Volunteer background screens on the upswing at U.S. nonprofits

• Published date: 01 October 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30239
• Date: 01 October 2016

OCTOBER 2016

5

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Volunteers

Volunteer background screens

on the upswing at U.S. nonprots

As companies are increasingly drawing on their

employee volunteer programs to augment their

philanthropy and community outreach, they are

bumping up against another trend in the sector:

Nonprots are ratcheting up their volunteer screening

requirements, for a variety of reasons, leaving some

corporate giving departments wondering what their

role should be in the process.

Nonprot Business Advisor recently spoke with

Katie Zwetzig, executive director of background

screening company Veried Volunteers, to see how

these two trends intersect, and the impact they will

have on corporate volunteer programs and the non-

prots that benet from them.

Q: How common is it for nonprots to screen their

volunteers? How about from corporate employee vol-

unteer programs?

A: About 80 percent of organizations screen their

volunteers, up from about 60 percent three years

ago. Our 2016 Research Report shows 57 percent of

the responding organizations screen all of their vol-

unteers. Contrast this to employee programs where

80–90 percent are screened.

Q: It seems it is becoming more commonplace. What

is driving the increase?

A: Organizations are more savvy and their em-

ployees are better educated around risks, program

management and best practices. We also see that

insurance companies often require some level of

screening. Additionally, technical advances have

made screening less cumbersome for organizations.

Q: Is there any evidence that screening can turn

people off to volunteering?

A: Our experience is that volunteers expect to be

screened, and expect those that they volunteer with

to be screened. Occasionally we hear about organiza-

tions that want to implement a screening program and

are concerned about going back and screening current

volunteers. That becomes a culture issue.

Our experience within the CSR [corporate social

responsibility] model is that the organization will

drive the type of check required, not the corporate

program.

Volunteers have mentioned that they are frustrated

with multiple screens—one for their church, one for

their school, for instance—which is why they love the

portability of our check.

Q: Regarding corporate employee volunteer pro-

grams and their nonprot partners, who should be

responsible for the screening? The company or the

nonprot?

A: Today, the organizations have the burden of

ensuring a safe environment for their stakeholders,

as it is their program and reputation. We do see some

really great collaborations where a corporate partner

will pay for the checks. We are starting to see more

of that as corporations improve their engagement

programs. These corporations realize that criminal

activity can happen after the original hire date and

that screening prior to sending an employee out to

volunteer in the community is critical.

We also see interest in our portable check from

corporations who want to send a clear message to

their new hires about their focus on community en-

gagement. Welcoming a new employee and providing

them a background check that they can share with an

unlimited number of nonprots (we call it the Vol-

unteer Fast Pass) sends a strong message. This is the

mission of Veried Volunteers—to build communities

of vetted volunteers and reduce the time and cost in

multiple screenings.

Q: What is the best screening system (or combina-

tion of systems) to use?

A: The best screening uses a multitude of prod-

ucts that search criminal records and sex offender

registries and use a number of locator tools to nd

geographies where the volunteer lived, worked and

played. Position-specic products like driving records,

abuse registries, references should also be added.

Our recommendation is to do as much as you can

given budget and time restraints. Relative to systems

and process, organizations need to be sure that their

processes are compliant with the Fair Credit Report-

ing Act as well as any other federal or state laws. A

good screening partner can help ensure compliance

(See VOLUNTEERS on page 8)