VolunteerBadge has a built-in secure message center so you can talk to volunteers without email threads scattering everywhere. Every conversation is threaded, kept on record, and reachable from both sides — the leader's dashboard and the volunteer's portal.
Open the Message Center
Click Messages in the left-hand menu. The left pane lists every conversation — newest on top — with the volunteer's photo, a preview of the last message, and an unread count. Pick one to open the thread on the right, or click the green compose button to start a new message with any volunteer who has an email on file — a portal account isn't required.
You can also message a specific volunteer from their profile page (the Messages card), or ask Victor to send one for you.
Who can be messaged
How the volunteer receives it — email + secure portal
Every message you send is delivered two ways, automatically:
- An email notification — always sent to the volunteer's email on file, branded with your organization's name and logo, with your message included.
- A secure in-portal message — if the volunteer created a volunteer portal (for example, when they opted in during the application process), the same message also appears in their portal, where the whole thread lives in one secure place.
The volunteer can respond whichever way is easiest — and both routes land in the same conversation in your Message Center:
- Just reply to the email — they hit reply in their own inbox, and it shows up right back in the message console. Messages that arrived by email carry a small “email” tag so you know how they came in. (Their reply is cleaned up automatically — quoted history and email signatures are stripped so the thread reads as a clean back-and-forth.)
- Or sign in to the portal — they open their badge page at volunteerbadge.com/badge and reply in the thread, exchanging messages (and attachments) with you securely.
A volunteer who doesn't have a portal yet still gets the email and can reply to it directly, plus a one-click link to create their free portal so future messages stay in one secure place. If you turn on email notifications (below), leaders get the same convenience — reply straight from your own inbox and it threads back to the volunteer automatically.
Notifications · Settings → Notifications
Under Settings → Notifications → Volunteer messages you control how your team hears about incoming volunteer messages:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show a bell notification when a volunteer sends a message | On | A bell alert (and mobile push) for org admins whenever a volunteer messages you. Turn it off to silence the bell. |
| Email admins on each volunteer message | Off | Also emails your admins each time a volunteer messages — and you can reply right from your inbox. |
You can also mute message notifications right from the bell: open the bell menu in the top bar and toggle “Message notifications” off at the bottom. It's the same setting as above, so the bell and Settings stay in sync (owners and admins only).
The green unread count on Messages in the left menu updates live when a volunteer messages you, when you open/mark a thread read or unread, and when you archive or restore a conversation — no page reload required.
Formatting, emoji & voice/video
The composer has a small toolbar on both the leader and the volunteer side, so conversations feel human, not robotic:
- Bold and italic — highlight the important bits (surround text with
**like this**for bold or*like this*for italic). - Emoji 🎉 — tap the smiley to add a splash of personality. They work everywhere, including in emailed notifications.
- Voice & video clips — tap the microphone to record a quick voice note or video message right in your browser (or upload one). Volunteers can record and send one back too — a warm, face-to-face way to communicate without typing. Clips play inline in the thread.
Attachments
Click the paperclip in the composer to attach files — PDFs, images, Word/Excel, CSV, or text (up to 10 MB each), or a voice/video clip (up to 40 MB) — 5 per message. Volunteers can attach files too, from their portal or by replying to the email with the file attached. Every file is virus-scanned before it's stored, and it's kept in private storage — recipients open it through a short-lived secure link, never a public URL.
Safe by default
Secure & auditable — not a group text
Every message and clip is encrypted in transit and at rest, stored in access-controlled storage, and reachable only by your organization. Media is served through short-lived, signed links — never a public URL. And because the whole thread is permanently retained and timestamped, you keep an exportable record of who said what and when — the accountability you need when serving vulnerable people. That's a level of security and auditability ordinary SMS texting simply can't offer. (Messages are encrypted in transit and at rest and access-controlled; they aren't end-to-end encrypted, because features like AI-suggested replies and email delivery need secure server-side processing.)
Write with AI
Stuck on wording? Click the sparkles button in the composer for a built-in writing assistant. Describe what you want to say (“thank them and confirm Saturday at 9am”) and it drafts the message, or — if you've already started typing — Improve, make it Friendlier, Shorter, or Fix grammar. The draft drops straight into the box so you can edit and send. Volunteers get the same assistant in their portal. Victor can also send a message for you — just ask him from the chat panel.
You're always in control
Sort, archive & the right-click menu
Use the sort button above the list to order conversations by Most recent, Unread first, or Name A–Z. Right-click any conversation for quick actions:
- Mark as read / unread — nudge the unread count without opening the thread.
- Archive — move a finished conversation out of your active inbox. Use the archive button in the header to view archived threads and Restore them.
- Delete — removes the conversation from your inbox.
Nothing is ever erased
The whole conversation lives on the volunteer's record, too
Your messages don't only live in the Message Center. The exact same thread appears on the volunteer's profile page, in the “Messages with [name]” card near the top — and there's a Messages shortcut in that page's Jump to bar to land on it instantly. So when you pull up a volunteer to review their application, background check, or hours, the full record of what you've talked about is right there — you never lose sight of prior communication with them.
You can also start a message from that same card, or from the Message button at the top of the volunteer's profile — it's the same secure thread, just reached from wherever you happen to be.
What volunteers control
Volunteers have the matching choice on their side. On their badge page, “Email me about messages” lets them get the email nudge (and reply by email) or work in the portal only. Either way, your message is always waiting for them in their portal.