Free Volunteer Agreement Template

What is a Volunteer Agreement?

A volunteer agreement is a document that clearly outlines what an organization wants from a volunteer and what a volunteer can expect in return for providing the volunteering services. Signing a volunteer agreement helps to establish a formal relationship between a company and its volunteer. 

Why are Volunteer Agreements important?

Agreements between volunteers and an organization are crucial on many levels. In the event of a disagreement, it can act as a dispute resolution document as it will contain all the details of the volunteer service. Having a thought-out and well-drafted volunteer agreement has many benefits. 

• It gives the volunteer programme a structured and professional outlook.

• All rules and responsibilities of the involved parties are clearly laid out in advance.

• Volunteers can see what kind of tasks are associated with the programme and decide accordingly.

• An appealing volunteer agreement form can even attract more volunteers to the programme.

• It gives a proper place to record additional information, termination policies, benefits and consequences of the volunteer work, etc.

• It helps the organization to keep track of their volunteer work, maintain records of their volunteers, avoid disputes etc.   

Benefits of using Volunteer Agreement Template

As the name usually suggests, people enroll for volunteer work not for money but for a cause that they support or believe in. Profit or nonprofit organizations can rope in dedicated people to their work by creating a great and appealing volunteer agreement. But drafting a thought-provoking volunteer service agreement can be tricky. Your volunteer agreement form should avoid sounding like an employment contract. It should be precise and should evoke an emotional connection to the cause of the work. 

With the help of a volunteer agreement sample, you can create impeccable agreements for your volunteer service. Some of the important benefits of using a template are:

• It has the ability to create multiple documents with a single template.

• It ensures clarity and uniformity in messaging.

• It eliminates any chance of miscommunication, ambiguity, and disagreements between a volunteer and the organization.

• It prevents from missing out any crucial information as templates remind you to include all the key details in your agreement.

What should be included in a volunteer agreement template?

A volunteer agreement has various aspects. For each type of volunteer work, the components in the agreement also differ. However, irrespective of the type of volunteer service, there are certain elements that any agreement document should feature. In this section we will discuss and explain what those are and what content should be included in them.

You can start your volunteer agreement with a cover page. Here, you need to clearly mention the name of the volunteer for whom it is prepared, your company’s name, and the name of the person who has prepared it. 

Introduction/Brief

Begin by giving an overview of the document. It should contain all the necessary information such as: 

• Volunteer’s name and address

• Company's details (who is inviting for the service)

• Start date from which the agreement shall be considered valid 

Terms and Conditions

This segment is where you can include all the nitty-gritty details of the service/project. It will explain the goals of the service, expectations from the volunteer, organization’s responsibilities, and more.

1. Volunteer Services

In this section mention:

• The role in which the individual shall be appointed

• The specific services that the volunteer is expected to do through this volunteering

• The start and end date of the work as well as the number of working hours an individual should complete in a week 

2. Wages

Volunteering programmes in general do not include any sort of remuneration in cash or kind. The reward for the services is more or less psychological in nature. The organization should clearly state this to the volunteer in order to avoid future confusions. There are also certain programmes that provide stipend to the volunteers. If your work has this provision, then mention the exact amount too.

3. Relationship of Parties

Volunteer work shouldn’t be assumed as a gateway for any future job prospects with an organization. In this section specify this point and mention what kind of working relationship the involved parties will have during the course of the project.

4. Supervisor

Like any office work, volunteer services also need regular tracking and clocking for its progress. Hence to manage all the volunteers, supervisors/managers are appointed. Herein mention who will be supervising the project, his/her contact details, and more about the roles and responsibilities that this concerned person will be looking after.

5. Indemnity

Indemnification in general is a party's promise to hold another party legally blameless—or not accountable—for possible damages or losses in an agreement. So in this section, you shall mention in detail exactly what kind of damage/losses are not liable in the agreement.

6. Confidentiality

In this part state the volunteer’s responsibility to keep any information obtained during work as confidential and not to divulge any details to any third parties.

7. Term

This section further clarifies the conditions and validity of the agreement. Once the volunteer service’s time is over, the terms in the agreement will also end.

8. Volunteer’s expenses

Even though there is no salary given to the volunteers, companies cover certain expenses incurred as part of the project. Mention what expenses are covered and how volunteers can reimburse them in this part.  

9. Volunteer’s responsibility

In this part, outline all the guidelines and tasks that the volunteer agrees to do as part of the service. 

10. Organizations Responsibility

As volunteers have their set of roles and responsibilities, the organization inviting for the service also has certain obligations towards the volunteer. Some of them are:

• Facilitating trainings if required for the work

• All kind of support and supervision required for completion

• Providing healthcare, safety, and insurance benefits depending on the type of volunteership, etc.       

11. Termination

A volunteer agreement may sometimes end before the services are finished. Termination can occur for a number of reasons, including the volunteer not meeting the desired expectations, organizations not supplying guaranteed support for the services, and more. Either party can terminate the agreement by mutual consent. In this section you need to mention what all can lead to termination, the conditions while terminating the agreement etc. 

12. Arbitration

Arbitration is an out of court dispute resolution system wherein a third party is appointed in the event of any disagreements. In this section, you need to mention who will be the appointed arbitrator and how many people would act as arbitrators.   

13. Miscellaneous

It contains all other terms and conditions related to the agreement and checks out all the compliance in terms of:

• Governing law and jurisdiction

• Severability 

• Provision of amendments, etc.

Acceptance and signatures

The signature section is the final section that denotes the acceptance of the agreement. Here involved parties sign the document and turn it into a formal agreement.

Create engaging volunteer service documents with Revv’s volunteer agreement template

To begin establishing a volunteer programme, you need to first draft a volunteer agreement form. Creating one from scratch can be time consuming and confusing. Revv’s volunteer agreement template makes the whole process hassle-free. With our sample, create well-structured and meaningful volunteer agreements suiting your requirements.  

Feature-rich editor for easier customizations

Revv’s drag-and-drop document editor helps in personalizing your templates. With this feature you can add/edit texts, images, provide page breaks, and also connect them to Google Sheets and payment systems like Stripe. If your company already has a template, you can upload that to the Revv site in Microsoft Word or PDF format and make further modifications with the editor.

Enhanced collaboration with the team

Now collaborating with your team within the document is easier than ever. With Revv’s collaboration features, you can add comments, notes, and attachments within the document and have quality conversations with team members in real-time.

Easier accessibility and reach

You can access your agreement docs anytime, anywhere, and from any device, since Revv has a cloud storage system. 

Compliant and legally binding eSignatures

Volunteer agreements don't officially require signatures. But, for high impact volunteer activities, it is better to have agreements that are identified by the law. With Revv’s safe and secure eSignature feature, make all your agreements legal. Our eSignatures adhere to all local and global laws such as ESIGN Act, UETA, and eIDAS, among others.

Real-time activity tracking 

While dealing with bulk volunteer agreements, it becomes difficult for the organization to keep track of all. It becomes tedious to regularly check whether the documents sent to the volunteers are read or not, accepted or signed etc. But Revv's Activity feature allows you to keep track of every action that was taken on the agreement, such as who opened it and when it was signed.

Free and instant notification systems

Revv sends auto-generated email notifications to both the sender and recipients notifying them of the actions to be taken on the agreement.

Legally admissible audit trails

For all eSigned agreements, Revv creates an Evidence Summary certificate. It is a legally admissible audit trail that records every action taken on the agreement. The recipients can easily download it and use it for any legal matters. 

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