Morning Assemblers!
This month we've been working really hard to make Assemble better for you and we're excited to share what's been going on.
First up, we've been focused on making rotas faster and more flexible. That work has resulted in two brand new features: Same-Day Shift Changes and Rota Notifications with Designated Contacts. Together, these give your volunteers the ability to add, edit, and cancel their rota shifts on the day, so Volunteer Managers always have an accurate, real-time picture of who's available, without the back-and-forth.
This month we've also been putting a huge amount of energy into the Volunteer App. Our team ran a hackathon to build out the Profile, Contact Us, and Links pages, which are coming very soon.
On top of that, we've trained up all of our developers so that everyone can contribute to the mobile app, because we know how important it is to you. The team has also been working on the Activities screens, the view that shows volunteers the activities they're already signed up to, and the screen that helps them discover new volunteering opportunities. We're hoping to have this with you in November. Watch this space!
We're also looking for customers to become early adopters for two of our most exciting new capabilities: Navigator and Connected Reporting. To get involved, please make sure you're already on Evo.
Navigator is designed specifically for Volunteer Managers and is available on both desktop and phone. It brings the tasks that matter most to the forefront, giving your managers a faster, cleaner way to do their job.
Connected Reporting gives you access to our API paired with a generative AI, so you can pull any data from Assemble and turn it into beautiful, graphical reports, complete with recommendations. It's about empowering you to use your data in the way that works for you.
If either of these sounds like something you'd love to get your hands on early, please get in touch. We'd love to have you involved.
What's new
Same-Day Shift Changes
Volunteers can now add, edit, and cancel their rota shifts on the same day — giving them the ability to communicate a true picture of their time and availability to the charity, right as it happens.
This means:
Volunteers can add a shift on the day to let the charity know they're available. No more gaps in the data because someone turned up but wasn't recorded.
Volunteers can edit a shift on the day themselves, so that they can add in any extra hours that they have worked.
Volunteer Managers save time. They no longer need to take a call from a volunteer, cancel them in the system, and then start finding a replacement. The volunteer does the first step, and the system handles the rest.
Rota Notifications: Designated Contacts
Working alongside Same-Day Shift Changes, organisations can now assign designated contacts per rota, so when a volunteer makes a same-day shift change, the right person is notified immediately and can get straight to finding a replacement.
Volunteer Managers can add, edit, and bulk-assign designated contacts via the rota.
When a volunteer makes a same-day shift change, the designated contact is notified instantly if that change leaves the rota under the minimum number of volunteers needed.
Volunteers can see who their designated rota contact is from their view.
When a Volunteer Manager leaves a role, the system warns if they are the sole designated contact and prompts reassignment.
Both Same-Day Shift Changes and Rota Notifications are available at the rota level, so each charity can decide on a rota-by-rota basis whether these features are right for them.
📌 Note: Same-Day Shift Changes also lays the groundwork for a brand new Find a Volunteer in an Emergency feature in our upcoming Navigator release, giving Volunteer Managers the ability to instantly search for available volunteers on a rota for that day. Look out for it!
Intercom support chat reclassified as an essential cookie
Intercom is now used as a core part of our support offering, so its cookies have been moved from 'functional' to 'strictly necessary'. This means the support chat will load for all users regardless of cookie preferences, and the cookie settings page has been updated to reflect this.
Fixes: Already live
The following fixes were shipped to production ahead of this release as part of v26.08.19 and v26.08.05.
Irish adverts displaying as 'United Kingdom'
When Irish teams published opportunities, the map incorrectly showed 'United Kingdom' as the location even when a full Irish address was entered. Searching for Irish locations in the location field also returned 'no location found'. Both issues are now resolved and Irish addresses display correctly.
User unable to create a non-volunteer account
An issue was preventing certain users from being created as non-volunteer accounts. This has been resolved and account creation works as expected.
Rota performance improvements
We've worked really hard behind the scenes to make sure Assemble is efficient and quick, particularly in the Rotas area. If there are other parts of the system that feel slow or could do with the same tidy-up, please do let us know. We are listening!
Applicants getting blank screens
Some applicants were encountering a blank screen during their application journey. This has been investigated and resolved.
Volunteer unable to receive a 2FA code when set to On Hold with No Contact
Volunteers placed on hold with the 'No Contact' setting were unable to receive two-factor authentication (2FA) codes, locking them out. This has been fixed.
Expenses report showing doubled claim amounts
When a manager who had submitted an expense claim ran the By User expenses report, their own claim appeared twice with the total doubled. Other users viewing the same report saw the correct figure. This has been corrected.
Users not coming off hold
Some users were remaining in a held state even after the hold should have been lifted. This has been resolved.
User record with parental consent throwing a 500 error
Volunteer records that included parental consent data were causing a 500 error and blank page when accessed. This has been fixed.
Volunteer records loading issue
A regression introduced by a recent fix caused volunteer records to fail to load. This has been resolved.
Applicants for offline opportunities unable to load their application page
Applicants applying for offline opportunities were hitting a blank page when trying to access their application. This has been fixed.
Fixes: New in this release
Opportunity Activity Report not matching Opportunity Analytics
The figures shown in the Opportunity Activity Report were not consistent with those in Opportunity Analytics. For example, the report was showing eight applications for a role where the analytics showed 373 cleared applications for the same period. The data has been aligned so both views show consistent, accurate numbers.
Opportunity Activity Report not loading for some users
Some users were unable to load the Opportunity Activity Report at all. This has been resolved and the report now loads correctly for all users.
Error with Tasks when navigating back from a task
When a user filtered the Tasks list, opened a task, and pressed 'Back', an error message appeared and persisted even on page reload. They were also losing their filters each time. This has been fixed.
Rota not loading at all for some users
Some users were completely unable to load their rota, meaning area managers and volunteer champions had to request rotas be provided manually, creating significant extra work. This critical issue has been resolved as a priority.
Intercom support chat reclassified as an essential cookie
Intercom is now used as a core part of our support offering, so its cookies have been moved from 'functional' to 'strictly necessary'. This means the support chat will load for all users regardless of cookie preferences, and the cookie settings page has been updated to reflect this.
How this version will be made available
This version releases automatically. The dates for each environment are below:
Environment | Date |
Staging | 26.08.2026 |
Production | 02.09.2026 |