New Feature Announcements, and an Update from the Ideas Portal

Keeping Your Volunteer Team in the Loop
This blog (in conjunction with your AngelPointers client email newsletter) gives you the most relevant information about changes to AngelPoints products and services that increase your productivity and drive engagement. To ensure that AngelPoints users at your company are aware of new features, we suggest that you point your system, group, and event managers to this information. Some ways to share: post a link to this page or copy its content to one of your custom content areas, such as the News & Information area or an About page.

Share Your Stories
Do you have stories that showcase your company’s commitment to volunteering? Have you found better ways of using AngelPoints to increase your productivity? Has AngelPoints better enabled you to promote your company’s events and boost engagement? If so, we’d like to write up your story as a case study, impact spotlight, white paper example, or best practice suggestion.

To share your expertise, please contact Molly Hovorka, Product Marketing Director, by email at mhovorka AT angelpoints DOT com.

Feature Updates

Note: The product changes described below apply only to AngelPoints Version 2. If a feature is listed as site configurable, please contact your account manager to enable it for your site.

1. Board Membership - Users can now specify whether they are representing your company when serving on organization boards. The Board Membership and Board Participation report downloads both show company representation.
   Site Configurable? No
2. Canadian Charities Added to the Database - The organization database has been updated to include approximately 84,000 Canadian organizations.
   Site Configurable? No
3. Submitting IVA Hours - Now when your users use the copy functionality to log additional Independent Volunteer Activities (IVAs), the date will default to today's date instead of the last date they logged.
   Site Configurable? No
   
   Also, when a user adds a new IVA, you can opt to make the Detail/Description field required. This is especially useful for clients who use the CRA module and need to track more detailed information about these activities.
   Site Configurable? Yes
4. Validating Hours - It is now easier to see more information about a volunteer’s participation when validating hours. Previously, you could click his/her name to send an email for more information. Now when you click the user’s name, his/her participant report is displayed. If you still need more information, an email link is available on the participant report page. Watch for more improvements to the Validate Hours page coming up over the next few months.
   Site Configurable? No
5. Updating Groups Via Data Feeds - If a data feed contains new group information for a user, the new group information replaces the existing information in the database. If the feed does not contain any group information for a user, the existing information remains as the current group.
   Site Configurable? No
6. Standard Text Boxes - Standard plain text boxes have replaced the rich text editors on the Submit Hours and Notes to Manager pages for all event types, as well as CRA Notes. By making the notes process simpler, overall usability will be improved and the number of errors reduced .
   Site Configurable? No

Your Ideas = Our Action
By now, you've heard about the AngelPoints Ideas Portal. Thank you to everyone who has already logged in, voted on ideas, and commented on them. We're also in there responding to ideas and keeping statuses updated. If you haven't yet logged into the Ideas Portal, you're missing your chance to guide the AngelPoints product roadmap. You can vote on or "promote" any idea. We use the Ideas Portal to ensure that we give you what you need from our product. Some of the ideas that have received votes and comments so far:

• A report to track which users haven't yet filled out their profiles
• Mark events as "full" from the event list view pages

We're also happy to announce suggestions from the Ideas Portal that we've added to our Roadmap and are committed to delivering:

• Additional options when searching for organizations
• Improving the organization search
• Making flexible opportunities CRA eligible
• Event Manager email addresses on the downloaded Events Report

If you are still unable to log in to the Ideas Portal or if you have any questions about how it works, you contact Kate Derrick at kate@angelpoints.com.