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.)
• Organize Learn and Serve projects to pair deeper learning with service
• 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 primarily in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), North Carolina or immediately surrounding areas of 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 are a fiercely passionate team, and we WANT to do everything…but are only human (as well as held to work within our mission and applicable regulations). As an organization, we unfortunately cannot offer funds or direct services unrelated to our mission and programs. We CAN, however, do our best to help point you in the direction of other resources in the community that may be a better fit for what you need!

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 during 9 to 5 working hours Monday through Friday. 

Activate Good offices are closed for:*

New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Day
Memorial Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day

*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
• Triangle Businesses for Good Membership -OR- Custom Corporate Projects/Events (RFPs): corporate@activategood.org
• Marketing and Media: marketing@activategood.org

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. Activate Good can only provide service letters for opportunities we host and approve in advance for court-ordered service. 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, 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 we oversee directly and 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.

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 Learn and Serve projects, or 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!

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 new 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.

We look forward to sharing more and getting you started on this new and improved volunteer platform with us!

In late February 2022, Activate Good migrated to a new volunteer platform, Golden Volunteer.

Volunteers, two things to note:

1. Ideally, if creating a new Golden account, please use the same email you used on the old Activate Good website (pre-2022). BUT, you will need to recreate your password.
2. Your long-term, past volunteer history (pre-2022) has not been moved over to the new platform. If you need your past volunteer records, we’ll be compiling those and sending them to any individuals who request them. For support, or to request your volunteer records, please contact Volunteer@ActivateGood.org.

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 before 2022, your account information may have changed when we moved to our new 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.

Already completed our 2022 Renewal Application?

If you already completed the Community Partner Renewal Application prior to February 28, 2022, you should have already received an invitation to activate your account on the new volunteer platform! Please check your email spam in case you don’t see that email. For support, please contact Volunteer@ActivateGood.org.

Please note: Long-term volunteer sign up history has not been migrated over to the new system. We will be exporting this data and sharing it with you soon for your records.

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 that is what you are seeking, please fill out the inquiry form linked here with the details and we’ll get back to you!

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!