Involvement vs Volunteer Status in the Volunteer Info tab

The short answer

• Involvement tells you which functional areas of CoolFocus a person belongs to: Client, Donor, Volunteer, and/or Staff. It is about capacity and role, not dates or activity level.
• Volunteer Status is a time-based or activity-based label—such as Active, Inactive, Applicant, or Pending—that you assign within the volunteer module to show where someone is in their volunteer lifecycle.

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What Involvement means

Involvement is found on the General Info tab under the Involvement section. The checkboxes show whether a person is connected to one or more of CoolFocus’s main populations:

• Client – appears on the Clients list and in Care workflows
• Donor – appears on the Donors list and in Giving workflows
• Volunteer – appears on the Volunteers list and in Serve workflows
• Staff – appears on the Staff list and in Serve workflows

A person can have more than one involvement at the same time. For example, someone can be both a Client and a Volunteer, or a Donor and a Staff member.

Why this matters: Involvement determines where in CoolFocus a person’s record shows up. It is not a status of whether they are “active” right now. If you uncheck someone’s Volunteer involvement, they no longer appear on the Volunteers list, but their history remains in the system.

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What Volunteer Status means

Volunteer Status is a dropdown on the Volunteer Info tab. It describes when or how someone is participating as a volunteer.

Common status values include:

• Active – currently serving
• Inactive – not currently serving but may return
• Applicant – in the application process
• Pending – waiting for background check or orientation

These labels are managed by your organization in Settings › Manage Lists › Volunteer Status. You can customize them to match your organization’s language.

Key difference: Involvement says "this person is a volunteer"; Volunteer Status says "this volunteer is currently active (or inactive, or applying)".

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How to create a list of Active (or Inactive) volunteers

1. Go to Serve › Volunteers.
2. Click the Filter button on the grid.
3. Choose the Volunteer Status column.
4. Set the condition to is and pick the status you want (for example, Active).
5. Click Apply.

The grid will now show only volunteers with that status.

You can also:

• Save the filter as a segment for quick access later.
• Combine filters—for example, Volunteer Status is Active AND Training Complete is Yes.

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How to manage the Volunteer Status field

Add or edit status options

1. Go to Settings › Manage Lists.
2. Find Volunteer Status in the list.
3. Click Edit.
4. Add, rename, or remove status values as needed.
5. Click Save.

Note: Removing a status that is already assigned to volunteers will not delete their status—it will simply show as blank until you assign a new one.

Assign a status to a volunteer

1. Open the volunteer’s record.
2. Go to the Volunteer Info tab.
3. Find the Volunteer Status dropdown.
4. Select the appropriate status.
5. Save the record.

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Quick comparison