Frequently Asked Questions

Since 2005, we’ve been dedicated to bringing individuals, groups, and organizations together to meet community needs. Learn more about our mission, values, and programs here!

Our area has a plethora of organizations doing valuable and impactful work – we partner with hundreds of them to connect people with their needs. We:

• Connect people to hundreds of volunteer needs with local causes (Learn more about how local organizations become our Community Partners here.)
• Provide safe, organized service opportunities for youth
• Partner with businesses to mobilize employees to volunteer
• Provide special volunteer support to Title 1 schools

We operate in the Greater Triangle region of North Carolina, including Wake, Durham, Orange, Johnston, and Chatham counties.

We absolutely do and super appreciate your support!

Please check out our donate page here to explore multiple ways to contribute.

Interested in sponsoring a program, project, or Day of Service?
See opportunities here.

We cannot offer funds or direct services unrelated to our mission and programs. We CAN, however, do our best to point individuals in the direction of appropriate resources.

Though we have some Days of Service that occur on weekends, and our volunteer database and website is available 24 hours a day, our staff operate typical 9 am to 5 pm working hours Monday through Friday.

Activate Good offices are closed for:*

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Good Friday (bank holiday)
Memorial Day
Juneteenth (closed at 1 pm)
4th of July
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day & Black Friday
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and December 26th

*Observance may fall on the nearest business day when the holiday falls on a weekend. For exact closure dates, please consider checking our business hours on Google.

If you’re hoping to email us for support, please consider one of the following options and the next available teammate will be in touch:

• Youth, Families, and College Volunteer Inquires: youthandcollege@activategood.org
• General Volunteer and Community Partner Inquiries: volunteer@activategood.org
• Donor Inquiries: donors@activategood.org
• Other Fund Development Inquiries (grants, foundations, etc.): funddev@activategood.org
• Triangle Businesses for Good Membership -OR- Custom Corporate Projects/Events (RFPs): corporate@activategood.org
• Marketing and Media: marketing@activategood.org or media@activategood.org

If you signed up for an opportunity through our volunteer opportunity database (Golden), the host organization should be in touch with details soon, and you’ll also get an automatic reminder before your opportunity!

For opportunities hosted directly by Activate Good (such as our Days of Service): We’ll send you final details at least 2 business days before the event!

We ask you to provide as much notice as possible if you can’t make it. That way, the host organization can try to fill your spot!

You can cancel your signup directly through your Activate Good profile by:

• Logging in to your account
• Clicking “My Volunteering” at the top
• Clicking ” My Opportunities” in the dropdown
• Selecting the opportunity you’d like to cancel
• Clicking “Status”
• Clicking “Cancel Signup”

When you view “My Opportunities” there should also be contact information for the organization in order to send them a quick message as well.

We hope another opportunity works out in the future!

If you volunteered directly with Activate Good for an event that we host directly and provide on-site managemnt for by our own staff: Activate Good will approve your hours as long as you are included in our sign-in sheets from the event. Please reach out to the Programs team at volunteer@activategood.org.

If you volunteered through Activate Good, but for a project hosted and managed directly by another nonprofit (i.e., no Activate Good staff on-site): That hosting nonprofit must log into their accounts on activategood.org to confirm your hours. Please reach out to them directly.

Please view current opportunities to fulfill court-ordered service here.

Please note, when you sign up for an opportunity through our volunteer database, you may be signing up for a volunteer opportunity not directly hosted by Activate Good.

The Community Partner hosting your opportunity will need to approve your hours and provide a letter. We recommend that when you sign up, you confirm with the host organization that the opportunity will be able to meet your needs. Activate Good can only provide service letters for opportunities hosted by our own staff, and must approve in advance for court-ordered service.

If your need for confirmation of hours involves a third-party platform, please communicate that in advance and provide as much detail as possible so the authorized representative can quickly and accurately confirm against their records.

Learn more about our Youth Volunteer Corps program for ages 11-18!

Learn more about our Activate Kids program for ages 5-10!

Activate Good is more than happy to provide service confirmation letters! However, we can only do so for opportunities managed by our staff and must approve in advance – as is the case with our Community Partners.

We recommend that when you sign up, you confirm with the host organization that the opportunity will be able to meet your needs.

If this confirmation of hours involves a third-party platform, such as VolunteerCrowd, please communicate that in advance and provide as much detail as possible so the authorized representative can quickly and accurately confirm against their records.

Absolutely! Please fill out our Project Request Form with as much detail as possible. We’ll review and be in touch to hash out the details! Please note that materials and/or a budget may be required to plan custom days of service for large groups or teams.

Activate Good works with locally operating businesses in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to:

• matching small groups of coworkers to opportunities
• building out annual service calendars
• organizing learning and service sessions
• customizing larger transformation and impact projects

Check out all the ways we partner with companies!

Interested in partnering with us for a custom activation? Fill out our Project Request Form to get started.

Learn more about eligibility here, then complete our Community Partner application form here!

Golden comes with all of the usual volunteer management bells and whistles AND some exciting new features, too (including some things you’ve been asking for!).

For example:

• Automatic email reminders for volunteers who signed up
• Features encouraging people to share opportunities (influencers for good!)
• Photos and images to showcase your volunteer opportunity
• And a lot more!

Not only will our platform bring an improved user experience for both Community Partners AND local volunteers, but this change also comes with a special extra benefit: All Activate Good Community Partner organizations receive a FREE version with advanced features of the platform that you can use, if you choose, as your organization’s own internal volunteer management system too! (#NoMoreSpreadsheets #CostSavings #Streamlining oh my!)

Here are just a few of the features you’d get in your very own system:

• • Automated Volunteer hours data collection
  • Advanced Data Insights
  • Instant sign-up links
  • Web widget plugin
  • Private Opportunities and segmented groups of Volunteers
  • Message Volunteers
  • Just post once: Because you’ll be part of Activate Good’s network, with this new system, you can post an opportunity once in your version, and it automatically publishes to the Activate Good network
  • And much more!

Please contact us at volunteer@activategood.org for questions or additional information.

Please check out Golden FAQs for volunteers here.

For issues or questions specific to the Golden Volunteer Platform, please contact tech support directly here.

If your organization hasn’t engaged with us since 2022, your account information may have changed when we moved to our current platform, Golden.

You will need to complete Activate Good’s Community Partner renewal application in order to be able to access and post on our new site.

Did you complete our Community Partner application?

If you completed the Community Partner Application, your information will be reviewed. After confirmation of eligibility, you will receive an invitation to activate your Golden account. Please check your email spam in case you don’t see that email. For support, please contact Volunteer@ActivateGood.org.

Any open job, internship, or board positions with Activate Good are shared here.

We do occasionally work with students, schools, and other programs to explore customized internship and fellowship partnerships. If you’re a school interested in sharing our internships with your students, contact hr@activategood.org. If you’re a student seeking an internship, and one is not already available at the link above, please fill out the application form linked here and select a “future consideration” option from the “Applying To” prompt.

Some of our Community Partners post internship and board roles on our site as volunteer opportunities, search for those here.

We also suggest checking out the YNPN Listerv and the NC Center for Nonprofits.

It sounds like you’re looking for the Warmth for Wake Program – that information is here.

Oh no! Thank you for helping that baby! For wildlife resources, please check out the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission here. For domestic animals, please explore our Community Partners that work with animals here, or contact your local SPCA:

• Wake County
• Durham County
• Orange County

Activate Good does not have the capacity to process and store donations of items outside of specific projects or initiatives. However, many of our Community Partners do!

Here are some places to check out.

Food (including food for infants):

• The Food Bank of CENC (Raleigh)
• The Food Bank of CENC (Durham)

Furniture/Household Goods:

• The Green Chair Project
• Habitat for Humanity

Clothing:

• Note in the Pocket
• Dress for Success

We also recommend searching online for local “Buy Nothing” or mutual aid groups!