Volunteer FAQ's

The purpose of Volunteer Fairfax is to increase volunteerism across the Greater Washington region by acting as a bridge between volunteers and local nonprofits. Through a variety of programs and events, we enhance the capacity of our nonprofit partners and county agencies while expanding their reach and effectiveness.

Volunteer Fairfax offers numerous services and programs that make it easy and convenient for you to volunteer. VolunteerNow!, a searchable catalog of volunteer opportunities, allows volunteers to search for up-to-date opportunities instantly. Additionally, Volunteer Fairfax holds large family-friendly days of service like VolunteerFest and MLK Day of Service (Give Together) to provide easy access to a variety of service projects benefitting many local organizations.

VolunteerNow! is Volunteer Fairfax’s searchable database for volunteer opportunities. Individuals and groups can search for opportunities based on mission, location, skills and much more! Once you find an opportunity, you can express interest through our website and the nonprofit will contact you regarding the opportunity.

After expressing interest in a volunteer opportunity, nonprofit and county agencies are asked to respond to your inquiry within 2-4 business days. If they do not contact you, please send an email to volsrus@volunteerfairfax.org.

Requirements will vary depending upon the type of opportunity it is and the organization it supports. You will be informed by the organization regarding specific needs to get you started.

Volunteer Fairfax keeps its supporters informed through traditional and emerging forms of communication. You can sign up for the monthly newsletter to learn about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and pressing community needs. Additionally, you can follow Volunteer Fairfax on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram.

Volunteering offers many benefits to nonprofits but also to the individual volunteers. It can help you: build important skills professionally and personally, improve your health, meet new people, feel needed, enhance your resume, gain work experience, gain self confidence and much more. The benefits gained are as unique as the volunteer.

You can find the opportunity that best suits your needs through VolunteerNow!. The types of opportunities range from mentoring children to helping the environment to preparing food for the homeless. With so many needs in the community and with such an array of nonprofits, we are certain that you will find the perfect fit. Volunteers are involved with just about every sector of the community and do just about any task you can imagine. When you are thinking about what you would like to do, try and match it with your interests, passions, skills or experience.

As part of Volunteer Fairfax’s commitment to promoting volunteerism, we administer the Alternative Community Service Program (ACS), which places a broad range of court-ordered and attorney referred clients in community service positions in lieu of a fine or jail term.

Volunteer Fairfax works with hundreds of nonprofit organizations with different missions and public agencies meeting community needs.

Yes! You can find the opportunity that best suits your schedule through VolunteerNow!.

Every volunteer opportunity is different. Some nonprofits expect that you work a certain schedule while others need your support only one time for a certain number of hours. You can specify the type of volunteer opportunity when searching through VolunteerNow!

It’s entirely up to you! You can volunteer as much or as little as you like based on your time and interests. Keep in mind while some opportunities are structured to be one-time opportunities, organizations do invest time, energy and effort to recruit, train and orient volunteers. By committing to volunteer more with an organization, you are leveraging their investment and providing a higher yield.

If an emergency situation occurs, Volunteer Fairfax may be called upon by the County to help recruit and train volunteers to assist in recovery. Depending on the scale of the emergency, Volunteer Fairfax may be activated to one of three levels:

• Virtual Activation: Volunteers are registered through an online database. If necessary, the Volunteer Fairfax office may also be opened to process incoming volunteers.
• Satellite Activation: A Volunteer Reception Center is opened near the scene of the emergency to process spontaneous volunteers who have begun to gather without prior registration. Depending on the scale of the emergency, multiple sites may be opened.
• Full Activation: A Volunteer Reception Center is opened in one central location, simplifying the coordination process.

For more information regarding the Emergency Response program, please contact our Emergency Response staff.

There are various volunteer opportunities for kids and teens. Volunteer Fairfax offers two days of service that allow youth to participate in such as: MLK Day of Service (Give Together) and VolunteerFest. To find other opportunities you can use VolunteerNow!

Volunteering at an early age helps to develop new skills as well as gain leadership. It not only helps impact the community but it will also give this age group self-confidence through getting recognized for contribution. This work will then be useful on college applications and for future employment. Plus, it’s a great way to gain empathy and get to know your community and even yourself.

Group volunteer opportunities are available throughout the year. Groups can pick what kind of volunteering they are interested in and what is best suitable for their availability from seasonal one-time opportunities, off-site opportunities, and immediate group opportunities. Once they have chosen then expressing interest is required in order to coordinate with agencies to schedule a date and time that is convenient for both parties.

MLK Day of Service (Give Together) is held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a fun and unique way for families to work together to give back to the community. Another Volunteer Fairfax event that is great for families to enjoy is VolunteerFest. For more family volunteer opportunities use VolunteerNow! to customize your search.

Internships are credit or non-credit experiences in community organizations. Hours can vary depending on requirements and the nonprofits capacity to have an intern. Internships may be pre-professional in nature or offer an experience related to other learning goals, such as exploring one’s role in civic engagement and social change. If students intend to earn academic credit for an internship, it is their responsibility to make the appropriate arrangement with their institution.

Some institutions offer course credit for volunteering or require their students to complete a certain amount of hours per semester. Contact your student engagement or service learning department at your school for details.

Contact your institution’s student engagement office, service learning department or your professor regarding course credit for volunteer work.

Once you selected and begun to serve at a nonprofit or public agency, you would work with the agency’s volunteer coordinator to get your volunteer work verified. Often for one-time opportunities the lead person day of is able to sign off on hours.

Talk to your institution’s career center to find local internship opportunities.

Yes! Volunteer work allows you to acquire hands on experience and develop skills in the same way that paid positions do. Future employers want to see that you have developed skills and demonstrated them in a working environment. It’s important to show that you have the capabilities to do your volunteer duties.

When “Expressing Interest” in an opportunity, please be sure to select your institution under “Group” on the final screen. This allows your institution to get credit for the volunteers that come through our site.

In addition to large community-wide days of service, you can volunteer as a group for many volunteer opportunities. When searching in VolunteerNow!, click “Great for: Groups” in the advanced search option. This will bring up all the opportunities that have a need for small and large groups.

It is the intersection of a person’s professional work experience and knowledge of working with nonprofits. Some examples include helping to design a website, using your carpentry skills, helping with building a stronger resume or translating work material into another language.

For companies, skills-based volunteering can be a great addition to any employee volunteer program. Studies have shown that offering employees volunteer opportunities can boost morale, build teamwork and enhances a company’s public image. Skills-based volunteering has the added benefit of allowing employees to use core skills in real world situations thus serving as cost-effective professional development.

Volunteer Fairfax offers many training opportunities to learn how to better manage volunteer programs. Volunteer Management Boot Camp, is offered on a regular basis at locations throughout the Washington D.C. metro region. For more information on this interactive session, as well as to register for our next class, please visit Boot Camp.

Just your time and skills! Volunteering is free through Volunteer Fairfax.

However, some volunteer organizations we refer to may have nominal fees for background checks.

Some volunteer organizations pay volunteers for out-of-pocket expenses such as the cost of traveling to and from the place where you volunteer, meals while volunteering or postage and telephone costs. It’s important to discuss what can and can’t be claimed back before you start any new volunteering role.

Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to transport volunteers to our agencies, some sites are accessible via public transportation.

Volunteer Fairfax serves as a referral agency making the connection between you and the nonprofit or public agencies. Each organization may have certain requirements depending on the type of position. The nonprofit or government agency will inform you of these requirements when they follow-up with you regarding the specific opportunity.

Although our name may be misleading, Volunteer Fairfax serves the Northern Virginia and Washington DC Metro Region. You can search for volunteer opportunities by location on VolunteerNow!.

There are no volunteer opportunities that pay. However, some organizations may provide a small stipend to cover travel expenses or incurred costs.

A nonprofit organization is an organization that does not issue stock shares or distributes its surplus funds to owners or shareholders but instead uses the funds to help achieve its goals. Examples of NPOs include charities (i.e., charitable organizations), trade unions, trade associations, some government agencies, and public arts organizations.