Free volunteer event signup
Free Volunteer Signup Page with Roles, Shifts and Attendance
Share one signup page. See who is coming, what they signed up for, and who attended.
Free to publish. No credit card required.
See how it worksSee a two-week schedule in actionAsk a questionLooking for a place to help?Browse volunteer events
Know who’s helping, where to send them, and who came.
What is free: creating and publishing a Standard volunteer event, including roles, shifts, signups, and attendance. No credit card is required. On published public events with open, unrestricted self-signup shifts, volunteers reserve their places with a name and email; no account is required.
If you’re collecting signups in a form and keeping a separate sign-in sheet, this guide shows how to do both in Proximatic. Add jobs and shifts to a free Standard event, share its public page, and use the roster to welcome people and record attendance.
If the event has many repeating shifts, continue with the volunteer shift scheduling guide or see the two-week food pantry example.
Starting with a specific event? Read the food pantry volunteer signup example or the community cleanup volunteer signup example.
Need people to review your organization's document before signup? Add a volunteer waiver PDF and require acknowledgment, then review the accepted version and time in your organization settings.
Comparing signup tools? Use the one-shift comparison checklist before you switch.
Let Proximatic build your team’s roster
Add your team’s available hours and describe the event, then review the assignments. You’ll see who’s covering each shift and where you still need people, with signups and attendance kept together.
Auto-Schedule is free. Your first AI event each month is free, too. See plans and pricing.
Step by step
From planning the event to recording volunteer hours.
Here’s what the coordinator and the volunteer each see, from the first draft to the final attendance record.
01 · Plan
Create and publish the event
Start with where to meet, what needs doing, and how many people you need for each job.
Create an organization or choose the one you coordinate, then create a Standard event. Enter the name, date, meeting place, and a description of the work. Save a draft while you finish the details.
The event stays private until you publish it.
Create your event
Enter the details people need and save the event as a private draft. Open the draft again to adjust the description, date, times, or meeting place. Keep editing while the plan is still taking shape.
Save the changes before you make the page public.
Edit the details as plans change
Use the description to explain the work and what to bring, then select Save Changes. Choose Customize roles and shifts, then Add Shift for each job. Set the time and number of people needed. Here, Trail Cleanup has 12 places and Check-in Table has two; the general Volunteer role is also available without a capacity limit.
Each shift shows its own time and available spots.
Add roles and shifts
Use Add Shift to create a job, or Edit to change an existing role’s time and capacity. Select Preview to check the details, then Publish Now when you are ready for signups. Use Share Event to copy the public link into your website, email, or group chat.
Everyone uses one current event link.
Publish and share the page
Live confirms publication; Share Event copies the public link.
02 · Join
What your volunteers see
Volunteers choose an open shift, enter their name and email, and sign up. Their place is reserved immediately, and the receipt email follows.
Before signing up, a volunteer can read the work, date, meeting place, and every available role on the public page.
Anyone can read the event without an account.
Read the public event page
Volunteers see the same details you entered, along with the roles that still have room. On a published public Standard event, choose an open, unrestricted shift. Review its role and local time, enter your name and email, and select Sign up. If the organization requires a waiver, open its PDF and check the acknowledgment first. Your selected shifts are reserved immediately; no account, password, or email-confirmation step is required.
Your place is reserved before the receipt email arrives.
Choose your shifts and sign up
The selected Cleanup shift stays visible while you enter your name and email. The next screen says You're signed up! and shows your exact shifts. Keep the receipt email to view or cancel your signup from another browser. Use Email me a new link if you lose it. You can choose Link to account later. Private, team-only and approval-required participation keeps its existing requirements.
The coordinator sees your confirmed assignment in the same event roster.
Keep your signup receipt
Cleanup is reserved. Cancel signup, Link to account and Email me a new link are separate buttons.
03 · Run
Welcome people and record attendance
Use a rolling QR for registered volunteers, or a reusable printed sign when you need role choices or on-site signup.
For volunteers with an account, open Event Kiosk, choose the role and time, and select Check In. Display the screen on a tablet at the welcome table. Volunteers already signed up for that role scan with their phone camera; if signed in, their check-in records immediately. Otherwise, they enter their email and the six-digit code sent to it, and check-in resumes. For guests, use the organizer roster attendance controls while online.
For an early departure, switch to Check Out and have the volunteer scan the new code. Keep the rolling code on screen: it refreshes after use or expiry and is not a reusable printed sign.
Welcome registered volunteers with the rolling QR
Select Trail Cleanup and Check In; Check Out records departure. For a reusable sign, choose Printed Attendance Signs from the event. Use a sign for one role or for the whole event. After scanning, volunteers sign in or create an account and verify their email as needed, choose check-in or checkout and an eligible role, then confirm. Check-in also asks them to accept the displayed Proximatic terms.
Signs are for registered volunteers by default. To welcome walk-ins, enable Allow walk-ins to join available roles for an open Standard event with unrestricted roles.
Use a printed sign when it suits your event
Select Check in, Trail Cleanup, and the terms checkbox, then confirm. Back in event management, Run the event shows current jobs, attendance and unfilled places. Choose Roster to find a person, then Attendance on the exact role and time you want to inspect.
Check someone’s status here when you need to know whether they have arrived or left. For a paper roster, owners and admins can open Event settings → Print roster, choose this event or one shift, and select Print. The names-only sheet is a saved snapshot; keep copies private and reprint after changes. Paper notes do not update attendance.
Check the roster during the event
Jordan’s row shows Checked Out and the departure time. Switch between Roster and Schedule to review people or shift coverage.
04 · Review
Review and download volunteer hours
After the event, check the attendance totals and download the report for your organization.
Before sharing hours, choose Run the event → Roster → Missing recorded checkout. Review each assignment’s role, time and end-source label; you can search by person or job. Then open Event settings for the completed event summary. Select Download CSV Report for names, emails, teams, hours, and any attendance notes.
An early checkout keeps the recorded departure time. For someone still checked in, Proximatic uses the shift end, or event end if earlier, when you next open the roster or report. Those hours use the scheduled finish rather than a departure scan.
Review the attendance report
One attendee and 1.8 recorded hours. Select Download CSV Report to share the details.
Close signup without hiding the event.
In Event settings → Signup deadline, owners and admins can choose a date and time in the event’s time zone. Each event date has its own deadline. Leave it blank to keep the existing signup window.
At the deadline, public signup, new walk-in signup and waitlist offers close. An unaccepted offer link can no longer book a place. The published event stays visible, and existing registrations, receipt recovery, cancellation and attendance remain available.
Organizer assignments and existing release, swap and staffing workflows remain available. Moving an event keeps its saved deadline; running it again starts the new draft without one.
Volunteer approval
Use approval for the roles that need it.
Use open roles when anyone eligible can help, or organization and team approval when you need to review volunteers first. A request waiting for approval does not reserve a spot; the place is booked when the signup is confirmed.
Load it online, keep working offline
Check volunteers in and out on the event's existing volunteer roster. Eligible events prepare automatically on the organizer's device, and a small badge shows when that roster is ready to work offline.
Load the event roster online
As a verified organization owner or admin, open the published Standard event and choose Event settings → Volunteer roster. Eligible events prepare automatically while connected. Check the small Ready on this device badge; preparation and refresh controls are in Attendance settings.
Check volunteers in and out
Find the registered volunteer by name, group or task. Check the volunteer shift's group, task and time, then select Check in or Check out on that roster row. On a ready device, Saved on this device and the pending count show locally saved attendance. You can reopen the same event roster offline.
Reconnect and keep the roster open
Saved attendance updates automatically when the open event roster can reach Proximatic. Each acknowledged row shows Confirmed. Sync now, review and recovery are in Attendance settings.
Device access and connection
Sign in with a verified account as an organization owner or admin and open Event settings → Volunteer roster. Eligible published Standard events prepare their registered roster automatically on the device you use. Preparation lasts up to 48 hours, bounded by your organizer session. The event must start within that window or already be in progress. Check Ready on this device and the expiry in Attendance settings before relying on offline access. Each organizer device needs its own ready roster.
Use Prepare roster on this device or Refresh prepared roster in Attendance settings while connected if you need to prepare or update the saved roster. Synchronize any saved attendance before replacing it. Connected manual attendance remains available when offline preparation is unavailable.
Synchronization runs automatically while the event roster is open and able to reach Proximatic. Reopen it online if it was closed. Sync now in Attendance settings retries immediately; the pending count and each row's Confirmed status show the result.
Volunteer QR scanning, new signup, email verification, walk-ins and shared reports need a connection. Real Safari and physical iPad offline reopening have not been verified; check your exact event device before relying on it.
Keep or recover saved work
Keep the device secure and synchronize before logging out or switching accounts. Sign-out and organization switching lock the cache; sign back in as the original organizer online to recover it. Clearing browser data or losing the device can destroy unsynchronized work.
Open Attendance settings for Export private recovery and Import private recovery. They preserve saved attendance for the original organizer and organization, including after the event ends. Treat the file as sensitive roster data. If preparation or a local write fails, resolve the displayed error and retry; a failed write is not a completed save.
When a record needs review
If a session expires, sign back in online. Saved attendance that needs review remains available in Attendance settings, with the original volunteer, group, task and shift. An authorized organizer reviews the current server record, gives a reason, then chooses Apply reviewed time or Keep server record where permitted. Another device's meaningful changes are not silently replaced.
Each record stays attached to its event, group and task. A recorded checkout remains different from a scheduled-end fallback. Review group/task hours and time warnings before sharing the report. A recorded timestamp is an operational record, not proof of physical presence.
Before your first event
A few practical questions.
Can I add a volunteer waiver to signup?
Yes. An organization owner or admin can upload an approved PDF in Admin → Settings → Organization waiver and turn on Require acknowledgment. Participants review the current document and check the acknowledgment box before completing new participation. The organizer can review the accepted version and time. Existing assignments remain in place.
Is it free?
Creating and publishing a Standard volunteer event is free, including signups, roles and shifts, and attendance. No credit card required.
Do volunteers need an account?
No account is required for a published public Standard event with open, unrestricted self-signup shifts. Choose your shifts, enter your name and email, and select Sign up. Your place is reserved immediately; the receipt email follows. Private, team-only and approval-required participation keeps its existing requirements. Guests use online organizer-assisted attendance; rolling and printed QR attendance requires an account. No app download is needed.
How are volunteer hours recorded?
Hours start at the recorded check-in. An early checkout records when someone leaves. If they remain checked in, opening the roster or report after the shift or event ends closes attendance at the earlier scheduled end. That finish time comes from the schedule, not a departure scan. Attendance is self-reported; use your organization’s review process if you need to certify service hours.
Does check-in work without internet?
Volunteer QR check-in needs a connection at the moment of the scan. With a rolling kiosk code, a registered volunteer with a verified account who is signed in records the selected role and action immediately; a signed-out registered volunteer signs in or uses the six-digit email code before that action resumes. A reusable printed sign instead asks the volunteer to choose check-in or checkout and an eligible role, then confirm; sign-in and email verification are required as needed. Rolling kiosk codes require a confirmed registration in the selected role. Printed signs are for registered volunteers by default; an organizer can enable walk-ins for an open Standard event with unrestricted roles, available space and no overlapping assignment. Test Wi-Fi or mobile data at the entrance before the event. The current QR flow does not queue scans while a device is completely offline.
Can an organizer record attendance without signal?
Yes. Load the published Standard event's volunteer roster online as a verified organization owner or admin. Eligible events prepare automatically on that device; the small Ready on this device badge confirms offline readiness. Use Check in or Check out on the right volunteer shift. Keep the event roster open after reconnecting so saved attendance updates automatically when Proximatic's server is reachable. Preparation, review and recovery are in Attendance settings.
Try it with your next event.
Create a draft for the next event on your calendar. Add the details you know, keep it private while you plan, and publish when you’re ready.
Want to see the other guides? Browse the knowledge base.
Need a starting plan? Use the free sign-up sheet template with time slots.