Volunteer or Board Member Application Forms for Nonprofits

A Saturday shift and a board vote are different jobs. One long form that treats them the same wastes a helper’s time and leaves the board facts thin. A short volunteer interest form and a separate board member application form let both sides see the fit before anyone gets a key or a vote.

This guide is general education. It is not legal advice. State rules and your bylaws control who may serve and what a check may ask.

Write the role before you build the form

NonprofitQuest says to list the tasks your team cannot keep up with. Write the skills and the hours each task needs. Ask staff and board members and current volunteers where they see gaps. Look back at past events and programs.

A role description covers the main tasks and the skills and the time and any other must-haves. People volunteer to make a difference or to learn skills or to meet people or to explore a career or to earn service hours for school or work. Plain words help them see what they gain.

Givebutter treats the board form as two jobs at once. It screens for fit and it states the expectations. BoardSource says recruitment works through the year. The board chair appoints a governance committee of people who know the organization and have community contacts and can judge candidates without bias. Givebutter calls a similar review group a nominating committee. Use the name your bylaws use. BoardSource says the full board votes on a new member.

What the nonprofit volunteer form collects

NonprofitQuest says the sign-up should be short and clear and work on a phone. Put it where people can find it on your site. Ask for what you need to judge fit.

• Name and a way to reach them
• Days and times they are free
• Skills and experience
• Why they want to help

That is how you collect volunteer information without a pile of unused fields. NonprofitQuest says a nonprofit volunteer form should skip a Social Security number or a bank account unless a specific step requires them. Ask for the personal details a background check needs and keep them private.

Then talk with the person. NonprofitQuest says a short conversation covers why they want to help and what skills they have and what they know about the mission. Share the role and what you expect. Give them time to ask questions.

A welcome packet can hold a handbook and a chart of who does what and the key rules. Train the person for the role. Thank them after the first shift.

What the board of directors form collects

Givebutter’s template groups a nonprofit application form into a few blocks. Use them as a checklist. Givebutter says each question should help you judge fit or set an expectation.

Contact and background. Givebutter lists full name and preferred pronouns and email and phone and a LinkedIn profile and role and employer and a short career summary and areas of expertise and experience with the mission. BoardSource’s prospective member sheet adds title and organization and address and other affiliations and other board service and a note on interest. Demographic lines on that sheet are for information the recruiter has if it is known. They are not a demand that every applicant disclose race or orientation on a public form.

Mission. Givebutter suggests two open questions. Why do you want to serve on this board? How has this mission shaped your life or your work? The point is to see whether the person has spent time with your mission.

Time and money. State how many board meetings you hold each year. Givebutter’s commitments include service on at least one committee and a personal financial contribution at a meaningful level and help opening doors to donors and partners and community connectors. Your board sets the gift level. Givebutter does not set a dollar amount.

Fundraising. Ask whether the person is comfortable asking their own network for support. Ask whether they have relationships with people or foundations or companies that might support you. In a Givebutter poll of 42 nonprofit professionals, 43 percent document board fundraising expectations in writing. 33 percent keep the requirements informal. 7 percent do not discuss them during recruitment. Saying the expectation on the form lets the person decide before the vote.

Other boards and conflicts. Ask whether they serve on other nonprofit or corporate boards. Ask them to disclose potential conflicts. Givebutter says a conflict is a record to review. It is not an automatic rejection.

References. Givebutter asks for two professional or community references. Collect the name and the relationship and a way to contact each one.

Givebutter separates a nomination form from an application. Someone else uses a nomination to recommend a person. That pattern is common when a current member is up for another term. The candidate submits the application.

BoardSource says a skills matrix helps you see gaps before you recruit. Its worksheet includes expertise such as finance and fundraising and law and lived experience and knowledge of the community. It includes networks such as the community you serve and small business and philanthropy. It includes willingness to work. The matrix is a guide to a mix of skills and networks and experience. BoardSource warns boards not to turn it into a shopping list based on one characteristic.

In BoardSource’s Leading with Intent study, almost half of executives report that they do not have the right board members to establish trust with the communities they serve. 32 percent of boards place a high priority on knowledge of the community served. 28 percent place a high priority on membership within that community. A nonprofit recruitment form can ask about community knowledge and lived experience because those gaps show up in that study. The form does not rank people by a single demographic box.

If your bylaws allow people who are not on the board to sit on committees, BoardSource says a committee seat is a way to see a future member at work. The chief executive can help name prospects and explain the organization. The chief executive reports to the board.

Cultivation can include an informational meeting and a letter and a tour and a board meeting visit. If the person says this is the wrong time, BoardSource says to accept that and stay in touch. After the person understands the commitment and wants to be considered, the committee presents them to the full board. A vote takes place at the annual meeting when the bylaws put it there. A sudden vacancy can require a vote at another meeting. The chair or another board member then extends the invitation. Every new member needs an orientation on board duties and on this organization. Prior board service does not replace that orientation.

What Form 990 asks you to know

AccountingCoach explains that a nonprofit has no commercial owners and exists to pursue a mission. It relies on contributions and dues and program revenue and events and grants and investment income. A board may designate unrestricted assets for a purpose. AccountingCoach says those assets stay net assets without donor restrictions. A board preference is not a donor restriction. If the application mentions a gift, say whether the gift is unrestricted.

AccountingCoach notes that some tax-exempt organizations file Form 990 and some may file Form 990-EZ. Churches and some other nonprofits are not required to file. The filed Form 990 becomes public. AccountingCoach points to GuideStar as one place to read it. The volunteer count and the governance answers can be read by donors. The application stays in your files. It is not the return.

If you file Form 990, the IRS says you must answer Part VI. Group returns follow Appendix E of the instructions.

Volunteers. The 2025 instructions for Part I line 6 say to enter the number of volunteers who served during the year. Count full-time and part-time volunteers. Count volunteer members of the governing body. If you do not track the number in your books or in an annual report or a grant proposal, you may give a reasonable estimate and use any reasonable basis. You may explain the method and the hours and the types of service on Schedule O. You do not have to. An IRS FAQ on Parts I through V says the estimate covers people who did any type and amount of volunteer work during the tax year. It says to leave out employees who did volunteer work in their spare time. A volunteer interest form gives you a list you can count. It does not by itself prove the hours.

Independence and relationships. The IRS says a reasonable effort is enough for the questions on independent voting members and on family or business relationships. One example is a questionnaire each year from the Form 990 preparer or from an officer who may sign the return. The IRS says the questionnaire can include the person’s name and title and the date and a signature. It can include the glossary definitions of independent voting member and family relationship and business relationship and key employee. You may use the answers they give. This questionnaire goes to people who serve. It is not the application that got them in the door.

The 2025 instructions treat a voting member as independent when all four of these circumstances hold for the whole tax year.

1. The member was not paid as an officer or employee of the organization or a related organization, aside from a religious exception in the instructions. The member was not paid by an unrelated organization or person for services to the filing organization or a related organization when that pay must be reported in Part VII Section A.
2. The member did not receive total pay above $10000 during the tax year from the organization and related organizations as an independent contractor. Reasonable pay for service as a governing body member is outside that cap. The instructions use an example of reasonable expense reimbursements and reasonable director pay plus $7500 of other payments. That pattern does not by itself end independence.
3. Neither the member nor a family member was part of a transaction with the organization that must be reported on Schedule L.
4. Neither the member nor a family member was part of a transaction with a related organization of a type and amount that would be reportable on Schedule L if that organization had to file it.

The instructions say this independence test is not the same as the absence of a conflict of interest under the rebuttable presumption rules. Read both sections before you design the questions. Put the glossary definitions on the annual questionnaire so people answer the IRS tests.

Part VI line 2 asks whether any current officer or director or trustee or key employee had a family relationship or a business relationship with another such person during the year. For each one, name the people on Schedule O. The instructions say the words family relationship or business relationship are enough. You do not have to add a longer story. Business relationships in the instructions include employment by the other person or by an organization where the other person is a trustee or director or officer or greater-than-35-percent owner. They include business between the two outside ordinary public terms when the total for the year exceeds $10000. They include both people serving as a director or trustee or officer or greater-than-10-percent owner in the same business entity. Employment by your own organization is not this kind of business relationship. The same tax-exempt organization is not the shared-entity test. Use the instructions for the full tests.

Conflict policy. Line 12a asks whether you had a written conflict of interest policy at year end. The instructions say the policy defines conflicts and names who is covered and makes disclosure possible and sets the steps for handling a conflict. A conflict exists when a person with authority can gain money from a decision they can make. That includes a gain for a family member or a business they are close to. Service on two boards is not that kind of conflict when no material financial interest is involved. The instructions give two charities taking opposite stands on a bill as the example. Line 12b asks whether officers and directors and trustees and key employees must disclose interests that could create conflicts. The disclosure covers them and their family members. It can include a family list and substantial business or investment holdings and other affiliations. The cycle is each year or on a shorter cycle. Describe how you monitor conflicts on Schedule O if you answer yes on line 12c.

A board of directors form can ask about other boards and about a financial interest before the vote. The annual questionnaire is the tool the IRS describes for people who are in office. Keep both.

Screening without a surprise

NonprofitQuest says a background check is a review of past records. Do a thorough check for every volunteer whose role involves children or older adults or other vulnerable people. Mark those roles. Run the check before the person starts. Other roles may not need one. Use the check along with the role description and the conversation.

BoardSource says the choice for board members depends on the sector. Many youth organizations require checks of board members. Criminal justice reform organizations use different policies in many cases because many seek board members with lived experience of incarceration. BoardSource says to check state and city law, including ban-the-box rules about criminal-history questions on applications. It says people of color have been arrested and convicted at a higher rate and asks boards to discuss race and equity and that history.

Conviction is the key fact. An arrest is not a conviction. BoardSource says the system rests on innocence until a person is proven guilty. It says the vast majority of criminal cases end in a plea bargain. Some government forms require charities to disclose criminal history of board members. BoardSource does not name those forms. Funders ask at times. Read the form or the grant terms in front of you.

A written policy can include which convictions are an automatic bar and which are not. It can include when you repeat the check. It can include a release the volunteer signs. It can include a chance for the person to respond. Other research can cover employment and education and credit history and bankruptcy. BoardSource says those checks are less common at the board level and may matter when bonding is required. Ask whether the policy protects clients and assets and whether it fights the inequities your programs exist to ease.

The volunteer screening form can collect consent and the facts the check needs. It should not ask a person to confess an arrest. Store the result with the policy. Do not paste it onto a public Form 990 line.

A week of forms

1. List the volunteer roles and the board gaps. Use the tasks and the hours and the matrix.
2. Publish a volunteer application form with contact details and availability and skills and motivation.
3. Publish a board member application form of about 5 to 8 questions that states meetings and committee work and giving and fundraising and conflicts and two references.
4. Have the committee read the board forms. Interview. Check references. Givebutter says the form gathers facts and the interview judges fit. A one-page form plus a 30-minute talk is the pattern Givebutter calls useful.
5. The full board votes. Then orient the new member.
6. If you file Form 990, keep a count of volunteers for line 6 and send the annual questionnaire to officers and directors and trustees and key employees.
7. Run checks under a written policy for the roles that require them.

You can host the volunteer application form and the board form as links with Jotform. Each person opens the form that matches the role.

Pitfalls

One form for every role. A board questionnaire on a Saturday signup drives helpers away. A three-field signup hides a conflict the board needed to see.

Social Security numbers and bank details. NonprofitQuest says to leave them off unless a specific step requires them.

A shopping-list matrix. BoardSource says the matrix guides a mix. It does not fill the board from one trait.

A conflict means an automatic no. Givebutter says to review the facts. The IRS definition looks for a material financial interest. Two board seats without that interest are a different case.

Staff counted as volunteers. The IRS FAQ says to leave out employees who volunteer in their spare time.

The application stands in for the annual questionnaire. The IRS example is a signed questionnaire to people who serve. It uses the glossary definitions.

An arrest question with no policy. BoardSource centers the policy on convictions and on a chance to respond. Check your state before you ask.

Fundraising left unspoken. Givebutter’s poll found that 33 percent keep the requirement informal and 7 percent do not discuss it during recruitment. The person can learn it after the vote.

A search that stays inside current members’ friends. BoardSource says that path can repeat the same gaps. It points to community groups and your volunteer network and leaders in the client community and public board listings.

Trade-offs

A short volunteer form versus a long one. NonprofitQuest keeps the signup to contact details and time and skills and motivation. You learn more in the conversation. These sources do not give a completion rate for a longer form.

Five to eight board questions versus the whole matrix. Givebutter caps the application in that range. BoardSource keeps the matrix as an internal guide. Put the expectations and a short skills list on the form. Keep the composition map in the committee’s notes.

A written application versus an informal ask. Givebutter says very small nonprofits sometimes recruit board members through informal referrals. It says a written application makes the process consistent and shows the duties before a commitment. A formal path in that article is a written application and an interview with the committee and reference checks and an official invitation.

A check for every person versus a check for some roles. NonprofitQuest ties volunteer checks to contact with vulnerable people. BoardSource ties board checks to sector and to access to clients and money and to funder or government demands. A blanket check can screen out lived experience a justice-focused board wants. No check can miss a risk a youth program has to manage. Write the rule down.

A public Form 990 versus a private application. AccountingCoach notes that the return is public. The estimate of volunteers and the governance answers belong on the return when you file. The application and the check result stay in your files.

What you do next

Write two roles this week. One is a shift a volunteer can finish. One is a board seat with a meeting count and a gift level your board has set. Send the matching form. Count who serves so line 6 is a list if you file Form 990. Send the annual questionnaire to the people who govern.

If you want both forms on one link page, Jotform can hold them. The vote and the retention of the file stay with the board.