Overview
Nonprofits face the hardest version of this problem. They frequently serve the most vulnerable people, they rely on workers who are not employees, and they do it with no HR department and almost no budget.
There is a federal law written specifically for this situation, and most nonprofits have never heard of it.
Throughout this page, “screening company” refers to the outside firm an organization hires to run a check. In the law it is called a consumer reporting agency, or CRA.
The Volunteer Problem
Most screening rules are written around employment, and volunteers sit outside that frame in every way except the one that matters. A volunteer driving a child home, staffing a shelter overnight, or visiting an isolated older adult has exactly the access an employee would have.
Three consequences follow.
Access is the test, not payroll status. Where a screening obligation exists, it usually attaches to unsupervised contact with a protected population rather than to whether someone is paid.
Volunteers are covered by background check law. Where an organization uses a screening company, the purposes covered by federal law include volunteers alongside employees and independent contractors. The disclosure, the written authorization, and the process before turning someone away all apply.
Turning a volunteer away is an adverse action. Organizations routinely assume the formal process applies only to paid roles. It does not, and a volunteer rejected because of a report is entitled to see it and respond.
The Federal Route Built for Nonprofits
Federal law lets organizations serving children, older adults, or people with disabilities obtain fingerprint based national criminal history checks on their volunteers. It was created by the National Child Protection Act and expanded by the Volunteers for Children Act, and it exists precisely because commercial screening was pricing volunteer organizations out of doing any checks at all.
The mechanics matter, because this is not something an organization can simply buy.
- You have to be a qualified entity. The definition covers any business or organization, public or private, for profit or not, that provides care, treatment, education, training, instruction, supervision, recreation, or care placement to children, the elderly, or people with disabilities.
- Covered individuals include volunteers. Employees, volunteers, contractors, vendors, and owners or operators all qualify, whether current or prospective.
- Requests go through a state agency. The organization does not contact the FBI. A designated state agency receives the request, confirms the organization qualifies, and forwards it.
- Most states require certification first. Typically a one time application establishing that the organization is a qualified entity, after which it can submit requests.
- Written consent is required from each person, and the organization normally has to retain that authorization for a set period.
- Fees are capped at actual cost, and states are directed to keep nonprofit fees low enough not to discourage volunteering.
If Your State Never Set It Up
The original law depended on states building procedures, and many did not. A 2018 amendment created a national program for qualified entities in states that never established procedures, or that do not prohibit using the federal route. If your state agency tells you there is no process, that is not the end of the inquiry.
Two Routes, Two Sets of Rules
This trips up organizations that use both, and the distinction is worth being precise about.
| State Agency Fingerprint Check | You apply as a qualified entity and receive criminal history information directly from a government agency. This is not a consumer report, so federal background check law does not govern it. State rules on use, retention, and confidentiality do. |
| Commercial Screening Company | You buy a report from a vendor. This is a consumer report. The standalone disclosure, the written authorization, the copy of the report before a decision, and the response window all apply, for volunteers as much as for staff. |
Many organizations use the government route for volunteers in regulated programs and a commercial vendor for everyone else. That is entirely workable, provided the paperwork for each route is kept separate and nobody assumes one form covers both.
Which Checks Are Commonly Run
| Criminal Records | Fingerprint based through the qualified entity route, or county and statewide searches through a vendor. |
| Sex Offender Registries | Public and free to search, and standard practice for any role with access to vulnerable people. |
| Abuse and Neglect Registries | Administrative findings a criminal search cannot reach. Covered on our education page. |
| Driving Records | Essential wherever volunteers transport clients, and frequently required by the insurer rather than by law. |
| Reference Check | Often the only meaningful check available for a volunteer with no relevant work history. |
| Credit Reports | Only for roles handling money, and subject to the same state restrictions as any employer. |
State Requirements
25 of the 51 jurisdictions we cover have a statute mandating criminal history screening for roles serving children, older adults, or other vulnerable populations, and 7 of those name volunteers explicitly.
These statutes commonly name specific disqualifying offenses, require fingerprints rather than name searches, and set deadlines measured from a volunteer’s first day of service rather than from an offer. That last point catches organizations out, because a volunteer often starts before anyone thinks about paperwork.
Where a nonprofit is licensed, such as a childcare program, a residential facility, or a foster placement agency, the licensing rules usually impose more than the general statute does. You can confirm the current rule for any state on our state background check law pages.
Board Members and Financial Roles
Screening tends to focus on program staff and stop there, which leaves 2 gaps.
Board members hold fiduciary duty over the organization’s assets and reputation, and are frequently never screened at all. A basic check on anyone with financial authority is proportionate, and many funders now ask whether it happens.
Anyone handling money in a small organization is usually doing so with far less oversight than a commercial equivalent. Nonprofits are unusually exposed to internal theft precisely because trust substitutes for controls. Credit checks remain subject to the state restrictions covered on our credit reports page, so a job related reason is still required in many states.
Doing This on a Small Budget
The realistic constraint for most nonprofits is money, and the answer is proportionality rather than skipping it.
- Tier by access. A volunteer alone with a child and a volunteer sorting donations in a warehouse do not need the same check. Write the tiers down.
- Use the qualified entity route where you can. Fees are capped at cost and states are directed to keep them low for nonprofits.
- Search free public sources yourself. Sex offender registries are public and cost nothing.
- Do not use the cheapest database check as your only search. A database hit is not a verified record, and acting on one unconfirmed is how an organization ends up rejecting the wrong person.
- Set a recheck interval even if it is longer than you would like. Long serving volunteers are frequently screened once, a decade ago.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming volunteers are outside background check law. They are not, where a screening company is involved.
- Turning a volunteer away without giving them the report. That is an adverse action.
- Never registering as a qualified entity, and paying commercial rates for checks available at cost.
- Screening once and never again, particularly for volunteers who have served for years.
- Letting volunteers start before the check clears, when state deadlines run from the first day of service.
- Screening program staff but not the board.
- Using one consent form for both routes, when the government route and the commercial route require different paperwork.
For Volunteers and Job Seekers
- You have the same rights as a paid applicant. Where a screening company is used, you are entitled to a standalone disclosure, you must authorize the check, and you must receive a copy of the report before you are turned away because of it.
- Expect fingerprints for roles with vulnerable people. Build in time, and ask whether you can begin in a supervised role while results are pending.
- Ask which route they used. A government fingerprint check and a commercial report carry different rights, and knowing which one you are dealing with tells you what to ask for.
- A registry finding is not a conviction. If you are barred by an abuse or neglect registry entry, the appeal process is state specific and worth pursuing.
- Old records may not disqualify you. Many statutes name specific offenses rather than all convictions, so ask what the actual bar is before assuming you are ineligible.
- If the report is wrong, dispute it. Our guide to disputing a background check covers the process.
Best Practices
- Write down which roles require which checks, tiered by access rather than by title
- Find out whether your state certifies qualified entities, and register if it does
- Treat volunteers as covered by the full process where a screening company supplies the report
- Screen anyone with financial authority, including board members
- Set and diary a recheck interval for long serving volunteers
- Confirm any database hit at the court before acting on it
- Keep the paperwork for the government route and the commercial route separate
- Check the deadline in your state, since several run from the first day of service