Volunteer access to RE/NXT

Jennifer Wyss

What's best practice for giving volunteers access to information in RE/NXT so they can, for example, get bio information on prospects they are assigned to assist with, add notes about meetings, actions regarding outreach, etc. I thought I would set up a security group for them but not sure if this is the best approach.

Jason Chmura

Given the high level of scrutiny regarding access to private donor information there are a few steps that we take with volunteers. 

1. They are put in a security group that primarily has access to donor records but very limited access into certain areas, like prospect management, revenue etc. They can still add interactions, edit names, etc, but they are basically a tier 1 security group with basic access.


2. On the Human Resources side, we ensure that the volunteer reviews and signs a volunteer contract with us that generally has term length and on the backend kicks off systems that they will need access to. Because of COVID we don't have volunteers on site and this means that our volunteers will be using personal computers. This also means that in the contract they are signing an NDA (or something to that effect) to ensure they do not disseminate private donor information. 


If you have the capability or can get the volunteer on site, it would be beneficial for them to use organization issued laptops or desktops which are kept on site, issue them an organization e-mail and keep their actions with the database within the confines of your organizations network. All of this will limit the risk you have when allowing volunteers access into your database.


I know all this might sound a bit heavy-handed, but donor rights are important and even more so if you are dealing with international EU based individuals in your database, GDPR comes into play.


JC