Sterling Volunteers Integration

Sterling Volunteers

The screening process and tracking of volunteers is easier with our integration with Sterling Volunteers. You will initiate the background check from our volunteer management database which will submit a request to Sterling Volunteers.

Note: Integration with Sterling Volunteers is an add-on feature.

• Setting Up Integration
• Initiating Volunteer Background Check
  • Registered Volunteers
  • Pending Volunteers
• Background Check Status
• Volunteer Dashboard
• Sterling Volunteer Status as Search Criteria
• Sharing Sterling Volunteer Status With Partner Organizations

Setting Up Integration

To use this functionality you'll need to have an account with Sterling Volunteers.

1. From the Main Menu, click Volunteers then Sterling Volunteers.
2. To enable the Sterling Volunteers integration, enter the username and password provided by Sterling Volunteers on account setup.
3. Enter the screening package ID and description. 
4. If you don’t have a Sterling Volunteers account, we have provided an option to send a request email to setup an account from within the system. Click on the "click here" link to request to create a Sterling Volunteers account. 
5. Fill in your organization name, first name, last name, email and phone.
6. Click Submit.
   
7. After submitting request, Sterling Volunteers' team will provide assistance in setting up the account.
8. Once your account with Sterling Volunteers' is setup, follow steps 1-3 above.
9. Click Save.

Initiating Volunteer Background Check

After integration, you can now request for a background check of your volunteer(s). You can do a background check for registered as well as pending volunteers.

• Registered Volunteers

You can initiate background checks for volunteers already in your database.

Note: Before doing any background checks for volunteers, make sure that the volunteer’s first name, last name, email, address and birth date are complete.

1. From the Dashboard, click Active Volunteers. From the Main Menu, you can also click Volunteers then Volunteer List to go to your list of volunteers.
2. Next to the desired volunteer, click Background Check in the dropdown menu. 
3. You can also request background check for all or selected multiple volunteers by clicking on Selected Volunteers/Team or All Search Results found at the bottom right of the page, then selecting Background Check. 
4. A message will appear reminding you to complete all required information before proceeding.
5. Click OK.
6. If you miss any information, the status of the background check will fail so you’ll have to update and repeat submission.

• Pending Volunteers

You can also submit background checks for volunteers applying to an opportunity before they get approved/rejected.

Note: On step 3 (Settings) when creating/editing an opportunity, make sure to activate “Background check required for Volunteer” to enable screening on application. 

1. From the Main Menu, click Opportunities then Our Opportunities.
2. Click the count on number of “Volunteers Awaiting Approval” to open the list of pending volunteers.
3. Next to the desired volunteer, click Background Check in the dropdown menu. 
4. Observe steps 4-8 above.
5. Once the background check request is submitted, you'll see the the status once it's updated. After your review, you can now accept or reject the volunteer as needed.

Background Check Status

1. After submitting the background check request, it may display an alert if there is lacking volunteer information (First Name, Last Name, Email, Address Line1, City, State, Zip Code and Birth Date(must be greater than 18)), which would mean that the request failed. It will display “Missing Information” message under the status for that volunteer.
2. After the volunteer's record is corrected, you must again submit the request for a background check.
3. Look under the “Background Check” column. The following may appear:
   • Pending: Request for background check is still to be processed. The system picks up requests every 5 minutes.
   • Fail: Some volunteer information is missing.
   • New: Request for background check has been submitted successfully. At this point, the volunteer will get a link to create an account on Sterling Volunteers. The response URL will be used by the volunteer to create their account with Sterling Volunteers, where they'll need to fill out necessary information for the background check. This URL is also sent to the volunteer by Sterling Volunteers via email.
   • InProgress: The volunteer has completed his/her account setup on Sterling Volunteers. 
     
4. It is now the responsibility of Sterling Volunteers to do further background check.
5. When done, they will then send us the final status such as "Adjudicated-Eligible", "Adjudicated-Ineligible", "Complete-Clear", "Complete-Consider".
6. When clicking on the status, it will open a popup which would show you the history of background checks, along with their processed date and responses.

Volunteer Dashboard

The volunteer will be able to view their background check status from their dashboard.

Sterling Volunteer Status as Search Criteria

We have also provided a new volunteer search criteria which is based on the Sterling Volunteer Status.

Sharing Sterling Volunteers Status With Partner Organizations

The partner organization can view a volunteer’s background check status if the volunteer is associated with both partner organization and VAC. This will be the case only if the partner organization does not have a Sterling Volunteers account and the volunteer is verified by any of the partner organization’s VACs.

The partner organization will also be able to view the history of the volunteer’s background checks by clicking on background check status.