Service Areas

Service areas are the geographic regions your organization serves. They are one of the foundational building blocks of NeedBridge -- areas determine which volunteers receive need notifications, which case workers can post needs where, and which coordinators oversee which parts of your service footprint.

What Areas Are

An area represents a geographic region, neighborhood, city, county, or any other boundary your organization uses to organize its work. When a case worker creates a need, they assign it to an area. When a volunteer signs up, they choose which areas they want to receive notifications for.

This matching is what makes NeedBridge work: volunteers only see needs in the areas they have signed up for, so they receive relevant notifications instead of being overwhelmed by needs in locations where they cannot help.

Examples of areas:

  • Cities: "North Austin," "Downtown Portland"
  • Counties: "Hamilton County," "King County"
  • Neighborhoods: "Eastside," "Lakewood"
  • Zip codes or custom regions: "Zone A," "West District"

Creating Areas

To create a new area:

  1. Navigate to Settings in the left-hand navigation.
  2. Select Service Areas (or Areas).
  3. Click Add Area.
  4. Enter the area name. Keep it short and recognizable.
  5. Optionally, select a state if your organization operates across multiple states and you want to associate areas with their state.
  6. Save.

The new area is immediately available for case workers to assign needs to and for volunteers to subscribe to.

Renaming Areas

To rename an existing area:

  1. Open the area from the service areas list.
  2. Click Edit or click on the area name.
  3. Enter the new name.
  4. Save.

The renamed area updates everywhere it appears -- in the admin interface, in volunteer subscription lists, and in emails. Volunteers who were subscribed to the old name remain subscribed under the new name.

Activating and Deactivating Areas

If your organization stops serving a particular region, you can deactivate the area instead of deleting it:

  • Deactivating an area removes it from the list of available areas for new needs and new volunteer signups. Existing needs in the area are not affected, and volunteers who were subscribed remain in the system.
  • Reactivating an area brings it back into the active list so case workers can assign needs to it and volunteers can subscribe again.

To deactivate or reactivate an area, open it from the service areas list and toggle its active status.

How Areas Affect Need Visibility

Areas are the primary mechanism for targeting need notifications to the right volunteers:

  • When a case worker posts a need in "North County," only volunteers who have subscribed to "North County" receive the notification.
  • Volunteers who are subscribed to "South County" but not "North County" will not see that need in their email.
  • If a volunteer subscribes to multiple areas, they receive notifications for needs in all of those areas.

This area-based targeting is essential for keeping notifications relevant. Volunteers who receive too many irrelevant notifications are more likely to unsubscribe.

Coordinator Area Assignments

Coordinators are assigned to one or more areas. Their dashboard, approval queue, and team management view are scoped to their assigned areas. When you create or modify areas, review your coordinator assignments to make sure every active area has oversight.

To assign a coordinator to an area, go to the user management section and edit the coordinator's profile.

Tips

  • Keep area names recognizable. Use names your community already knows. "North County" is better than "Region 4-B." If a volunteer has to look up what an area name means, it is too complicated.
  • Do not create too many areas. More areas means more complexity for volunteers during signup and for case workers when posting needs. Start with the minimum number that makes sense and add more only when needed.
  • Review areas quarterly. As your organization grows or shifts its focus, some areas may become inactive and new ones may be needed. A regular review keeps the list clean.
  • Ensure every area has a coordinator. Areas without a coordinator may lack oversight, leading to stuck needs and unapproved case workers.