The Ultimate Guide to Character References for Volunteers (2026)

A background check tells you what someone was caught doing. A character reference tells you who is willing to put their name on the line and vouch for them. Both matter — and for volunteer programs that serve children, seniors, and other vulnerable people, the second is one of the most valuable steps that also happens to be the most skipped, because chasing references by phone is tedious. This is the complete, practical guide to obtaining character references on volunteers: why they are worth collecting (even when the applicant hand-picks them), how to gather them fairly, the legal pitfalls to avoid, and exactly where VolunteerBadge fits in.

What a character reference actually is — and what it isn't

A character reference is a personal opinion, offered voluntarily, by someone your applicant chose — a person who can speak to their character, reliability, and how they treat others. It is not the same as a professional or employment reference (which verifies work history and job performance), and it is not an investigation. Nobody is digging into the applicant's past; a person they know is simply willing to say, on the record, "I know this individual, and here is what I think of them."

That distinction matters legally as well as practically. A character reference you collect directly — from people your applicant selected and consented to involve — is generally treated very differently from a formal report you commission a consumer reporting agency to investigate and compile. Keep that line clear, and keep character references separate from your criminal background check. (More on the legal side below.)

"But won't they just pick people who like them?"

This is the honest objection, and the answer is: yes — of course they will. An applicant is going to list people who think well of them, not people who will run them down. So it is worth being clear-eyed about what a character reference is not: it is not a neutral, adversarial investigation, and you should not treat a glowing reference as proof of anything.

And yet obtaining a few references is still genuinely good practice — for reasons that survive the "biased sample" problem:

• Willingness is itself the signal. The useful question is rarely "did the reference say something nice?" It's "was this person able to produce two or three real people who would attach their verified identity and vouch for them on the record?" Someone who cannot come up with a few willing references — or whose references quietly decline once it becomes real — has told you something worth noticing.
• Putting a name and face to it raises the stakes. A casual "sure, list me" over text is cheap. Asking a reference to confirm their identity and answer a few honest questions — or vouch on camera — makes people more thoughtful about what they are actually endorsing. People are more careful when their own name is attached.
• Specifics and consistency reveal depth. "They're great" is worthless. "I've coached alongside them for four seasons and I'd trust them with my own kids" is not. Asking every reference how they know the applicant, for how long, and in what capacity lets you weigh the relationship — and lets you notice when the "10-year friend" turns out to have met them last spring.
• References occasionally do hesitate. Even hand-picked people sometimes answer "I'd recommend them, with reservations," or go conspicuously vague on a role involving children. A well-designed reference step gives them room to say that.
• It is a quiet deterrent. A person with something to hide is more likely to abandon an application the moment it involves creating a verifiable record and looping in other identifiable adults. That self-selection protects your program before anyone even reads an answer.
• It adds a human layer to the other checks. Identity verification confirms who they are; a background check surfaces records; a character reference adds who vouches for them. No single layer is the whole picture — together they are far stronger than any one alone.

How to obtain strong character references, step by step

1. Decide a simple, written policy first. How many references (two to three is common), who is eligible (many programs exclude immediate family), and any minimum length or nature of the relationship. Writing it down is what lets you apply it the same way to every applicant — which is both fairer and safer.
2. Get consent and collect the references from the applicant. Have the applicant name their references and provide contact details, with their consent for you to reach out. The references themselves always participate voluntarily and may decline.
3. Verify the reference is a real, identified person. A reference is only as good as your confidence that it came from an actual human being who is who they claim to be — not the applicant using a second email address. Confirming the reference's identity is what turns "a nice note" into "a verified person went on the record."
4. Ask consistent, role-relevant questions. Use the same short set of questions for everyone (see below). Consistency gives you comparable answers and keeps your process defensible.
5. Capture it in a durable form. A written response — or a short video in which the reference vouches on camera — is worth far more than a verbal "yeah, they're fine" you scribble down. It is specific, attributable, and reviewable by your team.
6. Review for willingness, specificity, and consistency — then weigh the references alongside your identity verification and background check, never in isolation.

Good questions to ask (and questions to avoid)

Keep questions focused on the applicant's suitability for the role — their character, dependability, and how they interact with others. A handful that work well:

• How do you know the applicant, and for how long?
• In what settings have you seen them interact with others — especially children or vulnerable adults, if relevant to the role?
• How would you describe their reliability and follow-through?
• Is there anything about their character or conduct that would give you pause about them serving in this role?
• Would you recommend them as a volunteer — and would you be comfortable having them serve people you care about?

Avoiding the legal pitfalls

Reference-checking is low-risk when it is done consistently and kept role-relevant, but a few areas deserve care. The following is general information, not legal advice — your counsel should have the final word.

• Be consistent to stay fair. Apply the same reference requirement and the same questions to everyone applying for a given role. Selective or ad-hoc reference checks are how well-meaning programs drift into disparate treatment.
• Keep it role-related and off protected traits. As above — questions and notes should concern the role, not protected characteristics, and you should not use references as a backdoor to screen people out on a protected basis.
• Consent and voluntariness. Get the applicant's consent to contact references, and remember the references answer voluntarily and can decline any question.
• Confidentiality and data security. Treat references as sensitive. Limit who can see them, store them securely, keep them separate from unrelated records, and retain them only as long as you reasonably need them.
• Opinions are opinions — don't launder them into "facts." A reference's statement is that person's own view. Relay it as given; don't rewrite an offhand opinion into an organizational finding or a definitive claim about the applicant. That discipline is both fairer and a sensible guard against defamation-type risk.
• Know the line around "investigative consumer reports." Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, when you engage a consumer reporting agency to gather information about a person's character or reputation through personal interviews and compile it into a report for you, special "investigative consumer report" rules (extra notices and disclosures) can apply. Collecting references yourself, directly from people your applicant chose, is generally a different activity — but the distinction can be nuanced, so if you are unsure how your specific process is characterized, ask counsel.
• Don't decide on references alone. A character reference is one input. For a safety-sensitive role, pair it with identity verification and a criminal background check, and follow the applicable process for each.
• Document your process, not just the outcome. Being able to show that you asked everyone the same role-related questions is your best friend if a decision is ever questioned.

Where VolunteerBadge fits: the conduit, not the investigator

VolunteerBadge can automate the tedious part for free. When you turn on automated character references, your applicant lists the people who can vouch for them, and VolunteerBadge reaches each reference by email and text, confirms the reference's identity with a free biometric facial scan, asks a few honest character questions, and lets them record an optional short video. The verified reference, their own answers, and their video land on the volunteer's profile — no phone tag for your team.

Here is the part that matters most. With respect to character references, VolunteerBadge is a neutral conduit, not an investigator. We deliver the invitation and relay each reference's own voluntary words to you, unedited. We do not interview references on our own initiative, investigate the applicant, score or rank anyone, or verify whether what a reference says is accurate, and we do not compile an investigative report about the applicant. This is not an investigative report provided by VolunteerBadge — every character check simply feeds through us, each time, to you. Our only role as a consumer reporting agency is the separate criminal background check on the volunteer themselves, which is kept walled off from the character-reference feature.

The bottom line

Applicants will always choose references who like them — and that is fine. The value isn't in the compliments; it is in whether a person can produce a few real, identified people willing to vouch for them on the record, and in whether those answers are specific and consistent. Gathered fairly, kept role-relevant, and combined with identity verification and a background check, character references are a meaningful layer of protection for the people you serve — and with VolunteerBadge, collecting them is automatic, verified, and free.

Ready to turn it on? Create a free VolunteerBadge account, or if you already have one, enable it in Settings → Screening — or just ask Victor, the in-app assistant, to "turn on automated character references." Learn more on the Character Check feature page and in the support guide.