Volunteer communication tools
Reach every volunteer on the channel they actually use.
Send bulk and individual emails from your own Google or Microsoft mailbox, communicate using 1-1, group or shift-based chatrooms, and create reusable notifications for shift reminders, birthdays, and volunteer recognition.
vomevolunteer.com/messages
EMAIL COMPOSER
From 
marie@goodhealth.org via Gmail
marie@goodhealth.org via Gmail To Hospital volunteers · onboarded 84 recipients
Subject Spring schedule is open
Template: Schedule open
Hi {{first_name}}, the spring schedule for the hospital companion program just opened.
Send
Trusted by 1000+ amazing organizations
Every volunteer channel, in one place
One workspace for every conversation with your volunteers, tied to the same database and the same audit trail. Stop juggling personal phones, WhatsApp groups, and a separate email tool: bulk email, native chat, shared templates, and reusable notification policies all live where your team already works.
Bulk and individual email
Send a one-off message to a single volunteer or a targeted blast to a saved segment. Filter by tag, role, site, or status, all from inside Vome.
Send from your own domain
Connect a Google or Microsoft mailbox and outgoing email lands from your domain instead of a generic noreply address. Replies come back to your inbox.
Native private chat
Message volunteers one-on-one from the web or using the Vome app on the go. Conversations stay tied to their profile and accessible by each of your admins depending on their permissions.
Group and shift chatrooms
Create custom group chats for ongoing teams. Vome also allows you to auto-generate chatrooms per opportunity and per shift, with admins added automatically.
Reusable notification policies
Build notification policies to automate communication about shift reminders and post-shift surveys, birthday wishes, or between admins. You decide the content, where and when it's sent, and Vome automates the rest.
Email templates & shared folders
Build a template library and folder it so every coordinator sends with the same voice. Reuse the same templates inside one-off emails, bulk sends, and notification policies.
EMAIL
Email volunteers like a marketer, from your own mailbox.
You can filter your volunteer database into segments by tag, role, site, or status, then send a personalized email to each one through your own Google or Microsoft mailbox. Replies come back to your inbox, the dashboard tracks deliveries, and your team sees what was sent and to whom.
- Cc, Bcc, attachments, custom subject headers, and a default signature on every send
- You can also skip the integration and send through Vome's native email server in two clicks
- Personalize with dynamic variables like first name, role, site, shift, and custom fields
- Shared outbox tracks every send and exposes it to the team per your sharing policy
BULK EMAIL Spring drive · hospital volunteers
From G marie@goodhealth.org Sent via your Google mailbox
Recipient segment 84 volunteers match
Tag: Hospital Status: Onboarded Site: Downtown clinic
Template Schedule open · spring Personalized with {{first_name}}
Send to 84 Schedule
CHAT
Private chats, group chats, and a chatroom for every shift.
There's no need to run your program through various messaging platforms. Vome allows you to private chat with any volunteer, create custom group chats for ongoing teams, and choose to benefit from auto-generated chatrooms per opportunity and per shift. When a volunteer reserves the shift, they join. When they cancel, they leave. It's that simple.
- Send images, video, voice notes, documents, and links inline (not just text)
- Assign or share a shift right inside the conversation, no tab-switching
- Mute a thread, pin a message, jump to the volunteer's profile in one tap
- Push notifications on the iOS and Android apps so volunteers actually see it
AUTO-GENERATED CHATROOM Saturday morning · Hospital companion
M J S +9
Members 12 volunteers · 2 admins
Members are added when they reserve this shift, removed when they cancel.
- M Reminder · we meet at the main lobby at 8:45am.
- J Got it. Bringing my badge and a backup pen.
- Vome · Sarah Lee joined this shift chatroom. · Fri 9:02am
AUTOMATE
Design the notifications you want, when you want them to send, throughout the entire platform.
Build custom shift notification policies for pre-shift reminders, during shifts, or a post-shift survey link, then attach them to the shifts they were designed for. Add automated birthday notifications with site-level recipient rules, and hand-off notifications that ping coordinators when a profile lands in their site, sequence, opportunity, or shift, manually or via automation.
- Compose every message with shared templates, dynamic variables, and your default signature
- Pick the channel per rule: integrated email domain, in-app, push notification, or all of the above
- Drop a survey link in the post-shift email so feedback comes in while it's fresh
- Separate outbox tabs for shift notifications and birthday emails make every send auditable
MESSAGE AUTOMATION Shift reminder · 24h before Active
Trigger Shift starts in 24h
Audience Volunteers attending the shift
Channels Email Push
Message
Hi {{first_name}}, your {{shift_name}} starts tomorrow at {{shift_time}}. Tap to confirm or cancel.
Connect your mailbox and turn on policies in minutes.
Link your Google or Microsoft mailbox, create your templates, and let automations handle the rest.
More than a notification tool
Generic email tools blast a list. WhatsApp groups lose volunteers when phones change. Vome is built for volunteer programs and connects to the rest of your data.
Wired to your volunteer database
You can build custom segments with live filters of the database, not exports. Tag a volunteer or change their status and the next bulk send picks it up automatically.
Email & chat under one audit trail
Outbox, chat history, and automation logs all live in the same admin dashboard. Filter by sender, segment, or trigger; control visibility with the email sharing policy.
Coordinators stop leaving with the data
When a coordinator goes on leave, you keep their conversations, templates, and policies. Onboard the replacement in an afternoon instead of rebuilding a year of context from screenshots and personal text threads.
Communications FAQs
Common questions about email, chat, and message automations.
Still have questions? Talk to our team
Can volunteers see emails come from my address?
Yes. Connect a Google or Microsoft mailbox and Vome sends through it. Outgoing email lands from your address, replies route back to your inbox, and your domain reputation drives deliverability.
Can our team share email templates so we all sound the same?
Yes. Build templates and group them into folders that every admin can pull from. The same library powers one-off emails, bulk sends, shift notification policies, and birthday notifications, so the language stays consistent across coordinators and across automations.
What is an auto-generated chatroom?
Vome creates a chatroom for every opportunity and for every shift. Admins are added automatically. Volunteers join when they reserve the shift and leave when they cancel. You can also build custom group chats for ongoing teams, and inside any chat you can send images, documents, voice notes, or assign a shift directly.
How do shift notification policies work?
A shift notification policy is a saved set of automated messages that fire around the shifts it's attached to: pre-shift reminders, during-shift updates, and post-shift follow-ups (with optional survey links). Build it once, attach it to any shift or shift generator, and every shift that uses the policy inherits the same rules. The full setup walkthrough lives in our help center.
Can I control what other admins see in the outbox?
Yes. The shared outbox lists every email sent through Vome (one-off, bulk, shift notifications, birthday notifications) and the email sharing policy controls who sees what. Filter by sender, segment, or trigger to audit a campaign or onboard a new coordinator without losing context.
What are hand-off notifications?
When a profile is assigned to a site, sequence, opportunity, or shift you coordinate, hand-off notifications ping you so the volunteer doesn't fall through the cracks. They fire whether the assignment was manual (another admin moved them) or automatic (a form submission or finished sequence routed them to you), and you can subscribe per category in your notification settings.
Communications features by plan
| Plans | Recruit | Pro | Enterprise | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals | ||||
| Max number of manageable users & profiles You can grow your volunteer base without worrying about paying more — we don't charge for volunteer records. | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Max number of admin seats You can invite an unlimited number of admins to the portal. On paid plans you're charged per seat you activate. | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Access on any device (iOS & Android apps, web & mobile browser) Our platform is accessible from any device. The Vome Volunteer mobile app on the App Store and Google Play is free to download for all users. | ||||
| Recruitment | ||||
| Custom-branded recruitment page Promote a volunteer recruitment page featuring volunteer opportunities and application forms. | ||||
| Feature volunteer opportunities Build volunteer opportunities structured by activity, role, or anything you want. | ||||
| Group opportunities by category Group your opportunities by location, program, event, department, or whatever works best for you. | ||||
| Access to opportunity dashboards View everything about your opportunity from a single page — applicants, shift requests, hour claims, analytics and more. | ||||
| Opportunity-specific application forms Customize application forms for your opportunities and events, including templates to reuse across opportunities. | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Customize forms for recruitment, data collection & surveys Get access to a dynamic form-builder that allows you to collect any information you need from volunteers. | 1 form | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Custom recruitment process Choose the volunteer recruitment workflow that works best for your organization. | ||||
| Generate direct landing page links to your page, forms, opportunities, programs, events, locations, etc. Dynamic shareable links open the mobile app if the person is already logged into the Vome Volunteer app. | ||||
| App & email notifications for new applicants Choose which admin users will receive app and/or email notifications when you receive new applicants. | ||||
| Onboarding | ||||
| Build onboarding sequences to manage your entire screening process Put volunteers through step-by-step onboarding processes to complete, with optional visibility for the volunteer. | 1 sequence | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Manage interviews, orientation & training sessions for opportunities Put together a screening checklist to use across your opportunities to stay on track about who completed what. | ||||
| Sterling Volunteers background check integration Integrate background checks directly into volunteer sequences with automatic status updates and ongoing monitoring. | ||||
| SCORM Cloud E-Learning integration Add SCORM-compliant e-learning courses directly into volunteer sequences with automatic progress tracking. | ||||
| Manage submitted waivers Allow volunteers to submit signed forms and waivers as part of your screening process. | ||||
| Create and manage notes Create notes on volunteer profiles and specific components of their onboarding process. | ||||
| Onboarding status tracking Easily keep track of whether volunteers completed their screening requirements and if there are any expiration dates. | ||||
| Scheduling | ||||
| Generate one-time and recurring shifts Easily add available shifts on your calendar in a few clicks, with bulk creation for recurring time slots. | ||||
| Allow volunteers to self-schedule pre-determined shifts Volunteers who are eligible for your opportunities can directly reserve their spots to available shifts. | ||||
| Double the Donation corporate matching gifts integration Unlock corporate matching gifts during volunteer registration and shift reservations. | ||||
| Allow instant bookings for approved volunteers Choose to allow approved volunteers to instantly reserve spots to shifts or require them to submit a request first. | ||||
| Allow volunteers to create their own schedule Allow approved volunteers to create shifts based on their availabilities, which automatically populate your calendar. | ||||
| Create custom scheduling policies to manage check-ins, cancellations and more Control how many reservations volunteers can create, when they can check-in, and much more. | ||||
| Recurring schedule assignments Bulk-assign volunteers to shifts, log hours, and manage cancellations directly from your schedule view. | ||||
| Auto-generated shift chatrooms Streamline communication among attendees with auto-generated shift chatrooms for each shift. | ||||
| Export & print your schedule in PDF, Excel or .CSV format Export your calendar in various formats with customizable field visibility. | ||||
| Mobile app & email scheduling reminders Automate all sorts of scheduling notifications to keep volunteers and administrators in the loop. | ||||
| Hour tracking | ||||
| Receive hour claims Allow volunteers to submit hour claims for shifts they completed. Once approved, their hours are added to their profiles. | ||||
| QR-code attendance tracking Print and display a QR code to allow volunteers to scan via the mobile app to check-in/out of shifts and automate hour tracking. | ||||
| Tap-to-check-in (no scan needed) Let volunteers confirm a shift with a single tap in the Vome app, no QR scan required. Configurable per opportunity for programs that prefer a frictionless check-in. | ||||
| On-site Attendance Kiosk Customize unlimited on-site attendance kiosks to let volunteers self check-in/out from any device (tablet, computer, smartphone). | ||||
| GPS proximity validation Require volunteers to be within range of the site before they can check in from their phone. Set the radius per site or per shift to keep attendance honest. | ||||
| Auto check-in & check-out Skip check-in entirely. Vome can automatically log hours based on the shift's scheduled start and end times — ideal for programs that don't need to track attendance per shift. | ||||
| Custom attendance & claim settings Configure check-in methods, GPS rules, grace windows, and claim policies per opportunity so each program runs the way it needs to. | ||||
| Mass hour loggings Bulk log hours for volunteers in a few clicks, keeping accurate date/time records without manual work. | ||||
| Hours reports Easily generate reservation and hours reports with integrated analytics. | ||||
| Data & reports | ||||
| Access volunteer profiles View everything you need about a volunteer from a single view — contacts, opportunities, shifts, notes and more. | Basic | |||
| Import volunteer profiles Add up to 10,000 volunteer contacts from Excel per import with batch assignment of tags, opportunities, and shifts. | ||||
| Import custom field data Import and map data into any custom field in your database via Excel or .CSV. | ||||
| Offline profile management Create offline profiles for volunteers who will not claim their profile on Vome — ideal for seniors or non-digital participants. | ||||
| Unlimited custom database fields Field types include text, number, date, time, single and multi-select, email, URL, address, attachment, boolean, and unique ID. | ||||
| Profile tags Group volunteers in your database by anything you want — great for bulk actions like emails or shift assignments. | ||||
| Advanced group management Unlock the Groups module to associate group reservations to dedicated groups for cleaner workflows and analytics. | ||||
| Filtering, sorting & exporting Use filters and sorting to get the data you need quickly, plus export everything to Excel at any time. | ||||
| Saved custom views Save any combination of filters, sort order, and visible columns as a named view. Each admin can keep their own and share with the team. | ||||
| Custom-formula filters Combine field conditions for advanced segments — for example, active volunteers with over 50 hours and a specific tag. | ||||
| Bulk actions from any view Assign tags, sequences, shifts, opportunities, languages, or skills; bulk-update custom fields; broadcast emails; merge duplicate profiles — all from selected rows. | ||||
| Google Sheets ↔ Vome Database integration Sync your Vome database with a Google Sheet to automatically keep a backup or perform additional operations on your data. | ||||
| Access instant reports Instantly generate different types of reports about attendees, hours, volunteers, shifts and more. | ||||
| Access instant analytics dashboards Integrated analytics dashboards show you key metrics about your volunteers and activity to detail performance. | ||||
| Communications | ||||
| Individual & bulk emailing Send targeted emails to specific contact lists or one-off emails to individuals directly from Vome. | Basic | |||
| Integrate your email domain using Google or Microsoft Send more personalized emails on Vome from your own mailbox using our integrations with Google and Microsoft. | ||||
| Email templates & shared template folders Build a library of reusable email templates and folder them so every coordinator pulls from the same shared library. | ||||
| Dynamic variable placeholders Personalize email subjects and bodies with dynamic placeholders like first name, role, site, shift name, shift time, and any custom field. | ||||
| Private chats Use Vome's integrated instant messaging feature to message volunteers directly from the platform. | ||||
| Custom group chats Build custom group chats with volunteers and other administrators to simplify coordination. | ||||
| Rich media in chats (images, video, audio, docs, links) Send and receive images, video, voice notes, documents, and links inside any chat without leaving Vome. | ||||
| Auto-generated chatrooms Choose to use auto-generated chatrooms for your opportunities or shifts with automatic participant management. | ||||
| Assign or share a shift inside chat Assign a shift to a volunteer or share a shift link directly inside a private or group chat, without switching to the schedule. | ||||
| Shared outbox & email sharing policy Audit every email sent from Vome (one-off, bulk, shift-notification, birthday) in a shared outbox; control admin visibility with the email sharing policy. | ||||
| Shift notification policies Build reusable policies with pre-shift reminders, change alerts, and post-shift follow-ups (with optional survey link); attach to one shift or to a shift generator. | ||||
| Birthday notifications Send automatic birthday wishes to volunteers and/or alerts to admins, with site-level recipient rules and template-based content. | ||||
| Hand-off notifications Notify coordinators and watchers whenever a profile is assigned (manually or automatically) to a site, sequence, opportunity, or shift they own. | ||||
| Recognition | ||||
| Vome Achievements (Bronze → Platinum) A platform-wide four-tier badge ladder fueled by Vome Points. Every volunteer earns these by completing platform challenges, on every plan including Recruit. | ||||
| Custom awards (rule-based & manual) Design your own awards with custom name, icon, and description. Pick an auto rule on hours or shifts (any window), or send manually to one volunteer or a hand-picked group with a personal note. | ||||
| Award notifications & watcher admins When an award fires, Vome emails the volunteer at a time and timezone you choose, using your template, sender, and signature. Watcher admins get notified too, with personalized variables per recipient. | ||||
| Advanced eligibility scoping Restrict any award by tag, opportunity, site, finished onboarding sequence, active database status, or age range. Volunteers outside scope never see it in catalog or progress. | ||||
| Advanced | ||||
| Custom admin roles & permissions Restrict administrative access by assigning admin roles with custom permission sets. | ||||
| Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Protect your account with Two-Factor Authentication. Add a secure phone number and enter a code upon each login attempt. | ||||
| Built-in KPI & metric dashboards Access integrated analytics dashboards and reports to gain a deeper understanding of your operation. | Basic | Advanced | Advanced | |
| Multi-site segmentation Setup your portal to better manage multiple sites under a single account. | ||||
| Map form fields to database fields Map any question or attachment field on a form to a database field to centralize your data. | ||||
| Sterling Volunteers integration Trigger background checks from an onboarding step. Results land on the volunteer profile. | ||||
| Verified First integration Alternative native background-check provider. Same in-flow trigger, results back on the profile. | ||||
| Double the Donation matching gifts Surface employer matching gifts on every hour claim. Match status visible on the volunteer profile and in reports. | ||||
| Google Sheets two-way sync Mirror your Vome database to a live Google Sheet for downstream reporting and BI tools. Updates flow both ways. | ||||
| Send emails from your own domain Connect Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 so confirmations, reminders, and sequence emails send from your address with proper SPF and DKIM. | ||||
| API integration & custom webhooks Access a developer dashboard to create integrations with Vome using APIs or custom webhooks. | ||||
| Automations with Zapier & Power Automate Choose from thousands of custom automations using our integrations with Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate. | ||||
| Native integration with Salesforce Access an installable Vome package on Salesforce to achieve a native integration. | ||||
| SAML & Azure SSO for admins Ensure you're compliant by provisioning admin users and enforcing SSO for their accounts. | ||||
| Customer success | ||||
| FAQ & Knowledge base Access many articles for quick answers to frequently asked questions. | ||||
| Email support Personalized customer support with guaranteed quick response times. | Basic | Standard | Priority | Priority |
| Technical support We offer base tech support when you come across a technical issue that needs to be resolved by a developer. | ||||
| Onboarding sessions One-hour calls with a platform specialist to get you fully set up on Vome. Unlocked as a one-time benefit upon upgrading. | 1 | 1 | 5 | Unlimited * |
| Account review sessions Check-ins with a Vome specialist to go through new features, improvements, or any questions your team has. Unlocked as a one-time benefit upon upgrading. | 1 | 4 | Unlimited * | |
| Dedicated account management Gain access to a dedicated Vome expert to help you optimize your portal and share best practices for managing volunteers at scale. | ||||
| New Admin & Transition Onboarding When your team brings on a new admin or transitions coordinators, we provide a complimentary onboarding session for a smooth handoff. | ||||
| Tech & operational consulting Get access to Vome's software engineers and onboarding experts to help you strategize your tech setup. | ||||
* Onboarding sessions & account review sessions: maximum of 2 hours per week
Ready to see it in action, or want a walk-through with our team?
Sign up for free or schedule a demo to see why thousands of volunteer managers and coordinators are choosing Vome.