Claude connector

Connect Claude to your Volunteer Shift Manager account and ask about your shifts, volunteers and impact in plain language. On the Engage plan, Claude can also create and edit shifts, record attendance, and message or invite volunteers. Claude asks you before it changes anything.

For coordinators. Claude only ever sees your own organization, and only what you could already see in the app.

What it costs

Every plan, including the free Starter plan: looking things up, such as shifts, rosters, volunteers, reports, and who to invite.
Engage ($19/month): making changes, such as creating and editing shifts, adding and removing volunteers, check-ins and attendance, and sending messages.

Messages sent through Claude count toward your monthly email and text allowance, the same as messages sent from the app.

Connect it

In Claude, open the connectors settings and add Volunteer Shift Manager. If you add it as a custom connector, use this URL:
```
https://www.volunteershiftmanager.com/api/mcp
```
For sign-in, choose automatic registration. You don't need a client ID.
Sign in with your usual Volunteer Shift Manager email link.
Review what Claude is asking for, and approve access.
Ask Claude something, such as “What shifts do we have this week?”

If you belong to more than one organization, Claude works with whichever one is selected in the app, and follows you when you switch.

Things to ask

“Which shifts this week still need people?”
“Who's on Saturday's morning shift, and has everyone signed the waiver?”
“How many volunteer hours did we have last quarter, and what were they worth?”
“Who gave the most hours this year? How many no-shows did we have last month?”
“Create a dog walking shift every Tuesday 9 to 11am for the next 8 weeks, for 3 people.”
“Move Thursday's shift to 10am and raise it to 5 spots.”
“Mark Sam as a no-show on yesterday's shift, and record that Lee left at 2pm.”
“Suggest people to invite to Friday's open shift, then draft an email to them.”
“It's going to storm. Cancel Saturday's beach cleanup and let everyone know.”
“Move all the Tuesday dog walking shifts from next week on to 10am.”
“Text everyone on tomorrow's shifts at 7am that parking moved to the back lot.”
“Maria is away December 1 to 15. Mark her unavailable.”

How changes stay safe

Claude asks for your go-ahead before every change.
Changes go through the same rules as the app: plan limits, waitlists, overlapping-shift warnings, and your organization's timezone. A shift Claude creates or a volunteer it adds behaves exactly like one you created yourself.
Before a message is sent, Claude shows you who it will reach. If that list changes before you confirm, nothing is sent. Volunteers who haven't agreed to email or texts, or who unsubscribed, are never messaged, and every email includes an unsubscribe link.
Editing a shift doesn't email the volunteers already on it, the same as in the app.

Tools

Looking things up (11), available on every plan:

Get the organization and today's date get_organization	The connected organization's name, plan, whether changes are available on it, its timezone, and today's date and current time in that timezone, plus links to today's printable day sheet, this week's sheet and the self check-in kiosk. Dates like "this Saturday" are read in the organization's calendar.
List programs list_programs	List the organization's programs (recurring programs and one-off events), with their ids and public signup page links.
List shifts list_shifts	List shifts starting between two dates (inclusive), in the organization's own timezone, with how many are confirmed, spots left, waitlist size and each shift's public signup link. Set only_open_spots to find shifts that still need people. At most 92 days per call.
Get a shift's roster get_shift_roster	Show one shift's details and everyone on it: confirmed volunteers, then the waitlist in order, with contact details, check-in status, whether a waiver is on file, their answers to the shift's signup questions, and coordinator notes.
Search volunteers search_volunteers	Find volunteers on the organization's roster by part of their name or email. Returns up to 25.
Get a volunteer get_volunteer	Show one volunteer's contact details, email and text preferences, waiver status, and their 50 most recent shifts.
Get plan and usage get_plan_usage	Show the organization's plan and this month's usage against its limits: volunteers, upcoming shifts, emails and texts.
Get the impact report get_impact_report	The organization's Impact report, as on its Impact page: volunteer hours and their dollar value, volunteers and new volunteers, shifts, fill rate, top programs and top volunteers, with the previous period of the same length for comparison. Give a period, or from and to dates. Good for board and grant reports.
Get volunteer activity get_volunteer_activity	Per-volunteer activity between two dates in the organization's timezone: shifts completed, hours, no-shows and upcoming shifts, most hours first, with totals. Answers "who gave the most hours this year" or "how many no-shows last month". Hours use recorded arrival and departure times where both exist, otherwise the scheduled length. At most 366 days per call.
Suggest volunteers to invite to a shift suggest_volunteers_for_shift	People worth inviting to an upcoming shift: those who have done a shift in the same program, who aren't already on it, haven't marked that day unavailable, and aren't booked on an overlapping shift. Same role first, then the most experienced, then the most recent. Also returns the shift's public signup link. The volunteer ids it returns are accepted by the volunteers audience of preview_message and send_message.
Preview who a message would reach preview_message	Show who a message would reach by email or text: the recipient count and names, how many in the audience can't be reached (no consent, unsubscribed, no phone), and whether this month's allowance covers it. Sends nothing. send_message requires the recipient count this returns.

Making changes (14), on Engage. Claude asks before each one:

Add a volunteer to a shift add_volunteer_to_shift	Put a volunteer on a shift, as the shift page's Add volunteer does. If the shift is full or they're booked elsewhere at the same time, nothing is added and the reply names the option that adds them anyway.
Remove a volunteer from a shift remove_volunteer_from_shift	Take a volunteer off a shift, as the shift page's remove button does. If they were confirmed, the first person on the waitlist moves up and is emailed.
Move a waitlisted volunteer onto the shift move_waitlisted_onto_shift	Confirm someone from a shift's waitlist, raising capacity by one if the shift is full, and email them that they're on.
Check a volunteer in or undo it toggle_check_in	Mark a confirmed volunteer as checked in to their shift, or undo a check-in if they already are.
Create a shift create_shift	Create a shift in one of the organization's programs, or the same shift weekly for several weeks. Dates and times are in the organization's own timezone; an end time at or before the start runs past midnight. The program's signup questions and pre-shift briefing are carried over, and its location is used when none is given. Counts toward the Starter plan's upcoming-shift limit.
Edit a shift update_shift	Change a shift's title, date, start or end time, capacity, location, description or role, or the same on every later shift in its weekly series. Only the fields given change; everything else, including signup questions and the briefing, stays as it is. Dates and times are in the organization's timezone. Raising capacity moves people up from the waitlist; lowering it below the confirmed count removes nobody. Volunteers already on the shift are not emailed about the change, as with editing in the app.
Clock a volunteer out or undo it clock_out_volunteer	Clock a checked-in volunteer out of their shift, or undo a clock-out if they already are. After the shift has ended this records the shift's end time; set_attendance_times records exact times.
Record when a volunteer arrived and left set_attendance_times	Record when a confirmed volunteer actually arrived and left, which sets their hours. Also marks them attended if they were never checked in. Times are 24-hour HH:MM on the shift's own day in the organization's timezone; a leaving time before the arrival runs past midnight. Leave left out if they haven't left yet.
Mark a volunteer as a no-show or undo it toggle_no_show	Mark a confirmed volunteer who didn't come as a no-show, or undo it. Only once the shift has started, and not for someone checked in (undo the check-in first). Nobody is moved up from the waitlist.
Send a message to volunteers send_message	Email or text volunteers now, from the organization, with its signature and an unsubscribe link, as the app's Messages page does. expected_recipients must equal the count preview_message returned; if the audience has changed since, nothing is sent. The body is sent as plain text, with links made clickable in email. Email up to 5000 characters, texts up to 1000. Counts toward the monthly email or text allowance.
Cancel a shift cancel_shift	Delete a shift and email everyone confirmed or waitlisted on it that it's cancelled, with a calendar cancellation attached, as deleting a shift in the app does. Volunteers without email consent aren't emailed. This can't be undone.
Pause or resume signups on a shift pause_signups	Stop new signups on a shift's public page, or allow them again. People already signed up stay on it.
Update a volunteer's details update_volunteer	Correct a volunteer's name, email or coordinator notes. Only the fields given change. use_waiver_signature_name renames someone listed under their email handle to the full name they signed the waiver with. Email and text consent can't be changed here; volunteers manage those themselves.
Mark days a volunteer can't come mark_volunteer_unavailable	Record calendar days a volunteer is unavailable, such as a vacation. The shift page flags them if they're on a shift those days, and suggest_volunteers_for_shift leaves them out. Days already marked are skipped. Up to 90 days per call.

Privacy

When you ask Claude something, the answer our connector returns is shared with Anthropic under your Claude account. We don't receive or store your conversations. See section 4c of our privacy policy for the details.

Disconnect

Remove Volunteer Shift Manager from Claude's connector settings at any time. To revoke access from our side as well, email info@volunteershiftmanager.com.

Questions or problems? Email info@volunteershiftmanager.com, or use the feedback button inside the app.