Admin Dashboard

The admin dashboard is the central command center for Organization Admins and Executive Admins in NeedBridge. It provides a high-level view of your organization's activity -- total needs, volunteer engagement, recent claims, and team performance -- so you can monitor operations and spot issues without digging through individual records.

Accessing the Dashboard

Log in to NeedBridge and click Dashboard in the left-hand navigation. Organization Admins and Executive Admins see the full organization-level dashboard by default. Coordinators and case workers see their own role-specific dashboards instead.

Key Metrics

The dashboard displays several metric cards at the top of the page, giving you a snapshot of your organization's current state:

  • Total Needs by Status -- A breakdown of all needs across your organization: open, claimed, completed, expired, and canceled. This tells you how many needs are active and how many have been resolved.
  • Active Volunteers -- The number of volunteers currently subscribed to receive need notifications. This is your available pool of helpers.
  • Recent Claims -- The number of needs claimed by volunteers within the selected date range. A healthy claim rate means volunteers are engaged and responding to needs.
  • Team Activity -- A summary of how many needs your case workers and coordinators have created, updated, or completed recently.

Alerts and Notifications

Below the metric cards, the dashboard surfaces alerts that may need your attention:

  • Pending user approvals -- Team members who have registered and are waiting for approval.
  • Stuck needs -- Needs that have been open for an unusually long time without being claimed.
  • Needs pending approval -- If your organization requires need approval before publishing, these needs are waiting for a coordinator or admin to review them.

Click any alert to go directly to the relevant page and take action.

Quick Action Buttons

The dashboard includes shortcuts for common tasks:

  • Create Need -- Jump directly to the need creation form.
  • Invite User -- Open the user invitation form to add a new team member.
  • View Reports -- Navigate to the reporting section for detailed analytics.

These buttons save time when you need to act quickly without navigating through multiple menus.

Interpreting the Metrics

Here is how to read the numbers on your dashboard:

  • High open needs with low claims -- This may indicate that your volunteer base is too small for the volume of needs, or that need descriptions are not compelling enough for volunteers to act on.
  • Lots of completed needs -- Your system is working well. Needs are being posted, claimed, and fulfilled.
  • Low active volunteers -- Consider promoting your volunteer signup link more broadly or reviewing whether your service areas match where your volunteers are located.
  • Low team activity -- Check in with your case workers. They may need training, or the workload may be concentrated on a few team members.

Filtering by Date Range

Use the date range filter at the top of the dashboard to adjust the time period for all metrics. You can select preset ranges (last 7 days, last 30 days, last 90 days) or set a custom range.

Changing the date range updates all dashboard metrics and alerts to reflect only the selected period. This is useful for comparing activity across different weeks or months, or for preparing reports for a specific time frame.

Using the Dashboard for Reporting

The admin dashboard is a starting point for building reports for your board, funders, or internal stakeholders:

  • Set the date range to match the reporting period (for example, the last quarter or the last fiscal year).
  • Note the total needs by status to show how many requests your organization received and fulfilled.
  • Capture the active volunteer count to demonstrate the size of your community support network.
  • Review team activity to highlight how many team members contributed and how active they were.

For more detailed reporting, navigate to the Reports section from the dashboard using the View Reports quick action.

Tips

  • Check the dashboard daily. A quick glance each morning helps you catch issues early -- stuck needs, pending approvals, or a drop in volunteer activity.
  • Use date range filters for reporting. When preparing board reports or grant applications, filter to the relevant period to get accurate numbers.
  • Follow up on alerts promptly. Pending approvals and stuck needs represent people waiting for action. The faster you respond, the better the experience for your team and your community.
  • Compare periods to spot trends. Look at the same metrics across different months to see whether your organization is growing, stable, or declining in activity.