Nonprofit organizations play a central role in fostering a culture of service, citizenship and responsibility in our communities. As USA Freedom Corps is working to encourage and assist Americans to get involved, we also want to encourage and assist nonprofit organizations to strengthen their capacity to recruit, utilize and retain volunteers.

There are three stages in the process of starting and maintaining an effective volunteer program:

1. Volunteer Program Start-Up;
2. Managing Volunteer Resources; and
3. Evaluation and Sustainability.

The Start-up process for bringing volunteers into an organization begins with a review of the fundamentals. Is your organization's mission clear? What will be the role of volunteers to help you achieve it? In the Managing Volunteer Resources stage important activities include the recruitment, selection, placement, training, and management/supervision of your volunteers. Finally, the evaluation and sustainability stage involves evaluating the effectiveness of your volunteer program, rewarding and recognizing individuals for key accomplishments, and seeking additional support to sustain your efforts beyond initiation. For more detailed information on each of these stages and the effective practices that fall under each, click through the above menu of options.

In this section we also provide a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), information on how your organization can get its volunteer opportunities to appear in the USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network, and a list of additional resources to help get you started.