Put the volunteer relationship in writing with an agreement that fits your organisation

That is exactly why the document matters. If expectations are left informal, organisations can end up with confusion about duties, supervision, confidentiality, reimbursements, use of equipment or what happens when a volunteer stops helping. A written agreement helps explain the nature of the arrangement and set practical boundaries around the role. It is also useful where volunteers work alongside staff, interact with service users or handle sensitive information. The document helps with clarity, but the real-world arrangement still needs to match what the agreement says.

Most volunteer agreements cover the role description, expected conduct, hours or flexibility of attendance, supervision, confidentiality, health and safety expectations, use of organisational property, reimbursement terms if any, and how either side can end the arrangement. Some organisations also need clauses dealing with safeguarding, media consent, intellectual property or access to internal systems. The right content depends on the type of volunteer work involved, because a fundraising helper, sports coach and community support volunteer each raise different practical and legal issues.

We usually need a practical picture of the volunteer role or roles, who the volunteers interact with, whether they handle confidential information, whether they receive reimbursements, and what policies already sit around the programme. It also helps to know whether volunteers work on site, remotely, at events or in community settings. If your organisation already uses induction materials, codes of conduct or a handbook, those documents can affect how the agreement should be written so the documents work together rather than contradict each other.

Sometimes a template is a starting point, but it often leaves gaps once you compare it with how your organisation actually operates. Generic forms may not deal properly with safeguarding expectations, confidentiality, role limits, reimbursement practices or the overlap between volunteers and paid staff. They can also create problems if the wording does not match your handbook or onboarding process. A tailored agreement is useful where the factual context matters, because the way the role works in practice can be just as important as the label used in the document.

No. This page is for the agreement itself rather than a full volunteer management framework. If you need a broader handbook, onboarding documents, policy suite or ongoing advice on volunteer issues as they arise, that would usually be separate work. The fixed-fee also does not include ongoing representation after disputes develop. If your organisation needs both an individual agreement and wider volunteer governance documents, we can point you to the service that better matches that broader scope.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Volunteer Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.