Troubleshooting

Email problems

I never received my confirmation email

Work through these in order:

1. Check your spam or junk folder. This is the most common cause. Search your whole mailbox for stridesvolunteers.
2. Wait a few minutes. Email is usually instant but can be delayed.
3. Check the address you typed for a typo, such as gmial.com.
4. Try signing in anyway. If your email was not confirmed, the site offers to send the link again.
5. Use “Forgot your password” on the sign-in page. The reset email doubles as a confirmation — setting a new password also verifies your address and gets you straight in.

Important: if you asked for an email in the last 5 hours, asking again may not produce a second one — the site keeps your original link alive rather than issuing a new one. The screen may still say an email was sent. Look for the earlier email in your inbox, or wait 5 hours and try again.

I signed up but got no email at all, and I’ve signed up before

If you already had an account with that email address, no new account is created and no email is sent — even though you see the green “Check your email!” message. This is deliberate, so nobody can find out which addresses are registered. Sign in with your original password, or reset it.

My verification link expired or doesn’t work

Links last 5 hours. Two fixes:

• Sign in with your email and password. If your account is not verified, the site will offer to email you a fresh link.
• Use “Forgot your password” and set a new password. That verifies your address at the same time.

My work email warns that the link is “potentially suspicious”

Some workplaces scan every link in every incoming email and show a warning page before letting you through. Ours is a small, fairly new website, so it has not built up the reputation these scanners look for yet — the warning is about the website being unfamiliar, not about anything actually being wrong.

If the address shown on the warning page is stridesvolunteers.org, the link is ours and it is safe to continue.

If you would rather not click through it:

• Sign up or sign in from a personal email address instead.
• Or copy the address printed under the button and paste it straight into your browser, which skips the scanner entirely.
• Or ask your IT team to allow stridesvolunteers.org.

The button in the email doesn’t do anything

Some email programs block buttons. Underneath every button there is a long web address printed in full. Select the whole address, copy it, and paste it into your browser’s address bar. Make sure you get all of it — these addresses are long and email programs sometimes split them across two lines.

Sign-in problems

“This account doesn’t exist or the password is wrong”

The site does not say which of the two it was, on purpose. Check:

• You are using the same email address you signed up with.
• Caps Lock is off.
• There is no stray space at the start or end of what you typed.

Still stuck? Use Forgot your password on the sign-in page.

“Please verify your email first”

You have an account, but you never clicked the link in your confirmation email. See I never received my confirmation email.

I’m a coordinator and can’t sign in

Coordinators use a different sign-in page: https://stridesvolunteers.org/portal/admin/login. Staff accounts are rejected on the volunteer page by design.

It says I’ve tried too many times

The site limits repeated attempts to protect accounts:

Wait for the time to pass and try again — nothing is broken and your account is not locked.

Group problems

The invite link says “Invite not found”

The link is no longer valid. Usually the leader cancelled it or generated a new one, which switches the old one off. Ask your group leader for the current link.

Also check the link is complete. Email programs sometimes break long links in half — the address must include everything after token=.

I joined the wrong group

Ask a coordinator at volunteers@stridesvolunteers.org. Members can be moved between groups, but only by staff.

I signed up on my own but should be in my workplace’s group

Email volunteers@stridesvolunteers.org with your name and the group’s name. A coordinator can move you across — you do not need to sign up again, and you should not create a second account.

As a leader, I can’t give myself a job

The Group Portal only lists your members, not you. Ask a coordinator to assign your own role.

A job I want shows “(full)”

That job has reached its maximum. Pick another one, or email volunteers@stridesvolunteers.org — coordinators can place someone in a full role when there is a good reason.

I can’t remove a member’s email address

Once someone has created a password, their email address is how they sign in, so it cannot be deleted. You can change it to a different address, or remove the member entirely.

Portal problems

My portal says my job is “being assigned”

Nothing is wrong and there is nothing to do. A coordinator has not chosen your job yet. You will get an email as soon as they do.

My job has no instructions or video

The coordinator has not added them for that role yet. The portal says so directly. Check back closer to event day.

The instructions have odd ** or # characters in them

That is a formatting fault on our side, not something you have done wrong. The words are still correct — just ignore the stray symbols.

I changed my mind about deleting my account

If you have only clicked Email me a deletion link, nothing has happened yet. Simply do not click the link in the email and your account stays active.

Opening the link is also still safe — it takes you to a page that asks you to confirm. Choose Keep my account, or just close the page.

Only after you press Yes, delete my account is the account removed, and at that point it cannot be recovered. You are welcome to sign up again from scratch.

Still stuck?

Email volunteers@stridesvolunteers.org. Please include:

• Your full name and the email address you signed up with.
• What you were trying to do.
• Exactly what the screen said (a photo or screenshot is ideal).