The legally sound agreement template that protects both your startup and your volunteers. Customize this template for each role and establish clear expectations from day one.
This agreement establishes clear expectations, protects intellectual property, and creates a professional foundation for successful volunteer collaborations.
Clearly defines the volunteer relationship, preventing future disputes about employment status, compensation claims, or intellectual property ownership.
Sets transparent terms for time commitment, deliverables, and what volunteers will receive in return—eliminating misunderstandings before they happen.
Ensures all work created during the volunteer term belongs to your company, protecting your startup's most valuable asset—your intellectual property.
Creates a structured, professional environment that volunteers respect and appreciate, leading to better commitment and higher quality work.
The agreement covers all essential aspects of the volunteer relationship, from basic details to intellectual property rights.
Copy this agreement, fill in the bracketed sections with your specific details, and have both parties sign before starting work.
VOLUNTEER AGREEMENT Name of Volunteer: [VOLUNTEER FULL NAME] (in this Agreement "Volunteer" is also referred to as "You") Name of Company: [COMPANY LEGAL NAME] (in this Agreement "Company" is also referred to as "Us" or "us") Date of Engagement: [DD/MM/YYYY] (in this Agreement referred to as "Effective Date") By signing this Agreement, the Company and the Volunteer agree to the following: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ACTIVITIES [Describe the specific role, responsibilities, and activities the volunteer will perform. Be detailed and specific about what tasks they will complete during the volunteer term.] Example: "As a Full-Stack Developer, you will design and build the company's web application using React and Node.js. Specific activities include developing user authentication, creating RESTful APIs, implementing the frontend user interface, and conducting code reviews." ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ VOLUNTEER TERM Hours per week: [X hours per week / 3 hours per day] Duration: 3 months Location: Remote ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TERMS AND CONDITIONS 1. This is not an internship, apprenticeship, freelancer, contractor or an employment agreement. 2. This is a voluntary position, i.e. there will be no financial compensation for your efforts or any taxable benefits in kind. 3. The voluntary position which you have agreed to partake in, will last for a period of 3 months from the Date of Engagement mentioned above. But in some rare cases, it may end sooner if the Activities are satisfactorily completed by you in a shorter time span. 4. If the Activities start date is delayed by more than 3 days, the Effective Date will be deemed as the new Activities start date. 5. Upon successful completion of the Activities as validated by the Company, you are fully entitled to recommendations and endorsements declared below. 6. You may also request for the extension of this Voluntary Term, which may or may not be approved based on the requirement of the Company. 7. If you wish to terminate the Agreement before the end of 3 months or Activities Completion, whichever is applicable, please note that no recommendations or endorsements will be provided to you for the work you have partially completed up to that point. 8. There is no promise of future paid work of any kind, as a freelancer, contractor or an employee. 9. If you are working for another company, in full-time or part-time employment, internship or voluntary basis, you are advised to inform them of this Agreement and seek permission where necessary before continuing with us. 10. You also need to advise us of formal relationships you have with any organisation whether you function as a director, employee, contractor, freelancer or an intern, whether paid or unpaid under Relationships with Other Organisations section below. 11. We will take no responsibility for any liability arising from you engaging with us, in case your employer or another party has an issue of you engaging with us. 12. We carry no insurance including professional indemnity insurance or any other on your behalf to protect you against potential claims by others during the validity of this Agreement. 13. We also acknowledge that you do not carry professional indemnity insurance for the work you would carry out under this Agreement. 14. All Intellectual Property (IP) created as a result of your activities with us will remain with us. Please refer to Clause 29 for additional requirements on IP. 15. We encourage you not to download documents to your computer from our Google Workspace (Google Drive) unless it's absolutely necessary to execute your responsibilities. In such cases, permission should be sought before downloading. 16. Upon completion of the Activities, or at the time of terminating of this Agreement, you shall hand over all Activities completed to that date, even if the Activities are partially completed. 17. For reference purposes, please seek permission from the Company first. 18. All records of the Volunteering with us must be deleted from your computer and other devices including mobile phones, as well as from cloud software solutions not owned by the Company. 19. You can leave Volunteering with us anytime, but please provide a minimum of 48 hrs advance notification. We will also do the same if your contribution is no longer needed. 20. You need to submit a daily progress report during the Volunteer Term every week day. The Company will provide details of how to submit during Onboarding. 21. In the event you cannot Volunteer due to ill health, you must notify us immediately. 22. You have our permission to add Us as a company you engaged with on a voluntary basis on your social media, especially on LinkedIn and on your CV/resume if you deem it will add value for your career advancement. This can be shown under Experiences on LinkedIn. 23. We are happy to provide references where deemed fit based on the satisfactory execution of your voluntary engagement with us. 24. If this eventuality leads to a paid part-time or full-time opportunity with us after the end of the Volunteer Term, there will be a separate commercial agreement with us. 25. You should make no assumption that this Volunteer Term will lead to a paid opportunity with us in the future. 26. No joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between us and You because of this Agreement. 27. This Agreement, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. 28. The Volunteer will be entitled to the same level of recommendations and endorsements as upon successful completion of the Volunteer Term if the Agreement is terminated by the Company due to technical difficulties, task cancellation, Company/team restructure or any other reasons for the tasks not continuing. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 29. All IP created by You in the course of the Volunteering for us will become and irrevocably remain the property of the Company, unless explicitly agreed in writing by mutual agreement. You agree to assign all such IP to us and relinquish all claims to the said IP. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS - DECLARATION Please list all organisations you have a relationship with in accordance with Clause 10 above: [List all current employment, consulting, freelance, or volunteer relationships here] Example: - ABC Tech Ltd (Full-time Software Engineer) - XYZ Nonprofit (Volunteer Web Developer) - None currently ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ I, the Volunteer, declare that no other work, Agreement or Contract with any other organisation shall interfere with the execution of this Agreement and that no other such work would place any claim on the IP of ours, this Company, arising from work carried out under this Agreement. If any such conflict arose You agree to notify us immediately in order that it may be resolved or as a last resort that this Agreement may be terminated. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ENDORSEMENTS Upon successful completion of the Volunteer Term and a satisfactory outcome is delivered, the Company will: • Provide a testimonial against your profile on SkilledUp Life. • Provide a LinkedIn testimonial. • Allow you to add Company Name to your LinkedIn Profile and CV/Resume. • Provide a letter of recommendation, which you can use to advance your career prospects. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SIGNATURES Signed on behalf of the Company: Signature: _________________________________ Print name: [COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE NAME] Title: [TITLE/POSITION] Email: [COMPANY EMAIL] Date: [DD/MM/YYYY] Signed on behalf of the Volunteer: Signature: _________________________________ Print name: [VOLUNTEER FULL NAME] Email: [VOLUNTEER EMAIL] SkilledUp Life Profile: [PROFILE URL] Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]
Follow these steps to adapt the template for your specific role and company needs.
Replace all bracketed placeholders with actual information:
Write a detailed description of what the volunteer will do:
Specify the hours per week based on role requirements:
Read all 28 terms and conditions to ensure they fit your situation:
Have both parties review and sign the agreement:
Not Legal Advice: This template is provided for informational purposes. Consult with a qualified attorney before using it to ensure it meets your specific legal requirements.
Jurisdiction Matters: The template uses English and Welsh law. If your company is registered elsewhere, modify clause 27 to reflect your jurisdiction.
Keep Records: Store signed agreements securely and ensure both parties have copies. These may be needed for future reference or in case of disputes.
Review Regularly: Laws change. Have your legal counsel review this agreement annually to ensure continued compliance with current regulations.
Get the Microsoft Word (.docx) version of this agreement that you can easily edit, customize, and use for your volunteer engagements.
Download Word DocumentUse this agreement template to formalize your volunteer relationships and create a professional, legally sound foundation for collaboration.