels, the first user who was added to the waitlist is registered for the event automatically and will receive the event Confirmation Message as an email informing them they are now registered. The email contains a cancellation link in case the volunteer already made other plans.


Join Waitlist screen explains to the volunteer that they are joining a waitlist.


Confirmation Screen informing volunteer of being on the waitlist.


Waitlists can be applied for any volunteer who registers for the event, or just for a specific group of volunteers via a user group reservation.


How do I apply a waitlist to my event?


First, click on the name of your event. Then, click the ellipsis (...) button to the right for each group reservation on the event, including Unaffiliated Users (i.e., individuals) and select the "Edit User Group Reservation" from the menu that appears.

Once in the Group Reservation options, toggle the Waitlist option to "on," then click the Save button.



Can I add or remove users from the waitlist manually?


When logged in as an administrator, you will also have the ability to add someone to a waitlist manually when registering them for the event. After clicking Register a User and selecting the user, choose YES under Add to Waitlist before clicking the Register User button to register the user directly for the waitlist only. This will trigger a waitlist confirmation email to be sent to the user.


You can also remove someone from the waitlist at any time, which will trigger a confirmation email to be sent to that person. As an administrator, you can do this even if the event is still full. To remove a user from the waitlist, click the ellipsis (...) button for their registration and select "Remove from Waitlist".  This will register the user for the event immediately and send them a confirmation email.


How do I know if a user is waitlisted?

Waitlisted users display within the list of registered users.  There are two indications that they are waitlisted and not actually registered:

  1. They have a 'W/L' next to their name
  2. They are taking up 0 slots


Can I report on waitlisted users?

Waitlists are generally intended as an automated way of managing registration fairly for your most popular events. That said, waitlisted users will appear in the unformatted Event Registrations report, which makes it possible for you to collect a list of users who were waitlisted and never fully registered for past events.

To run a “waitlist-only” report in VolunteerHub, navigate to the Reports page, select the Unformatted Reports tab at the top, and click Event Registrations. Select the desired filters and click Preview Report, then click the “Download Full Report” link at the bottom of the screen to download the full report into Microsoft Excel.


Once the report opens in Excel, immediately click on the Data tab and click on the "filter" icon (looks like a funnel). This will apply filters across the top row in your report. Finally, click the small down-arrow under the "User Slots" column, uncheck “Select All,” re-check “0” and click OK. Your report will now only list users waitlisted for events during the selected time range.

You can then use this report to collect email addresses for a mass mailing, or calculate a total of all waitlisted individuals for the selected time range.