Last updated by Kasey Murphy on 03/13/2021

For some people, it is very easy for them to express their passion and active eagerness to be a great volunteer and a great volunteer coordinator. The tricky part about applying for any job is that no one will see how great of a candidate you are if they cannot get past your resume. 

Your Volunteer Coordinator resume needs to be a reflection on paper that showcases how passionate you are about nonprofit missions, how you have an interest in the well-being of organizations, that you are looking for a long-term role, and that you are striving to be a leader of like-minded individuals - those who love to volunteer. 

The best volunteer coordinator resume showcases professionalism, experience, eagerness, and additional assets or characteristics. 

What To Put In A Volunteer Coordinator Resume 

Beyond the basics like education, name, address, and any qualifications you have- there are different ways to include other important factors in your volunteer coordinator resume.

It’s unfortunate, but a lot of times resumes only get a once-over glance and consideration. So, making your resume stand out, but still match the volunteer coordinator job position is an absolute necessity. 

Recruitment tip 101: if you’re applying through a big job site or for a role that will have lots of applicants, the hiring manager could be using a system that will show only show them top picks to sift out the noise. It’s difficult sorting through hundreds of applicants so they may not even see your resume if the system doesn’t pick you out. How do you get on this list? Your skill sets need to match the skill sets that are in the job posting.

As a rule of thumb, when you are submitting a resume for a volunteer coordinator position, it should always be catered to the job that you are applying for. So, open up the job posting and see which parts of the volunteer coordinator position you feel you align with or already have. 

These could be skills, experience, or even extracurricular activities. 

Volunteer Coordinator Skills 

For example, if an organization states that they are looking for someone who is great with people, knows how to motivate volunteers, and is able to work on multiple projects at once. These are the skills and characteristics that they are looking for. 

So, in your Volunteer Coordinator resume, you should either have a section that explains key skills that you have or you should elaborate on skills that you have in the experience section. 

If you feel like you are a great multitasker and you know how to motivate volunteers- include this in your resume! You can either list it or explain how you have done these things before. 

We think it depends on how the job posting is presented that the volunteer coordinator resume should be presented. So, if they have a list of skills, you can have a list of skills on your volunteer coordinator resume! But, if they have skills elaborated like we mentioned above, you should probably elaborate on the skills in a different section of your volunteer coordinator resume. 

To see examples of how you can set up your volunteer coordinator resume and even some templates that you can download and fill out, download example volunteer coordinator resumes, cover letters, and editable templates

Volunteer Coordinator Experience 

When it comes to your experience, what they really want to see is your experience with nonprofit work in your volunteer coordinator resume. If you don’t have volunteer coordinator experience, your other experiences should be tied to volunteer coordinator responsibilities to showcase relevant professional skills.

Beyond other volunteer coordinator jobs, or other experiences similar, you can also list the volunteer experiences you have. A great thing about being a volunteer coordinator is that you have the experience of dealing with volunteer coordinators and being one of the people that was once managed by a volunteer coordinator! 

If there was a good time to brag about yourself, this would be it. List all the organizations that you’ve volunteered with and what you did with them. It’s not easy to get a job as a volunteer coordinator if you’re not an active volunteer yourself, so keep that in mind before applying for the job.

Download our example volunteer coordinator resumes and templates to see exactly how to layout your volunteer coordinator experiences. 

Volunteer Coordinator Extracurriculars 

Volunteer Coordinator resumes are a great place to showcase extraordinary skills that may come into play with being a volunteer coordinator. The great thing about volunteer coordinators is that they do so many different things! Basically any extracurricular experience you have will come into play in your time as a volunteer coordinator. 

Use your resume to express your interest in different areas as well as showcase your ability to manage different tasks and activities. 

Wrap It Up With A Volunteer Coordinator Cover Letter

Even though a cover letter may not be required by the employer, we highly recommend that you still send one. Remember, this is your chance to stand out above the others to try to get that interview, so going that extra step will be well worth it. 

Your cover letter is the first impression after the hiring manager gets to your resume. So you want this to be personal and memorable, as well as concise and to the point. It should give the reader a good idea of who you are, how your work experience and skills meet the job requirements, and why you want this job. 

If you’re applying for multiple jobs at a time, make sure that each cover letter is unique to each organization and position you’re applying for. Your cover letter should be a direct response to the job posting and also a great reflection of you! 

Pro-Tip: Cover letters should usually follow the format, “I want you, you want me, let’s get together.” Meaning, Your first portion of the cover letter should be talking about how you want the job, the next portion explaining why the organization would benefit from you as the volunteer coordinator, and lastly, how you will work together with the company and how they can contact you.

Once your resume and cover letter are submitted, it’s time to start preparing for the interview!