The Nonprofit FAQ

Why screen volunteers at all?

Nan Hawthorne said on CYBERVPM on Wednesday, Jan 15, 1997 Found a fantastically useful website for volunteer programs, the Volunteer's Legal Handbook --- go take a look at it: http://www.iciclesoftware.com/VLH7/index.html For example, a brief quote: Volunteer screening and placement If, as some authorities suggest, a volunteer is a worker serving without consideration, then a nonprofit corporation utilizing volunteer services should put substantially the same amount of work into locating and placing volunteers that it would put into locating and placing paid employees. Volunteers frequently have a highly public role on behalf of a nonprofit corporation; they are the persons that individuals dealing with the nonprofit corporation see first and most often. You can manage several risks by effectively screening, evaluating and placing volunteers. Reposted with corrections October 9, 1998; updated 8/30/02; link repaired 4/8/05 -- PB