Parsing & Formatting3 min read

Resume Volunteer Section Format: Adding Value Through Community Experience

Volunteer experience can add valuable keywords, demonstrate leadership skills, and fill employment gaps on your resume. When formatted correctly, volunteer work is parsed and scored by the ATS just like professional experience. This guide shows when and how to include volunteer work for maximum impact.

When to Include Volunteer Experience

Include volunteer experience when it adds relevant skills or keywords not covered by your professional experience, fills an employment gap with productive activity, demonstrates leadership, community involvement, or values alignment, or when you're a new graduate with limited professional experience.

Volunteer work is particularly valuable for career changers who need to demonstrate skills in their new field. If you volunteered as a web developer for a non-profit while working in sales, that volunteer experience adds technical keywords to your resume.

Don't include volunteer work just to fill space. If it doesn't add relevant keywords, demonstrate applicable skills, or address a specific gap, it's taking space from more impactful content.

Volunteer Entry Format

Format volunteer entries similarly to work experience for ATS consistency:

Volunteer Web Developer Habitat for Humanity, San Francisco, CA January 2022 – June 2022 β€’ Redesigned organization website using WordPress and PHP, increasing online donations by 25% β€’ Created responsive design improving mobile user experience for 3,000+ monthly visitors

This format gives the parser the same structure it expects from work entries: title, organization, dates, and achievement bullets.

ElementIncludeFormat As
Role titleAlwaysDescriptive title (Volunteer Web Developer)
OrganizationAlwaysFull organization name
DatesAlwaysSame format as work experience
LocationRecommendedCity, State
AchievementsAlways2-4 bullets with keywords and impact

Volunteer Section Placement

Place volunteer experience in a dedicated 'Volunteer Experience' or 'Community Involvement' section after your professional Work Experience and Education.

Alternatively, if volunteer work is your primary source of relevant experience (career changers, new grads), include it within or immediately after the Work Experience section.

For senior professionals with extensive volunteer leadership (board memberships, committee chairs), a dedicated section demonstrates community engagement and leadership breadth.

Pro Tips

1

Format volunteer entries like work experience: title, organization, dates, achievement bullets

2

Include volunteer work that adds relevant keywords or demonstrates applicable skills

3

Use the same date format and bullet structure as your professional experience

4

For career changers, volunteer work can demonstrate skills in your target field

5

Place in a dedicated section after Work Experience unless it's your primary relevant experience

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Including irrelevant volunteer work that doesn't add keywords or demonstrate applicable skills

Formatting volunteer entries differently from work entries, confusing the parser

Not including achievement bullets, missing keyword opportunities

Placing volunteer experience before more relevant professional experience

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I include volunteer work from 10+ years ago?
Only if it's directly relevant to your target role or demonstrates a long-term commitment to a cause. Otherwise, keep volunteer experience recent (last 5-7 years) like your professional experience.
Does volunteer experience count as 'experience' for ATS?
It depends on the ATS configuration. Most parsers will extract and store volunteer experience as work history. Whether it counts toward experience requirements depends on how the recruiter configured the screening criteria.
How much volunteer experience should I include?
1-3 volunteer entries are sufficient for most resumes. More than that takes space from professional experience. Focus on the most relevant and impactful volunteer roles.

Related Guides

Add volunteer experience to your resume with our Resume Builder

More ATS Guides