How to Handle a Misconduct Complaint Against a Volunteer

Nobody signs up to coordinate volunteers because they love conflict. Most coordinators spend most of their time on the logistics: schedules, signups, reminders, thank-you notes. Then something happens, and suddenly they're fielding a complaint about a volunteer's behavior, and they have absolutely no process for how to handle it.

It's uncomfortable to talk about, but misconduct complaints against volunteers are more common than most coordinators expect. They range from minor boundary violations to serious allegations of harm. How you respond shapes whether your organization is trustworthy to the people it serves.

Here's a clear-headed approach to getting through it.

What Counts as a Misconduct Complaint

First, it helps to be specific about what you're dealing with. Not every complaint rises to the level of formal misconduct. Some complaints are interpersonal friction or misunderstandings that need a conversation, not an investigation.

A misconduct complaint is typically characterized by:

• An allegation that a volunteer violated your organization's policies, code of conduct, or the law
• A complaint that involves harm or potential harm to a client, program participant, staff member, or another volunteer
• A report of behavior that would require disciplinary action if the volunteer were a paid employee

Examples: a volunteer who made inappropriate comments to a client, who accessed areas or information they weren't authorized to access, who violated a confidentiality policy, or who behaved aggressively toward another volunteer.

If you don't have a code of conduct that defines expected volunteer behavior, reviewing the policies your nonprofit actually needs is worth doing before the next complaint arrives. It's much harder to act on a complaint when you have no written standard to point to.

Step One: Take It Seriously From the Start

When someone brings you a complaint, your job in the first few minutes is not to investigate. It's to listen, and to make the person feel heard.

That means:

• Not immediately explaining or defending the volunteer's behavior
• Not speculating about motivations ("I'm sure they didn't mean it that way")
• Not promising confidentiality that you can't actually keep

You don't know yet what happened or whether the complaint is well-founded. What you do know is that someone is telling you something made them feel unsafe or uncomfortable, and that matters regardless of how it resolves.

A simple response: "Thank you for telling me this. I want to make sure I understand what happened. Can you walk me through it?" Then listen, take notes, and ask clarifying questions. Don't editorialize.

Step Two: Document Before You Do Anything Else

Before you take any action, write down what you know. Date and time of the conversation. Who brought the complaint. Exactly what they described, as close to their words as possible. What the complainant is asking for, if they said.

This documentation matters for two reasons. First, memories change fast, especially under stress. What feels vivid right now will be fuzzy in a week. Second, if this complaint ever escalates, the contemporaneous notes you took on the day it was reported are the most credible record you have.

Keep these notes somewhere secure, not in a shared folder, and limit who has access to them. Volunteer data security applies to complaint records too.

Step Three: Assess Who Needs to Be Involved

Not every complaint can be handled by the volunteer coordinator alone. Before you do anything else, assess who else in the organization needs to know.

Involve your executive director or senior leadership if:

• The complaint involves potential harm to a vulnerable client
• The volunteer is someone with significant organizational ties (a major donor, a board member's spouse, a longtime partner)
• The allegation, if true, could expose the organization to liability
• You feel uncomfortable or unsure about how to proceed

Involve legal counsel if:

• The complaint involves allegations that could be criminal
• A reporter is asking questions about the incident
• You're uncertain about your obligations under mandatory reporting laws in your jurisdiction

Most volunteer coordinators are not trained investigators, and that's okay. Your job is to respond appropriately, not to conduct a one-person inquiry. Know when to call in help.

Step Four: Conduct a Basic Inquiry

For most complaints, a basic inquiry is appropriate before any decisions are made. This means gathering enough information to understand what happened and what action, if any, is warranted.

This typically involves:

1. Speaking with the complainant again, if you didn't get the full picture in the initial conversation
2. Speaking with the volunteer who is the subject of the complaint, separately
3. Speaking with anyone else who witnessed or has relevant information

When you speak with the volunteer, be direct but not accusatory. "Someone has raised a concern about an interaction you had with [a client/another volunteer/etc.]. I want to hear your perspective before any decisions are made." Give them a genuine opportunity to respond.

If the inquiry suggests the complaint has merit, having a performance conversation with a volunteer is the next step for less serious issues. For more serious situations, read the next section.

Step Five: Decide on an Outcome

Once you have enough information, you need to decide what happens. Outcomes typically fall into three categories:

No action. The inquiry didn't support the complaint, or the behavior didn't actually violate any policy. You may still want to document what you found and why you reached that conclusion.

Corrective action. The behavior was a problem, but it's addressable. This might mean a direct conversation, a reminder about specific policies, additional supervision, or a temporary restriction on certain roles.

Removal from the volunteer program. The behavior was serious enough that the volunteer cannot continue. How to handle a volunteer who isn't working out (managing difficult volunteers) has guidance on this, but for misconduct it's often simpler: some behaviors end the relationship, and it's better to be clear about that than to let someone continue in a role where they've already caused harm.

Document the outcome and the rationale regardless of what you decide. If the situation ever comes up again, whether with the same volunteer or in a complaint from the same complainant, you want a record of how you handled it.

Protect the Complainant

Throughout this process, be deliberate about protecting the person who came forward. That means:

• Not sharing their identity with the volunteer under investigation if it can be avoided
• Following up to let them know the complaint has been received and addressed, without disclosing specifics about the outcome
• Not retaliating against them or allowing others to do so

Complainants who feel burned by the process don't come forward next time. And next time, the stakes might be higher.

Build the Infrastructure Before You Need It

The coordinators who handle misconduct complaints most effectively are usually the ones who did the unglamorous work of writing a code of conduct, setting clear expectations around volunteer confidentiality, and building an intake process before anything went wrong. When a complaint arrives, they already know what to do.

If you don't have that infrastructure in place, now is the right time. Not because something bad is about to happen, but because the volunteers and clients you serve deserve an organization that takes misconduct seriously enough to have a plan.