Let volunteers log their own hours

Turn on volunteer hours tracking so volunteers can log their own service hours from their portal for your approval. Free.

VolunteerBadge lets your volunteers log their own service hours right from their volunteer portal — you simply review and approve. No spreadsheets, no chasing people for their hours. It's a free perk, and it takes about 30 seconds to turn on.

Fastest way: just ask Victor

In your dashboard, tell the assistant “let my volunteers log their hours” and Victor will turn it on for you. Prefer to do it yourself? Follow the steps below.

Step 1 — Turn on volunteer hours tracking

Go to Settings → Organization.
Scroll to the Volunteer profile section.
Turn on “Volunteer hours tracking” (in some accounts this toggle still reads “Show ‘Hours & grants’ on volunteer profiles” — it's the same switch).
Click Save organization.

Settings → Organization → Volunteer profile — turn on volunteer hours tracking, then Save. · click to enlarge

Volunteers need to reload their portal

After you turn it on, the “Log hours” button appears in each volunteer's portal — but a volunteer who already had their portal open needs to refresh the page for it to show up. The button lives in the “Where you serve” card, next to Message and Certificates.

Step 2 — How volunteers log hours

From their portal (volunteerbadge.com/badge), the volunteer clicks Log hours on your organization, enters the date, hours, and an optional note about what they did, and hits Submit for approval. The entry is sent to you — it doesn't count until you approve it.

Step 3 — Review & approve

Every submission shows up under Free Perks → Hours as Pending approval (you also get an in-app notification). Click Approve to make it a verified hour, or Reject if something's off. Verified hours roll into your reports, certificates of service, and grant documentation.

Volunteers can serve — and log — for multiple organizations

A volunteer connected to more than one organization on VolunteerBadge gets a separate Log hours button for each, and logs time against each one independently. Every organization only ever sees and approves its own hours.

Not tracking hours at all? You can leave this off (or turn it back off anytime) — see Hide the Hours & grants section.