Full national criminal checks — county records, sex offender registries, FBI Most Wanted, federal courts — for $5 per report. Free address history checks. Built-in FCRA compliance. No contracts. No surprises.
¹ Urban Institute (2017), analysis of 1.7 million employment background checks
The Problem
Here's something the industry doesn't advertise: the vast majority of background checks come back completely clean. A 2017 Urban Institute study of 1.7 million background checks found that roughly 94% returned no criminal finding. A separate University of Georgia study found that approximately 92% of U.S. adults have no felony conviction on record. Volunteer populations — people who choose to give their time — skew even cleaner than those averages. Most are exactly who they say they are.
Yet nonprofits are routinely charged $25, $40, even $80 per report. Some providers bundle checks you don't need. Others charge monthly platform fees on top of per-check costs. It's the medical industry's over-ordering problem applied to background screening — maximum billing, minimum transparency.
VolunteerBadge was built to fix that. We designed our pricing around what a national criminal check actually costs to run — not what the market will tolerate. That number is $5.
Typical Provider
What nonprofits are paying right now
Est. annual cost — 200 checks
~$9,200 / year
200 checks × $40 avg + $100/mo platform fee
What it should cost
Transparent pricing, no surprises
Est. annual cost — 200 checks
$990 / year
200 checks × $5. That's it.
How It Works
We stripped every unnecessary step. Here's what running a volunteer background check actually looks like.
Create a volunteer application in minutes. FCRA disclosure language is embedded automatically — applicants sign digitally, you stay compliant from day one.
No charge to create applications or collect signatures.
Always freeThe moment they submit, we pull their actual address history and cross-reference it. Any gaps or addresses they 'forgot' get flagged before you spend a single credit.
No credits used. Catches incomplete applications early.
Always freeOne click searches county courts, sex offender registries across all 50 states, FBI Most Wanted, and OFAC. Plain English results with FCRA guidance included.
One credit per check. No hidden fees.
$5 per checkOther platforms charge extra for these. We don't.
We search 650M+ court records across all jurisdictions — county, state, and federal courts, sex offender registries, FBI Most Wanted, OFAC sanctions, and global watchlists. If county records exist but can't be verified under FCRA guidelines, we tell you and refund your fee. No games.
Every volunteer application includes a free address history pull. We verify what they report against what we find. Gaps, inconsistencies, or addresses they "forgot" to mention get flagged before you spend a dime on a criminal check. It's the most underrated screening tool in the industry — and we give it away.
We own the Natural Language Prompt space for volunteer screening. Just talk to VolunteerBadge. "Run a background check on Sarah Mitchell, born March 4, 1988, last in Tucson." That's it. We handle the rest — including walking you through adverse action if a record is found.
Fully documented REST API and Webhook support. Plug VolunteerBadge into your CRM, volunteer management software, or your AI tool of choice. One API key. 1 credit = 1 background check, consumed the same way regardless of how you access us — in-app, mobile, or API.
Background screening is the core. Pro is everything an organization needs to manage the volunteers it already screens — from hour tracking to AI grant writing to corporate volunteer grants you didn't know you qualified for.
Log timestamped hours by volunteer, program, and event. Every hour is worth $34.79 in documented in-kind match value — money left on the table when hours go untracked.
One-click PDF and CSV exports funders and boards actually ask for — hours by program, in-kind match value, screening completion rates. Branded with your org's name and logo.
One screen. Every volunteer. Green means cleared. Yellow means expiring. Red means lapsed. Answer "is everyone serving this weekend cleared?" in a single filter.
Configurable re-screening intervals with alerts at 30 and 7 days before expiration. One-click re-run reuses the volunteer's existing profile — no re-entry. Never get caught with a lapsed check.
Powered by Claude. Drafts the organizational impact sections of grant proposals using your real VB data — volunteer counts, verified hours, in-kind value. No PII ever sent to the model.
Roughly 40% of Fortune 500 companies pay $8–$25 per volunteer hour. Most nonprofits never claim it. Pro flags eligibility automatically when a volunteer's employer and hours cross the threshold.
One recovered grant match covers a year of Pro.
At Independent Sector's national volunteer value ($34.79/hr), documenting just 18 volunteer hours per year covers the entire annual subscription in claimable in-kind match value. No per-seat pricing. No volume tiers. One flat number your volunteer director can approve without a board meeting.
Free account to start. Upgrade to Pro anytime from your dashboard.
No forms to fill out. No dropdown menus. No uploading spreadsheets. You describe the person in plain English — or through your favorite AI assistant — and VolunteerBadge runs the check, interprets the results, and tells you exactly what to do next.
If a result requires adverse action under FCRA, we generate the notice for you. You review it, you send it. No guesswork. No legal exposure from doing it wrong.
Click below to see it in action.
Pay per check for screening. Subscribe to run your whole volunteer program.
Buy credits one at a time. No commitment, no expiry.
$4.00 per check. Credits never expire.
Use in-app, via mobile, or via API.
Unlimited admin users, flat.
Background checks billed separately at $5.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a specific process before you can deny someone a volunteer position based on a background check. Get it wrong, and you're exposed. VolunteerBadge generates the adverse action notice for you — pre-filled, FCRA-compliant, ready to send.
We also issue refunds for any check where county records exist but can't be verified under FCRA guidelines. If we can't give you a clean report, you don't pay.
Learn More About FCRA ComplianceWhat every nonprofit and church should know about volunteer screening.
The background screening industry charges nonprofits $25–$80 per report. Here's what they don't advertise: roughly 94% of background checks return no criminal finding at all. There's a better way.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to your volunteer screening — and most nonprofits don't know the full process. Here's what's required, step by step, in plain English.
Most organizations skip the address history check because it costs extra. We give it away free — and it's one of the most valuable screening tools available. Here's why.
FAQ
Everything nonprofits, churches, and volunteer organizations want to know before they start screening.
VolunteerBadge charges $5 per volunteer background check with no monthly fee. There are no setup fees and no contracts — you pay only when you run a check. A 100-credit bundle is available for $400, bringing the per-check cost down to $4.
Yes — fully. Every volunteer application includes built-in FCRA disclosure language and a digital authorization signature. If a record is found that requires adverse action, the platform automatically generates the pre-adverse and final adverse action notices so your organization follows the legally required process without exposure.
No. Screening is always pay-as-you-go — $5 per check, no monthly fee, no subscription required. VolunteerBadge Pro (which adds hour tracking, compliance rosters, AI grant writing, and corporate grant capture) is optional at $50/month flat. But background checks themselves have no monthly fee, ever.
Each $5 check searches 650M+ court records — county, state, and federal courts across all U.S. jurisdictions, sex offender registries in all 50 states, FBI Most Wanted, OFAC sanctions lists, and global watchlists. A free address history check is included with every volunteer application at no extra cost.
Most checks complete within 24 to 48 hours. Results are returned in plain English with guidance on next steps. If county records exist but cannot be verified under FCRA guidelines, we issue a full refund — you only pay for complete, usable results.
Yes. VolunteerBadge is widely used by churches, faith-based nonprofits, and organizations that serve children and vulnerable populations. Sex offender registry checks across all 50 states, FCRA-compliant adverse action notices, and $5 pricing with no monthly fee make it a practical choice for congregations of any size.
Free account. No credit card required to get started. Your first check is $5 — or grab 100 credits for $400 and save 20%.
Sign up with Google or email — no password needed.