Volunteers
A public signup link, the approval queue that keeps new people away from live data until you say so, and texting volunteers without breaking anti-spam rules.
For campaign adminsWhere volunteers come from
Volunteers in the admin console is one list of everyone who has offered to help, however they offered:
- Your signup link. A public form with name, phone, email, what they want to do, and when they are free.
- At the door. When a canvasser ticks Wants to volunteer on a door, that person appears here automatically with the phone or email the canvasser took down.
- Event RSVPs. Anyone who RSVPs to a public event is added, marked as interested in events.
- By hand. Add someone by hand for people who offered in person. They cannot be texted until they agree to it themselves (see Consent).
Share your signup link
The top of Volunteers shows your campaign’s link. Copy it onto your website, socials, and lit. Form settings lets you add a short intro and close the form when you are not taking people. The page uses the same colours as your sign request form.
What the person sees
Name, mobile, email, a set of tick boxes (door knocking, lawn signs, dropping literature, events, phone calls, anything else), a line for availability, and a box agreeing to texts. Phone or email is enough; both are better. If they tick texts, they get one confirmation message right away.
The approval queue
When someone ticks door knocking and gives a Canadian or US mobile, DoorLine also creates a pending login for them. Pending means exactly nothing: they cannot open the app, they see no canvasses, no doors, no names. They are listed in a Waiting for approval box at the top of Users with what they asked to do and when they are free.
- Approve as canvasser flips them to an invited member and texts the sign-in link, the same as if you had invited them by phone.
- Decline removes the login request. They stay on the volunteer list, marked declined, so you still have the contact.
Volunteers who did not tick door knocking get no login at all. If you later want one of them knocking, Approve as canvasser on their row in Volunteers creates the invite.
Working the list
Filter by status (New, Approved, Declined) and by interest, or search a name, phone, or email. Each row shows where the person came from, whether they can be texted, and when you last contacted them. Click a name or Edit to fix details, change interests, or add notes only admins see. Contacted stamps today as the last contact.
Mark approved is for volunteers you have spoken to and want to keep in the active pool without giving them a login (sign crews, event helpers). Decline parks people who turned out not to be available; Reopen brings them back.
Texting volunteers
Text volunteers sends one message to everyone who matches the filters you pick (status, interests) and has agreed to texts. The count updates as you change filters. DoorLine adds your campaign name at the front and “Reply STOP to opt out” at the end; you write the middle. Sent messages are listed below the composer with how many went through.
Event rosters have their own Text roster button on the event page for “meeting spot moved” messages. See the events guide.
Consent and STOP
Canada’s anti-spam law is strict about texts. DoorLine only ever texts a volunteer who ticked the texts box on your form or an RSVP page. People added by hand, or who came from a door, are not texted until they do. Every message carries STOP instructions, and a reply of STOP removes that number from all future texts (broadcasts and shift reminders alike) for every campaign on DoorLine. START puts them back.
Team members with a login are a different case: they agreed to campaign texts when they accepted the invite, so shift reminders go to them without a separate tick.