Run events. Certify hours. Keep clean records.
This guide walks your team through setting up your charity on Givewell: publishing events with timed slots, configuring geofenced check-in so attendance is trustworthy, and certifying volunteer hours with a verifiable trail.
1. Register your organization
Open the organization console and choose Register organization. You’ll provide two sets of details:
-
Administrator
Your name, email, and a password of at least 8 characters. This becomes your sign-in for the console.
-
Organization
Your charity’s name and contact email, an optional website, and a signatory name.
What is the signatory?The signatory name and title (e.g. “Dr. Adaeze Whitlock, Director”) is printed as the authorizing signature on every certification letter your organization issues. Choose the person accountable for verifying service.
The console is separate from the volunteer site. Volunteers register and check in on the volunteer site; administrators work entirely here.
2. Create an event
From your console, fill in Create an event. Give it a clear name and a description telling volunteers what they’ll do and what to bring. Add a location name and the event date, and a few comma-separated work tags (like environment, outdoors, food) so the right volunteers can find it through filters.
Write for discovery.Volunteers search event names and descriptions and filter by tag. Concrete words — the cause, the activity, the neighbourhood — make your event easier to find.
3. Set the geofence
The Location & geofence section is what keeps attendance honest. It defines a virtual circle around your venue; volunteers can only check in when their phone’s location falls inside it.
-
Latitude & longitude
The venue’s coordinates. The quickest way is to stand at the site and tap Use my current location, or paste coordinates from a map.
-
Check-in radius
How close, in metres, a volunteer must be. 100–300 m suits most venues; widen it for large parks, beaches, or campuses, and tighten it for a single building.
Too tight a radius frustrates volunteers.GPS accuracy varies, especially indoors and near tall buildings. If volunteers report failed check-ins, increase the radius. The geofence is enforced on our servers, so a generous radius is still secure.
4. Add time slots
Every event needs at least one time slot — a bookable shift with its own start, end, and capacity. Use + Add time slot to offer several shifts (for example morning and afternoon), each with its own headcount.
Capacity is a hard limit.Each slot stops accepting registrations the moment it fills, so you’ll never be overbooked. Group registrations consume one spot per person.
5. Publish & monitor sign-ups
Select Publish event and it goes live for volunteers immediately. It also appears under Your events, where each card shows a live fill percentage and a progress bar per slot — so you can see at a glance how registration is going and whether to open more capacity.
6. Certify volunteer hours
When a volunteer checks out of your event, their hours land in Pending hours approval. Each row shows the volunteer, the event, and their recorded check-in and check-out times, with the hours calculated from those server timestamps.
-
Approve
Certifies the hours and adds them to the volunteer’s lifetime record. They can then include them on their certification letter.
-
Reject
Discards the entry. Use this for no-shows, duplicates, or obvious errors.
The numbers are trustworthy by design.Hours come from geofenced check-in and check-out times recorded on our servers, not from anything the volunteer types — so your certification rests on verifiable attendance.
7. Certification letters
Volunteers download their own certification letters from the volunteer site. Each letter totals the hours your organization (and any others) has certified and displays your signatory name as the authorizing signature. Keeping that field accurate and current ensures every letter reflects the right authority for your charity.
8. Best practices
-
Look for the “?” icons
The console has small ? markers beside key fields and actions. Hover, tap, or focus one for an explanation in context — handy when onboarding new admins.
-
Right-size your slots
Set capacities you can genuinely supervise. Several smaller shifts often beat one large block for both coverage and volunteer experience.
-
Certify promptly
Approve hours soon after events so volunteers can use them for school or work deadlines without chasing you.
-
Keep your signatory current
If the person who signs off on service changes, update the signatory so future letters carry the correct name and title.
9. Frequently asked questions
Can volunteers check in from home?
No. Check-in is validated against your event’s coordinates and radius on our servers, and only opens from 30 minutes before a slot until it ends. A volunteer must be physically inside the geofence during that window.
How are hours calculated?
From the server-recorded check-in and check-out times — never from a duration the volunteer enters. You review those exact times before approving.
Can I see other organizations’ events or hours?
No. The console scopes everything to your organization. You only see and certify hours for events your charity hosts.
What if a volunteer forgot to check out?
No hours are submitted without a check-out, so nothing will appear in your pending queue for that registration. Ask the volunteer about their attendance and handle it according to your own policy.
Can I run multiple shifts in one day?
Yes. Add as many time slots to an event as you need, each with its own start, end, and capacity.