FAQs

CERVIS is a comprehensive, web‑based volunteer management platform built to simplify every part of coordinating volunteers. Our software integrates directly with your existing website, making it easy to create and customize online volunteer registration for your events, programs, and ongoing opportunities.

CERVIS includes a full suite of tools designed to reduce administrative work and help organizations manage volunteers more efficiently:

• Accurate Volunteer Records
  Keep volunteer profiles organized with up‑to‑date contact information, service history, and detailed activity records.

• Online Event Registration & Hour Tracking
  Streamline sign‑ups, automate confirmations, and track volunteer hours with ease.

• Customizable Reporting
  Build tailored reports that highlight volunteer impact, participation trends, and organizational outcomes.

• Built‑In Communication Tools
  Send texts, emails, and targeted mailing lists to keep volunteers informed and engaged.

• Efficient Event Management
  Quickly generate name tags, event rosters, and summary reports to support smooth event operations.

Organizations across the world rely on CERVIS to manage volunteers more effectively. By automating the logistics, CERVIS frees you to focus on what truly matters — serving your community and advancing your mission.

CERVIS helps organizations save time by automating volunteer and event management. Coordinating volunteers and managing service opportunities takes time — time most organizations simply don’t have. CERVIS streamlines the entire process by giving volunteers the ability to create and update their own profiles, register for events online, and keep their contact information current without staff intervention.

When it’s time for your event, CERVIS automatically generates the tools you need: sign-in sheets, rosters, nametags, and event summary reports. And when you need data, CERVIS makes it easy to pull exactly what you’re looking for. You can quickly build reports that show who has volunteered a certain number of times, who has specific skills, who is available at certain hours, who belongs to particular groups, and much more.

CERVIS is designed to remove the administrative burden from volunteer management so you can focus your time, budget, and energy on what matters most.

CERVIS offers flat-rate, transparent subscription pricing with month-to-month and annual billing options. Every plan includes unlimited volunteers, administrators, and events at no extra cost, so your bill never increases as your program grows. Additionally, because CERVIS is a continuously improved web-based platform, all system upgrades and new features are automatically included for free.

Software Subscription Plans

• Basic Edition ($25/mo or $300/yr): Best for managing one-time events and simple needs with built-in reporting (excludes volunteer hour tracking).

• Standard Edition ($120/mo or $1,200/yr): Adds essential tools like volunteer hours tracking, group management, expanded reporting, and multiple access levels.

• Premier Edition ($200/mo or $2,100/yr): Our most popular plan, featuring advanced tools to handle everything from single events to daily shifts across multiple locations.

• Enterprise: A customized, all-inclusive solution for large organizations with unique requirements.

First-Year Onboarding & Training

• Account Set-up Fee ($175): A required, one-time fee covering the complete build of your customized console.

• Optional Training: Choose between Standard Training ($550 for 6 hours of instruction) or Modular-Based Training ($900 for 10 hours of guided setup and customization) led by our specialists.

CERVIS provides built-in communication tools to automate routine messaging and send targeted emails and SMS text messages to specific volunteer segments. The platform streamlines engagement through the following features:

• Automated Messaging: Automatically triggers registration confirmations, shift reminder notifications, post-event thank-you emails, and birthday greetings based on volunteer activity and profile data.

• Targeted Outreach: Utilizes the Advanced Volunteer Search tool to filter users by specific skills, interests, availability, or past participation to send highly tailored email or text broadcasts.

• Customizable Templates: Allows administrators to customize the text, merge fields, and branding of automated system messages to match organizational guidelines.

• Real-Time Updates: Facilitates rapid mass communication regarding upcoming opportunities, schedule changes, or urgent organizational announcements.

Yes. CERVIS connects volunteer data with external donor management and CRM systems through native integrations, API access, and bulk data tools. Organizations can sync their constituent engagement data using the following pathways:

• Direct CRM Integrations: Features native, direct software connections with leading industry platforms, specifically Salesforce and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT.

• REST API Access: Provides full access to a robust REST API, allowing IT teams and developers to build secure, automated data syncing between CERVIS and virtually any external or custom software platform.

• Custom Data Import & Export: Includes built-in administrative tools to manually manage data without developer support, allowing for bulk user imports and highly detailed CSV or Excel exports of volunteer activity.

Whether you use a turn-key integration, a custom API connection, or bulk exports, CERVIS bridges the gap between your volunteer network and your donor database, helping you identify volunteers who might also be your strongest financial supporters.

CERVIS processes background checks natively through a direct integration with Backgrounds Online. This allows administrators to order, track, and manage volunteer screenings centrally without manual paperwork. The integration includes the following automated features:

• Automated Applications: When a check is ordered, volunteers receive a customized, branded email link to complete their screening application online.

• Real-Time Status Tracking: Screening statuses (Pending, Clear, or Review) sync automatically from Backgrounds Online directly to the volunteer’s central profile.

• Automated Registration Restrictions: Administrators can configure the system to automatically block individuals without a cleared background check from registering for restricted events or roles.

• Flexible Payment Routing: Organizations can choose to cover the cost of the screening internally or require the volunteer to pay for it during the application process.

Yes. CERVIS protects your data using redundant SOC 2 certified data centers, 256-bit AES encryption at rest, and 128-bit SSL encryption in transit. The privacy, security, and availability of your critical information is our top priority, supported by comprehensive security measures across all layers of our infrastructure:

• Physical Security: Hosted in redundant SOC 2 certified data centers (Ohio & Oregon) protected by 24/7 security staff, CCTV, multi-factor entry, and advanced environmental controls like fire and water suppression.

• Network Security: Protected by 128-bit SSL encryption for all data in motion, strict network firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and active DDoS attack mitigation.

• Data & Privacy: Secured with 256-bit AES encryption for all data at rest, with additional encryption layers for designated "Sensitive Data." Customers retain 100% ownership of their data, and employee access requires multi-factor authentication.

• System & Application Security: Defended by Web Application Firewalls (WAF), daily anti-malware updates, weekly 3rd-party vulnerability testing, and rapid patch management.

• System Redundancy: Backed by instant database replication across six separate fail-over data centers, daily secure offsite backups, and automatic fail-over to a secondary data center to ensure zero downtime.

Yes, volunteers can schedule their own hours online. CERVIS enables you to create volunteer opportunities and post them for potential volunteers to view online. When a volunteer finds an opportunity that fits their schedule, they can easily register for it.

Yes. CERVIS includes built-in electronic signature capabilities that allow organizations to collect digital waivers, liability forms, and terms & conditions directly during the volunteer registration process.

• Integrated Workflow: The system can be configured to require volunteers to electronically sign mandatory documents before they can finalize their account creation or register for specific opportunities.

• Customizable Agreements: Administrators can input, format, and update the exact text of their waivers to meet specific legal, safety, or organizational compliance requirements.

• Secure Digital Storage: All signed agreements are securely logged within each volunteer's individual profile, recording the exact date and time of the signature for quick reference and compliance auditing.

• Paperless Processing: Native digital e-signatures eliminate the need to print, collect, store, and manually file physical paperwork on-site.

Our CERVIS software offers extensive Report Management functionality. Reports can be run over any date range on individual volunteers, groups of volunteers, new volunteers, specific events, interests, or custom fields. You can also create and save custom report templates using any previously run search for a specific set of Volunteers, Events, Groups, or Reservations. The options are endless!

No. CERVIS pricing is never based on the number of volunteers, administrators, or opportunities you manage. Every plan includes unlimited volunteers and unlimited administrators at no extra cost. We designed our pricing to support growth — when your volunteer program expands, your bill doesn’t. Our goal is to help organizations thrive, not charge more for their success.

Upgrades are always free! CERVIS is a web-based system that’s continuously improved, and every new feature is automatically included in your account at no additional cost.

We know that any time you begin using a new software system, it can be a bit overwhelming. Our goal at CERVIS is to make this process as easy and smooth as possible. Below is a list of initial steps so you can know what to expect when you begin.

1. When you are ready to begin using CERVIS, please let your Sales Representative know. They will get some basic information from you so we can initialize your account.

2. Once we receive your information, your account will be set up and ready to use within 24 hours. If you prefer, you can request to start on a particular date.

3. The night before your start date, your new CERVIS Administrator(s) will receive an email with their initial login information and a Getting Started Guide which will walk them through the basics of how to jump into CERVIS.

4. If you have chosen to take advantage of our personalized training, you will be contacted within a few days by one of our Training Specialists to schedule your first session. If you are in a time crunch, let your Sales Representative know, or contact our Customer Support Team and we will have a Training Specialist work with you to meet your needs.

5. At this point, our Sales Team will fully transition you to our Customer Support Team who will handle any future questions that you may have.

We provide unlimited online customer and product support to all of our customers at no additional fee. All support questions are handled quickly by one of our friendly and courteous, United States-based customer support experts. In fact, most support tickets are completely resolved within 30 minutes of receiving them.

To empower your team, we offer a robust suite of self-service resources:

• Getting Started Guide: A comprehensive guide to help you quickly and successfully launch your CERVIS account.

• Searchable Knowledge Base: Find quick answers and step-by-step guides at your own pace.

• CERVIS YouTube Channel: Explore our YouTube channel featuring over 70 videos, including custom tutorials and recorded webinars.

When you need more hands-on help, our Training Specialists are second-to-none. Personalized, one-on-one training can be purchased in 30-minute increments. As you begin using CERVIS, our trainers can help you set up your account to best meet your organization’s needs and provide a detailed overview of the software. For more information, please visit our Resources page.

CERVIS integrates seamlessly into most organization's websites. When a volunteer goes to your organization website, they will see the listing of volunteer opportunities that you have created and they will be able to create an account, log in, and register to serve. Your volunteers won't even know that your event registration is run separately from your organization’s webpage. As you create and post customized events, they will instantly be published on your event registration page and you will have complete control over what the volunteer sees.

For organizations that do not have a website, or do not desire to integrate CERVIS into their website, CERVIS provides a customized website console for you to direct your volunteers to log into and register for events.

Not at all! Because CERVIS is entirely web-based, you won't need to download any software or purchase proprietary hardware.

• General Software Use: All you need is a standard web browser and an internet connection (high-speed is recommended but not required) on your computer, whether you are at home or the office.

• Volunteer Check-In Kiosk: You can easily set up your kiosk using devices you likely already own, such as an iPad, tablet, smartphone, or computer. While some organizations choose to purchase floor stands or tablet enclosures for convenience, they are completely optional. Volunteers can even use our touchless QR code sign-in directly from their own mobile devices, eliminating the need for shared equipment entirely.