American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA)

Unpaid work in a for-profit place of business, such as a professional office, medical practice, or tutoring center does not qualify as community service because the volunteer’s effort benefits a business rather than a charitable effort or community initiative.

Exceptions:

Card-making, letter-writing, and bulk art/craft activities are popular because they can be done virtually from one’s own home or school with simple, readily available supplies. Hand-written letters, handmade cards, lunch bags, bracelets, etc. can qualify when properly tracked and documented. As with all other community service work, members are expected to record their daily work, paying attention to the start time and end time as they are gathering supplies, designing, coloring, and writing messages.

Some organizations that collect cards and letters will only verify the actual time spent by the volunteer include:

• Cards for Hospitalized Kids
• Catlin’s Smile
• Letters For Destiny.

Exception 1: Many organizations that accept donations of cards and letters will “award” a fixed time of 10, 15, or 30 minutes per card. Volunteer Scholars will not accept the organizations’ default, per-piece allocation of time per card or letter. Following is a partial list of organizations that “award” per-piece service hours that will not qualify for Volunteer Scholars. Members who wish to contribute to the following organizations and similar must track actual, elapsed time:

• A Bright Spot (10 cards = 2.5 hours)
• Cancer Kids First (1 card or digital letter = 30 min)
• Cards For Bravery (1-2, or 3-5 cards = 1 hour)
• Charities to Love (10 cards = 1 hour)
• 2Color A Smile (1 picture = 10 minutes)
• Create for Kids (1 card = 30 minutes)
• DOROT Cardmaking (1 card = 15 minutes)
• The Jessie Rees Foundation (8 cards = 1 hour)
• Kiddo Kindness (4 cards = 1 hour)
• Kits to Heart (Various projects, hours assigned)
• Letters Against Isolation (4 letters = 1 hour)
• Letters Of Love (2 letters = 1 hour)
• Send A Smile Today (10 cards = 1 hour).

Exception 2: Because of the ease of downloading, copying and pasting, voice-to-text, or using AI, digital cards and typed letters do not qualify as community service work for Volunteer Scholars.

Exception 3: All other art, crafting, sewing, and knitting efforts in which organizations “award” time per unit completed fall under this guideline. Following is a partial list of organizations that “award” per-piece service hours that will not qualify for Volunteer Scholars. Members who wish to contribute to the following organizations and similar must track actual, elapsed time:

• Kids’ Meals Inc (30 decorated lunch bags = 1 hour)
• Operation Gratitude (5 paracord bracelets = 1 hour)
• Origami for Good (15 origami = 1 hour)

Collections and drives to gather supplies such as non-perishable food, coats, clothing, shoes, books, toys, toiletries, school supplies, or similar are popular because small contributions- often with items donors already have at home- from many people can have big impact. Simply donating items, such as dropping off a bag of canned food, does not qualify as community service because Volunteer Scholars does not recognize a time equivalency for goods. However, a member who organizes, runs, or works at a collection or drive event can count their time. The work of advertising a drive or collection, working at a table or collection point, and then cleaning, sorting, labeling, bagging/boxing collected items can qualify when properly tracked and documented. As with all other community service work, members are expected to record their daily work, paying attention to the start time and end time as they are working on the collection/drive activities. Remember that the time to drive to/from stores or to/from the charity’s drop off does not qualify.

Members who provide instruction via an alternative or digital platform, such as a blog, podcast, website, video, TedTalk, or similar, can count the hours to write, edit, and post, or script, plan, record/tape, edit, and post as community service as long as the final product is searchable (able to be located through a common search engine), available at no cost in the public domain, and is instructional or educational in nature.

For example, the preparation and production of series of YouTube videos that demonstrate science experiments or solve math equations, a podcast that teaches at-home gardening, or a blog that instructs on healthy vegan cooking qualifies as community service.

Volunteer Scholars accepts that these contributions are the modern “equivalents” of giving a workshop, teaching a class, or tutoring, for example. Members must provide links to their finished products in their back-up documentation or activity log.

Exception: Time spent creating media which promotes a partisan cause, political viewpoint, controversial or confrontational topic, religion, advertises a product, or is pure entertainment does not qualify as community service.

Time that an animal is simply sheltered or housed in a member’s home does not qualify as volunteer hours. For instance, fostering an animal for seven days does not count as 168 hours of service, because only the time spent actively caring for the animal qualifies as community service.

Exception: Activities related to the direct care and keeping of foster animals, such as feeding, watering, bathing, exercising, grooming, training, accompanying the animal to veterinary appointments, or cleaning up after the animal, qualify as community service. Activities related to adoption services for foster animals, such as creating promotional materials or assisting at adoption events, shall also qualify. This guideline also applies to volunteers who board, raise, socialize, or train service animals on behalf of recognized organizations that prepare animals to assist individuals who are blind, disabled, or otherwise in need of trained service-animal support.

Hours spent on fundraising activities for a member’s own organization do not qualify as community service. Examples of fundraising efforts that would not count as community service:

• A Boy Scout who spends 6 hours selling popcorn to raise money for his own pack/den– does not qualify as community service.
• A Girl Scout who spends 12 hours selling cookies to raise money for her own troop– does not qualify as community service.
• High school students who organize and host a camp or clinic (dance, sports, STEM, etc) to raise funds for their own organization– does not qualify as community service.
• A member of National Honor Society who spend 2 hours selling pizza slices to raise money for their own chapter– does not qualify as community service.
• Band members who hold a bake sale to raise money for travel to an out-of-town competition- does not qualify as community service

Exception: A member who actively works at or organizes a fundraising event that benefits an outside community organization generally qualifies as volunteer work, provided the effort involves direct, engaged service rather than passive online solicitation. Examples include:

• Beta club members host a lemonade stand to raise money for the local animal shelter – qualifies.
• Members of the women’s soccer team hold a car wash to raise funds for the cancer society- qualifies.
• Girl Scouts hold a car wash to raise money for a cancer organization- qualifies.

Supply-filled kit, bag, box, and tote projects are popular because they can be done remotely from one’s own home or school with simple, readily available supplies. Examples are activity kits, welcome kits, birthday bags/boxes, hygiene kits, newborn kits, first aid kits, snack packs, weekend meal kits.The work expended to assemble kits, bags, boxes, or totes can qualify when properly tracked and documented. As with all other community service work, members are expected to record their daily work, paying attention to the start time and end time as they are selecting and purchasing supplies, opening and sorting mulit–packs, bagging items, writing notes, boxing up completed kits, and unloading them. Remember that the time to drive to/from stores or to/from the charity’s drop off does not qualify.

Exception: Many organizations that accept donations of filled kits, bags, boxes and totes will “award” a fixed time of 1 or 2 hours per completed pack. Volunteer Scholars will not accept the organizations’ default, per-piece allocation of time per kit, bag, box, or tote. Following is a partial list of organizations that “award” per-piece service hours that will not qualify for Volunteer Scholars.

Members who wish to contribute to the following organizations and similar must track actual, elapsed time and not the “per piece” time allotted by the organization:

• Confetti Foundation (collection drive = 10 hours)
• Create for Kids (1 kit = 1 hour)
• Hands On Broward/South Florida (1 kit = 1 hour)
• Hope Supply Co. (10 boxes = 2 hours)
• Kiddo Kindness (1 care package = 1 hour)
• Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital/ Holtz Children Hospital (1 kit = 1 hour)
• LovePacs (10 kits = 2 hours)
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital (1 kit = 30 minutes)
• The Volunteer Center (1 bag = 2 hours)

Activities that are part of a student’s normal membership in a club, sport, or organization—such as attending meetings, taking part in events, fundraising, or serving as an officer—are not considered community service. Being captain of the debate team, social chair for Beta Club, serving on student council, captain of the hockey team, etc, are examples of student leadership, but do not qualify as community service. See the National Distinguished Student Leadership Award for this work.

Exception: A service project or charitable work done through one of these organizations, such as a youth group visit to a nursing home or Boy Scouts cleaning up a park, qualifies.

Practices and rehearsals for performing arts such as a band, orchestra, ensemble, dance company, comedy troupe, improv, individual instrument or similar are considered extracurricular activities and do not qualify as community service.

Exception: If the band, orchestra, dance group, musician, or similar performs a free community performance or concert, en plein air or street show, or performs at a nursing home, VA hospital, or charitable venue, the time spent giving the performance qualifies as community service as long as the event was open to or viewable by the public at no cost. Time spent auditioning, practicing, rehearsing, choreographing, and/or traveling to the community performance does not qualify.

Some work at a church, synagogue, or temple qualifies as community service, and some work does not qualify.

• Performing religious instruction, conducting or assisting a worship service, or proselytizing does not qualify as community service hours.
• Assisting with religious education programs does not qualify as community service because the underlying role is religious instruction (Sunday school, vacation bible school, religious assistant, alter boy, or member distributing hymnals, prayer books, or programs, etc.)
• Work at your own place of worship such as painting, raking, setting up chairs, preparing for the luncheon, caring for children/infants, or parking cars, for example, does not qualify because your efforts are benefitting an organization that you are a member of.
• Work at a bake sale, bazaar, yard sale, or other fundraiser that earns money for your own place of worship does not qualify because the volunteer is a member of the benefitting organization.
• Work on a mission trip that includes preaching, proselytizing, or supporting the religious work of an international community does not qualify.

Exceptions:

• Community service done through a place of worship that benefits the larger community, such as food drives, meals for the homeless, soup kitchens, clothing collections, etc., qualifies as community service.
• Work at a bake sale, bazaar, yard sale, or other fundraiser that earns money for another charitable cause, such as disaster relief or sponsoring a refugee family, qualifies.
• Work on a mission trip that includes repairing buildings, installing a well, supporting medical services, or feeding a community, for example, qualifies. Only work hours can be counted on a mission trip. Travel, sleeping, eating, recreation, or touring time cannot be counted.

Community service work does not need to be done through an organization or established program. Self-initiated service work such as an individual’s or family’s commitment to cleaning up a park or stream, can qualify for this award. Volunteer Scholars may ask for additional details or documentation, such as photographs, on self-initiated projects.

Participating in athletic events such as swim-a-thons, walk-a-thons, or run-a-thons does not qualify as community service. While these events may raise funds or awareness for charitable causes, the act of running, walking, or swimming laps is a personal activity rather than a volunteer service performed for the benefit of others.

Exception: Time spent organizing, assisting with, or volunteering at a swim-a-thon, run-a-thon, etc., for example, setting up, registering participants, distributing water, or cleaning up afterward qualifies as community service hours.

Students’ work creating articles, fliers, posters, social media posts, or other written, video, or graphic promotion materials may qualify as community service only if the work is completed for a nonprofit, civic, or charitable organization and directly supports that organization’s outreach, education, or public service mission. The materials must be produced at the request of or under the supervision of the organization.

Exception: Creating materials for personal use, school assignments, class projects, student publications, or general distribution—even if the topic promotes a community issue or cause—does not qualify as community service, since the work is not performed as a community service for a qualifying organization.

Service as a youth representative to a council, teen advisory board, youth delegate to a city or county committee, or similar does not qualify as community service. Volunteer Scholars considers these positions to be representative and/or honorary in nature. Most of these roles are administrative in nature, providing input, identifying, or aiding in prioritizing issues to governing bodies but do little towards physically serving the communities. Members who hold positions on councils, advisory boards, city or county committees, or similar should considering applying those hours to the National Distinguished Student Leadership Award NDSLA instead.

Exception: Time that youth representatives or delegates spend completing tangible projects—such as trash clean-ups or park improvement efforts—for councils, advisory boards, or city or county committees qualifies as community service.

Individual members must have a valid, current membership at the Premier, Elite, or Elite Senior level to pursue the American Volunteer Service Award. Members of approved groups must have a valid membership at the Group Basic or Group Premier level.

A member must be age 6 by August 31 (in other words, the student may have completed some activities while 5 years old, but must turn 6 by the end of the award cycle). There is no upper age limit for the AVSA. Although Volunteer Scholars is predominantly a student organization, adults are also welcome to enroll.

There is no US citizenship requirement for this award.

The AVSA award year shall run from September 1 through August 31 each year. All AVSA activities, hours, and documentation must be entered in the Volunteer Scholars online portal by 11:59 pm on August 31. Applications received after that time cannot be counted for the closing year, nor can they be carried forward to the next year.

All community service activities and hours must be entered in discrete entries by date, with detailed descriptions, the correct benefitting organization, and with accompanying documentation in the Volunteer Scholars online portal.

Members must submit back-up documentation demonstrating that they have completed the hours they reported on their Volunteer Activity Logs. Back-up documentation must contain the beneficiary organization’s name, institutional address and website; supervisor’s or volunteer coordinator’s name, signature, phone number, and email, and either the start/end or duration and date(s) worked or the total number of hours worked. Forms of accepted back-up documentation include:

• Letter from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization on the organization’s letterhead.
• Email from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization from the organization’s email account, not a personal email.
• Certificate from the beneficiary organization
• ‘Thank You’ Note from the beneficiary organization
• An Organization’s Time Tracking Log from a single charitable organization, such as a public library’s log or hospital volunteer management system, provided it comes from their system and contains a clear identifier such as the organization’s logo and/or contact information. (See note below about school and organization logs that are not accepted.)
• Logbook where each entry shows date worked, start/end times, total time worked, beneficiary organization name, task(s) completed, and beneficiary organization’s representative’s name, phone number, email address, and signature.
• Photographs of you performing the work. If a member provides photographs as documentation, the photograph must clearly show the member actively engaged in service (please, no photos at the organization’s sign or front door.) Photos must be submitted for each date or shift. A photograph cannot be submitted to cover a range of dates.
• Volunteer Scholars Time Tracking Sheet

Members who have carefully reviewed these Guidelines and do not see their specific community service activity addressed may contact Volunteer Scholars to ask whether the activity is likely to qualify. A Volunteer Scholars team member may provide an opinion and general guidance; however, this correspondence is not a guarantee of approval. Additional details, context, or supporting documentation may show that an activity does not meet Volunteer Scholars’ criteria.

For example, volunteer service performed for an environmental organization may qualify, while participation in a demonstration, march, rally, or advocacy event hosted by that same organization may not qualify.

Please note that approval by a school, club, or other organization does not guarantee that Volunteer Scholars will accept the hours. Activities must meet Volunteer Scholars’ guidelines, even if another group has approved, awarded, or recognized the hours.

Volunteer Scholars is unable to provide individualized guidance about qualifying activities to non-members.

All activities must be reported in the online Activity Log within the member’s Volunteer Scholars portal. Each activity entered by date or shift must include appropriate supporting documentation, as described above, and must be submitted for review and approval. Activities left in “Draft” status will not be reviewed.

Activities may be approved upon first review or returned to the member with one of the following flags: Documentation Requested, Revision Needed, or Question. The member must make the required changes, attach supporting documentation, and/or respond to reviewer questions, then re-submit the activity for review.

Please note: Updating an activity, attaching documentation, answering a question in the Message Center, or sending supplemental details by email does not automatically send the activity back to reviewers. The activity must be re-submitted before it can be reviewed again for approval.

Members who have submitted all community service activities and/or reached an award threshold — Bronze, Silver, or Gold — may consider themselves finished for the award year. If they do not plan to submit any additional hours for review and certification before the August 31 award deadline, they must indicate completion by checking the “Entries Complete” box in their member profile.

If this box is not checked, Volunteer Scholars will assume the member is still actively adding hours and is not yet ready for final award review.

As a final step, the member must select the award item they wish to receive from Volunteer Scholars: medal, coin, embroidered patch, or pin. Members who wish to purchase additional award items may do so through the online shop.

Volunteer Scholars will review all community service hour entries and maintains the right to contact beneficiary organizations to verify volunteer work completed. Volunteer Scholars may reject any entries that are incorrectly documented, unsubstantiated, or that are of an excluded type of participation.

Rejection of one or more of member’s community service activities shall not be grounds for a refund of the annual membership fees.