Describe your agency and referral process. Makeform creates a structured form for client needs, contact preferences, consent status, urgency, and program routing.
Send referral notifications to email, Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a starting point, adapt it to your programs, or send it to the builder.
Audience
Caseworkers referring clients across several programs
Format
Multi-step referral with conditional service questions
Prompt size
318 chars
Example form structure
Multi-step referral with conditional service questions
Referring worker and organization
Client and preferred contact method
What support is being requested?
Urgency and important deadline
Consent to share this referral recorded?
Suggested routing tags
Housing
Food support
Urgent review
Ask separately about the service, urgency, and safe contact method so the team can route the referral quickly.
Step 1
Refer
worker, client, needs, and consent status
Step 2
Triage
service, location, urgency, and eligibility details
Step 3
Route
send the referral to the appropriate program
Step 4
Follow up
record the next contact and referral outcome
Clear referrals
A useful referral separates contact, need, urgency, and permission. Staff can scan it and choose the next step.
Let workers select housing, food, transportation, employment, or other support, then reveal service-specific follow-up questions with conditional logic.
Capture the urgency level, relevant deadline, and reason in separate fields so a receiving team can prioritize consistently.
Record preferred language, safe contact method, suitable times, and communication assistance for outreach.
Built for referral partners
Start with the pathway closest to your program, then adapt the service choices, routing questions, and follow-up details in the builder.
Service categories, situation context, client contact preferences, and destination programs for cross-agency handoffs.
Caregiver contact preferences, language needs, requested resources, and a focused note from school staff.
Current housing situation, relevant deadlines, service area, safe contact details, and requested assistance.
Practical support needs, communication assistance, access considerations, availability, and the best next contact.
Referral workflow
Turn your handoff process into a form, test its routing, and share one referral link with partners.
List available services, eligible referrers, coverage area, triage details, and routing destinations.
Use your program names, remove unneeded questions, and require only essential routing fields.
Reveal program-specific questions after a service is selected and deadline details when urgency is flagged.
Share the form with referral partners and notify the staff responsible for review.
Structured form vs informal handoff
An online form gives every partner the same routing questions while preserving space for context.
Field guide
Collect enough information to identify the correct program and make respectful contact. Review each field against your agency's process, data practices, and the minimum information needed for the handoff.
Referral source
Capture the worker, organization, role, contact details, and relationship to the client so the team knows who can clarify the referral.
Client contact
Ask for preferred name, contact method, language, suitable timing, and relevant communication assistance. Allow contact with the referrer first.
Situation and needs
Use service checkboxes, a focused context field, and conditional questions that collect details only for selected programs.
Urgency and deadlines
Pair urgency with a reason and known date. Define choices using your triage policy so senders understand them.
Permission status
Ask whether the client agreed to the described referral and information sharing. Let staff record pending or separately documented status.
Routing and follow-up
Route notifications by program and location. Keep staff-only follow-up data out of the partner-facing referral.
Related tools
Use live Makeform tools for general intake, service applications, referral requests, food support, and community partner coordination.
Collect information directly from people applying for community programs and services.
Open toolCreate a flexible request form for internal or partner referral handoffs.
Open toolBuild a broader client intake when your process begins with direct enrollment rather than a referral.
Open toolGather program-specific information for a food support application workflow.
Open toolOrganize partnership and collaboration requests from other community organizations.
Open toolStart with a general-purpose referral structure for a different team or service pathway.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for caseworkers, program coordinators, schools, and community partners building a consistent referral process.
It is a structured handoff from a caseworker or partner to a service program. It records the referrer, client contact preference, requested support, timing, permission status, and routing context.
Include referrer details, client contact preferences, requested services, a concise situation summary, coverage area, urgency, deadlines, language or accessibility needs, permission status, and conditional program questions.
A referral form hands a request to another service. An intake form begins that service's enrollment or assessment. Keep referrals focused on routing and first contact; collect deeper intake details later.
Yes. Use a service-category question and conditional follow-ups. Notifications or connected workflows can use category, location, or urgency to route submissions. Test every branch before sharing.
Use defined urgency choices, a reason, and any known deadline. Explain choices using your triage process, and display your organization's alternate instructions for situations needing another immediate contact path.
Use a status question based on your referral process. State what information is shared, with which program, and why. Your team should define wording and how pending or separately recorded agreement is handled.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect referral submissions without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Ask only what supports routing or first contact. Use conditional sections, make context prompts specific, separate required from optional fields, and review questions with referral senders and receivers.
Replace scattered referral emails with one clear handoff.
