VolunteerNow

VolunteerNow's Community Engagement initiative is focused on raising community awareness of volunteer needs across a full range of causes and engaging volunteers of all ages to meet those needs.

The VolunteerNow Agency Relations team provides specialized support focused on strengthening agencies' abilities to more effectively leverage volunteer's time and talents, which enables nonprofits to stretch limited resources and serve more clients.
 
VolunteerNow has managed youth volunteering, service learning and team projects for a number of leading corporations, foundations and national grant-making organizations. We offer youth a variety of ways to become involved in the community.

Voly in the Park is an annual volunteer festival showcasing more than 75 nonprofit organizations with hands-on volunteer projects, live entertainment and more than 5,000 attendees each year, typically on the first Saturday in June. Voly in the Park 2019 will be on Saturday, June 1, 2019, at Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas.

VolunteerNow's Donated Goods (DG) Discount Depot stores provide cost savings to eligible shoppers, which include nonprofit organizations, local school district employees, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, active military personnel, and veterans.

In particular, nonprofits utilize shopping discounts at DG stores to better provide for and serve their clients as well as their office needs.

All surplus goods at DG stores is new except for slightly used furniture donated by companies who have downsized or have excess furniture to give away.

DG items include a variety of office supplies, household items, furniture and accessories, and new clothing at deep discounts. Dozens of corporations and retailers donate surplus inventory or gently used items to DG, including JCPenney, Target, Kimberly-Clark, and Home Depot. Launched in 1989, DG continues to meet fundamental nonprofit needs. In 2010, VolunteerNow opened an additional warehouse in Tarrant County to make it more convenient for Tarrant County agencies to come and shop for surplus goods. Agencies have lauded Donated Goods as one of the most important programs of VolunteerNow.

Last year, nonprofits benefited from shopping for items valued at more than $4.8 million. In addition, an estimated 50 tons of usable goods were diverted from landfills.

Also in 2015, we estimate DG sales impacted more than 5 million people in our community, 80% of whom have incomes below the poverty level.

Since 1993, VolunteerNow has operated the veriFYI program. veriFYI is a low-cost criminal background check program available to and benefiting area nonprofits, schools, faith-based groups and municipalities. In 1995, VolunteerNow sought and gained exclusive access to Texas criminal records including arrests, warrants, convictions, juvenile offenses and deferred adjudications.

veriFYI screens volunteers and staff to prevent predators from harming vulnerable clients, thereby protecting an organization’s clients and limiting its liability.

After receiving access to Public Safety Information, VolunteerNow launched a web-based application designed to provide a more comprehensive, efficient, cost-effective method of verifying nonprofits volunteers or prospective employee’s backgrounds. The program offers one of the most comprehensive criminal background checks in the State of Texas and is available only to schools, nonprofit organizations and churches. Nonprofits from other states beyond Texas also have access to and utilize veriFYI frequently.

VolunteerNow's work includes using VOLY.org as a "technology for good." VOLY.org connects, educates and advances our community. This market-driven service, while free to volunteers and nonprofits, is a social enterprise that creates custom portals for companies and nonprofits seeking unique functionality. We developed the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology of VOLY.org as an online platform to connect volunteers with nonprofits. VOLY.org portals provide a source of critical revenue to reinvest into the system.

VOLY.org automates a function vital to the entire nonprofit sector--engaging persons from all walks of life and all age groups to perform meaningful and constructive service as volunteers to meet critical community needs. VOLY.org encompasses 63 cause areas, 2,200+ nonprofits, and 26,350+ registered volunteers. To date this year, 105,804 VOLY.org visitors have logged 732,534 page sessions, with an average 6:19 spent per page and 6.92 pages viewed. The goal is to add 10,000+ volunteers annually.

VolunteerNow is a founding member of the Mass Care Task Force in collaboration with the American Red Cross, North Texas Food Bank and Salvation Army DFW Metroplex Command. The goal is to prepare North Texas for catastrophic events and maximize our collective resources and response during disasters.

VolunteerNow's responsibility is to recruit, register, train and deploy volunteers, both before and in the aftermath of a disaster.

The VolunteerNow Young Leaders Council serves as a pipeline of engaged and trained next-generation leaders as philanthropists, civic volunteers, nonprofit board members and community change-makers in North Texas. YLC members are young professionals through age 40. YLC members are leaders who will help create and lead a stronger North Texas community.