Onboarding volunteers with screening and agreement

How the Non-profit pack onboards a volunteer: details and references, screening, a coordinator's approval, an agreement signed online and induction.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Non-profit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

Volunteers usually arrive full of goodwill and leave quietly when their first few weeks are confusing. Nobody explained what was expected, the shift they were promised changed without notice, or they turned up at a project and found that nobody knew they were coming. The organisation loses a willing pair of hands, and often a supporter too.

There is a harder side as well. Volunteers work with the people a non-profit exists to serve, sometimes with children, older people or others who are vulnerable. Letting someone start without knowing who they are, checking their references and agreeing the rules of conduct is a risk no board should accept.

The Non-profit & fundraising pack in Achekam's Industry CRM gives every volunteer the same onboarding path, from the first details to induction. This article explains each step and the decisions that stay with you.

Volunteers are records, not names on a list

The pack keeps Volunteers as their own record, with their shifts, alongside Donors, Donations and pledges, and Grant applications. The pack calls the people who support you Supporters, which keeps the screens in the language your team already uses.

A volunteer record holds the onboarding history: what was asked for, what came back, who approved them and when they were inducted. That history matters if a question is ever raised about how someone came to be working on a programme.

Step one: request their details and references

Onboarding begins with a request for the volunteer's details and references. A workflow step in the Industry CRM can send the person a request for documents, and their answer moves the task on, so the coordinator does not have to chase replies across e-mail and messaging apps.

Decide in advance what you ask for, and ask only for what you need: contact details, an emergency contact, availability, relevant skills, and the names of referees. Collecting more personal information than the role requires creates a privacy burden without adding safety.

Step two: screening

Screening follows. What it involves depends on the role. A volunteer sorting donated clothes in your warehouse needs less scrutiny than one mentoring teenagers or visiting older people at home.

Write down, for each kind of volunteer role, what screening is required: reference calls, an interview, and any checks the law in your country requires for people working with children or vulnerable adults. Find out what applies to you, record how each check was done, and do not let a volunteer start a role until the checks for that role are complete. The pack makes screening its own step in the workflow; deciding what the step contains is your responsibility.

Step three: a coordinator's approval

After screening, a volunteer coordinator approves the volunteer. Having a named step for approval means somebody made the decision, on the evidence, rather than a volunteer simply drifting into a role because they kept turning up.

The coordinator should approve the person for a specific role, not in general. Someone approved to help at fundraising events has not been approved to work alone with children.

Step four: the volunteer agreement, signed electronically

Next, the volunteer signs the volunteer agreement electronically. The document goes out with signature and initials fields on it, can carry an expiry and reminders, and once signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents.

The agreement in the pack is starter wording. Every contract or agreement in the industry packs is marked as starter wording that the organisation must review before use. Adapt it to cover what matters in your setting: the role, conduct and safeguarding expectations, confidentiality about the people you serve, use of photographs, and how either side can end the arrangement. If your volunteers receive stipends or expenses, ask your accountant whether that affects how the relationship should be described.

Step five: the induction

The last step is the induction. This is where a volunteer learns how your organisation actually works: who to report to, what to do in an emergency, the safeguarding rules, and where things are. NCVO's guidance on involving volunteers works step by step through planning for volunteers, writing role descriptions, paying expenses, recruiting, inducting and supporting them.

Because workflows in the Industry CRM create their tasks stage by stage, and tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep, an induction can be broken down into the parts that matter for each role, such as a site tour, a safeguarding briefing and a first shift alongside an experienced volunteer, and ticked off as each is done.

After the first shift, ask the volunteer what was unclear or missing. The answers improve the next induction more than any template, and asking shows the volunteer that their experience matters to you.

Who does what

Before your next intake

Settle these points with your board or safeguarding lead:

1. The roles you offer and the screening each one needs.
2. Who may approve volunteers for each role.
3. Your reviewed volunteer agreement, replacing the starter wording.
4. What the induction covers, and who runs it.

Volunteers are one part of the support a non-profit depends on; see welcoming and thanking a new donor and grant applications from research to funder reports for the others.

Start by writing down the screening each of your volunteer roles needs. That one page shapes every onboarding that follows.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.