Form templates / Government & Public Services
Volunteer Application Form
A volunteer application form has to be welcoming and thorough at the same time. Which roles they'd like, when they're free, and the checks that some roles require - said plainly rather than sprung later.
For councils, agencies and public-sector teams.
Say what the checks are, on the form
Nothing loses a willing volunteer faster than discovering, three weeks in, that they need a background check, two references and an interview. It reads as distrust when it's actually the law.
So this template states the requirement in plain words next to the question, and asks for consent to be checked as an ordinary field. People who understand why are almost always fine with it - and you find out about the ones who aren't before they meet anybody vulnerable.
The same questions, in the same order, every time
Applications that arrive as emails and attachments are impossible to compare - one has the dates, another has the budget, none of them have both. You end up rebuilding each one by hand before you can make a decision.
A single form fixes that at the source: every application has the same fields, so reviewing is reading a table rather than reconstructing one.
Accessible to everyone, including the people without an app
A public form has to work for the resident on a six-year-old Android with 200 MB of data left, and for the one using a screen reader. That rules out most modern form builders, which need JavaScript to render a text box.
These pages are ordinary HTML with real labels and native controls: they work with assistive technology, keyboard only, and with scripting switched off entirely.
One link, and a written record
Share one link and every application lands in one place, timestamped, in the applicant's own words - which is exactly what you want if a decision is ever questioned.
Yours to change, immediately
Nothing here is fixed. Rewrite a question, reorder them by dragging, add your brand colour, delete half of it. Save and the live form updates - there's no separate publish step and no deploy to wait for.
What this template asks
- Full name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Address
- Date of birth
- Which roles interest you?
- Why would you like to volunteer with us?
- What skills or experience would you bring?
- Have you volunteered before?
- When are you usually free?
- How much time could you give?
- When could you start?
- I consent to a background check if my role requires one
- Reference 1 - name, relationship and email
- Reference 2 - name, relationship and email
- Is there anything we can do to make volunteering easier for you?
More Government & Public Services forms
Questions
Can we collect the background check itself here?
No - ask for consent and run the check through your usual provider. Never collect disclosure certificate details or sensitive criminal record information on a web form.
Should we ask about criminal convictions?
Only if the role legally requires it, and take advice on the wording - rules on spent convictions and filtering vary. For most roles, asking consent to be checked is the right question.
Can applicants attach a CV or document?
Not yet - file uploads are on the roadmap. Most people ask for a link (to a portfolio, a CV in cloud storage, or a profile) which works today and keeps the form fast.
Can I close applications on a deadline?
Yes. Close the form and anyone with the link sees a short closed page instead of the questions, so nobody fills in an application that can't be considered.
Can more than one person review them?
Yes - invite your team into the same account and they'll see the same responses. You can also export to a spreadsheet and score them wherever you like.
Is it accessible, and does it track people?
Forms use semantic HTML, real labels, keyboard-navigable native controls and work without JavaScript. No cookies, no analytics scripts and no IP logging - so there's no consent banner between a resident and a public service.
Publish your volunteer application form today
Start from this template and change anything you like. Free to begin.