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Volunteer Intake & Onboarding Form Template

Streamline the way you bring new volunteers into your organization. This intake and onboarding form collects everything you need — skills, availability, language abilities, transportation access, and background check consent — in a single, structured form that helps coordinators place the right people in the right roles from day one.

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Free for non-commercial projects, with unlimited forms and responses.

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The starting point

About this template

A volunteer intake form is the foundation of an effective volunteer program. Without structured intake data, coordinators rely on scattered emails, spreadsheets, and memory to understand who their volunteers are and what they can do — which leads to mismatched placements, wasted time, and frustrated volunteers who feel their skills aren't being used. A well-designed intake form solves this by capturing everything in one place, before the first shift ever begins.

More about this template

This template covers the full intake picture: personal contact information, skills and experience, languages spoken, weekly availability, transportation access, and background check consent. The skills checklist is especially valuable for programs with diverse roles — it lets coordinators filter the volunteer pool by what they actually need, rather than reading through every application narrative individually.

formformform makes building and deploying this form effortless. Customize the skills list, availability options, and consent language to match your program's specific requirements. The form works on any device, sends instant notifications when a new volunteer submits, and keeps all responses organized in your dashboard. Whether you're onboarding five volunteers or five hundred, this template gives you a repeatable, professional intake process every time.

14 fields to make your own10 required in this starting form

Make it fit your workflow.

Use your own copy to change labels, remove questions and add the details you need. Try the preview alongside this guide to see what respondents will be asked.

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The questions, explained

Fields in this template

Review the starting questions and choices. You can change them in your own copy.

  • Short answerRequired

    Full Name

    Jane Smith

  • Email addressRequired

    Email Address

    jane@email.com

  • Phone numberRequired

    Phone Number

    (555) 123-4567

  • Short answerOptional

    Home Address

    123 Main St, City, State, ZIP

  • DateRequired

    Date of Birth

  • DropdownRequired

    How Did You Hear About Our Volunteer Program?

    8 choices
    • Organization website
    • Social media
    • Friend or family member
    • Community event
    • Flyer or poster
    • Volunteer match website
    • School or employer
    • Other
  • Multiple choiceOptional

    Skills & Experience Areas

    16 choices
    • Event planning
    • Administrative support
    • Teaching or tutoring
    • Medical or first aid
    • Cooking or food service
    • Construction or maintenance
    • Marketing or social media
    • Graphic design
    • IT or technology
    • Fundraising
    • Translation or interpreting
    • Counseling or social work
    • Transportation or driving
    • Childcare
    • Animal care
    • Physical labor
  • Multiple choiceOptional

    Languages Spoken

    11 choices
    • English
    • Spanish
    • French
    • Mandarin
    • Cantonese
    • Vietnamese
    • Arabic
    • Tagalog
    • Korean
    • Portuguese
    • Other
  • Multiple choiceRequired

    Days Available to Volunteer

    7 choices
    • Monday
    • Tuesday
    • Wednesday
    • Thursday
    • Friday
    • Saturday
    • Sunday
  • NumberRequired

    Hours Available Per Week

    5

  • Single choiceRequired

    Do You Have Access to Your Own Transportation?

    3 choices
    • Yes
    • No
    • Sometimes
  • Single choiceRequired

    Do You Consent to a Background Check if Required?

    3 choices
    • Yes, I consent
    • No, I do not consent
    • I need more information first
  • Long answerRequired

    Why Do You Want to Volunteer With Us?

    Tell us a bit about your motivation and what you hope to contribute...

  • Long answerOptional

    Relevant Experience or Background

    Describe any prior volunteer work, professional experience, or training that may be relevant...

Where it fits

Who uses this template

Suggested uses, and why this starting point can help. Adapt the questions to your own process.

Nonprofits and charities

Give people a straightforward way to get involved, while collecting the context needed to coordinate the work and follow up. Review “Date of Birth” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Food banks and pantries

Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “How Did You Hear About Our Volunteer Program?” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Animal shelters

Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Skills & Experience Areas” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Hospitals and healthcare systems

Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Languages Spoken” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Community centers

Give people a straightforward way to get involved, while collecting the context needed to coordinate the work and follow up. Review “Days Available to Volunteer” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Religious organizations

Gather the details needed before making arrangements. Consistent answers help you spot special requirements and prepare the next step. Review “Hours Available Per Week” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Schools and youth programs

Give participants a clear set of questions and keep the information together, making it easier to prepare, respond and follow up. Review “Do You Have Access to Your Own Transportation?” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.

Disaster relief organizations

Captures CERT certification, medical training, logistics experience, and 24-hour on-call availability for emergency deployment rosters.

What's included

Skill and experience checkbox matrix for accurate role matching
Language spoken inventory to support multilingual programs
Days and hours availability capture for scheduling efficiency
Transportation access radio to identify candidates for off-site roles
Background check consent field built into the intake flow
Open-text motivation and experience fields for qualitative screening
Instant email notifications sent to coordinator on submission
Unlimited submissions — scales from 10 to 10,000 applicants

How to create a volunteer intake & onboarding form

  1. 1

    Click 'Use this template' to open the form editor with all fields pre-built.

  2. 2

    Edit the skills and experience checkbox options to match the roles your program actually needs to fill.

  3. 3

    Update the languages spoken list to reflect your community's demographics.

  4. 4

    Adjust the background check consent language to match your organization's legal requirements.

  5. 5

    Set your notification email so the volunteer coordinator is alerted instantly for each new submission.

  6. 6

    Publish the form and share the link in your recruitment materials, social posts, and website.

Best practices for your volunteer intake & onboarding form

Include a skills checklist rather than a free-text box

structured data lets you filter and sort volunteers by capability without reading every response manually.

Ask for availability before the interview

knowing someone is only free on weekday mornings before scheduling a call saves everyone time.

Make background check consent part of intake, not a separate step

it signals professionalism and reduces drop-off when the check is eventually needed.

Keep personal info to a minimum at intake

you can collect SSN, references, and ID documents at a later stage after a volunteer is accepted.

Add a 'Why do you want to volunteer?' field

motivation questions help coordinators identify the most committed candidates and personalize their onboarding experience.

Link to your volunteer handbook or policies after form submission

new volunteers who know what to expect show up better prepared.

12 form ideas you can build with this template

Animal Shelter Volunteer Onboarding Form

Captures whether applicants have experience with large dogs, cats, or small animals and flags those willing to handle medical or behavior-restricted animals.

Food Bank Volunteer Intake Form

Records physical ability levels, forklift or warehouse certifications, and food handler permit status for accurate shift assignments.

Hospital Auxiliary Volunteer Intake Form

Collects healthcare background, HIPAA consent acknowledgment, and department preferences like wayfinding, gift shop, or patient visiting.

Youth Mentorship Program Intake Form

Gathers mentor occupation, education background, and areas of expertise to match adult mentors with youth participants by interest.

Environmental Conservation Volunteer Form

Asks about physical fitness level, outdoor experience, and certifications like chainsaw safety or wilderness first aid for trail work placements.

Museum Docent Intake Form

Collects subject-matter expertise, public speaking comfort level, and language fluency for gallery tour assignments.

Library Program Volunteer Intake Form

Records reading level tutoring experience, comfort working with children or seniors, and tech literacy for digital literacy program support.

Disaster Relief Volunteer Intake Form

Captures CERT certification, medical training, logistics experience, and 24-hour on-call availability for emergency deployment rosters.

Hospice Volunteer Onboarding Form

Collects compassionate care experience, grief support training, and whether the applicant is comfortable in end-of-life care environments.

Community Garden Volunteer Intake Form

Asks about horticulture knowledge, tool operation experience, and preferred tasks like planting, irrigation maintenance, or harvest coordination.

Legal Aid Clinic Pro Bono Intake Form

Gathers bar admission status, practice areas, languages spoken, and hours per month a lawyer can commit to free legal consultations.

Crisis Hotline Volunteer Intake Form

Records active listening training, prior crisis intervention experience, and shift preferences for overnight versus daytime phone coverage.

Frequently asked questions

How is a volunteer intake form different from a volunteer application?

An application is typically used to select volunteers competitively, with a review and approval process. An intake form is used once someone is already accepted or in the pipeline — it collects practical onboarding information like availability, skills, and consent so you can place and schedule them correctly.

Should I ask for date of birth on the intake form?

Date of birth is useful for programs that work with minors, have age restrictions on certain roles, or need it for background check purposes. If it's not relevant to your program's requirements, you can remove that field from the template.

Can I collect background check consent through this form?

Yes. The form includes a background check consent radio field. However, a form consent field is not a substitute for a formal, legally compliant authorization document in jurisdictions that require one. Consult your legal counsel for programs that regularly run background checks.

How do I share the intake form with incoming volunteers?

After publishing, you get a shareable link you can include in acceptance emails, on your volunteer portal, or in printed materials. You can also embed the form directly on your website using the provided iframe code.

Can I route submissions to different coordinators based on interest area?

formformform sends all submissions to your configured notification email. For routing by interest area, you can export submissions as a spreadsheet and filter by the skills or program preference fields.

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