Volunteer OBX Portal Guide and FAQs for Partners

By Jeff Schwartzenberg
Nov. 19, 2025

The Volunteer OBX portal serves as an online community center for people who want to give back. It helps users search, discover, and register for volunteer roles that align with their interests and availability. For Dare County nonprofits and community organizations, the portal offers FREE tools to help recruit, engage and retain volunteers, connecting people ready to help with the projects that need support. Visit VolunteerOBX.com to help strengthen the Outer Banks, one volunteer at a time.

The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau is pleased to share its partnership with Asheville, NC-based Galaxy Digital to launch the Volunteer OBX portal. This online resource is designed to support Dare County nonprofit organizations and government entities as they recruit, engage and retain volunteers. As an important addition to the Bureau’s Voluntourism initiative, the portal can become a shared community tool, giving participating organizations FREE resources for volunteer scheduling, management, and communication.

Available features include:

Volunteer registration and scheduling
Hours tracking and additional reporting tools
Volunteer check-in, email, and text messaging features that improve communication with volunteers

The portal will also help residents, visitors, and second homeowners more easily search for, identify, and choose opportunities that match their schedules and interests.

Registering Your Organization as an Agency

If your Dare County nonprofit or government entity has volunteer opportunities available, the next step is to create a presence on the Volunteer OBX portal so those needs can be shared with the community. The greater the number of organizations using and adding content to this hub, the stronger it can become as a volunteer resource.

Set up your organization’s profile. Creating login credentials and building your listing should take no more than 10 minutes. Along with basic details about your organization, the system lets you upload a logo, images, video, website information, social media links, and more, so you can personalize the profile in the way that works best for you.

Please create only one unique listing per organization. If someone else at your organization handles volunteer recruitment and management, please forward this information to that person.

By default, the portal labels participating organizations as agencies, which is helpful to know when navigating the system. You can review a few existing agency listings to see what a completed profile looks like.

Adding Volunteer Opportunities as Needs

After your profile has been submitted and approved in the system, which may take up to 24-36 hours, you will receive an email notification. Once approved, you can log in and start adding upcoming volunteer opportunities, referred to in the system as Needs.

When you are ready to create Needs in the portal, follow these steps:

Visit the LOGIN page on VolunteerOBX.com
After logging in, click the MY AGENCY button at the top of the page
Scroll down and select the NEEDS tab to add a new Need or manage and update an existing Need
Click the ADD NEW NEED button
Fill out the CREATE NEED form and click the CREATE NEED button to publish it

The CREATE NEED form gives you room to include detailed information, so provide as much context as possible about the opportunity. Include what volunteers will be doing, anything they should bring or wear, and other details that help a potential volunteer understand the commitment being requested.

If you publish a Need and later need to make changes, go to your Agency home screen, which is the Agency-specific entry page you see after logging in. From there, select the NEEDS tab, choose the specific Need, and access the form to edit and resubmit it.

For initial questions about this form, review the Creating Needs Help Article. Additional questions may be sent to community@outerbanks.org.

Viewing and Downloading Signup Information for a Posted Need

When you want to see or download details for the volunteers who have registered for your Volunteer Need, use the following process:

Visit the LOGIN page on VolunteerOBX.com
After logging in, click the MY AGENCY button at the top of the page
Scroll down and select the NEEDS tab
Locate the specific Volunteer Need in the light green section and click the Responses link beneath that listing
A window will appear showing the volunteers who have signed up for the Need. From there, you can review the list, download the signup information, or communicate with those volunteers through the Volunteer OBX portal
To download the volunteer signup list, click the Export Responses button at the top. This will download the list as a .csv file. If the file does not open automatically, open your computer’s File Explorer folder, select the Downloads folder, and locate the .csv file
The .csv file includes a time-stamped list of the people registered for that specific Volunteer Need, including first name, last name, email address, and phone number

Emailing Volunteers Who Registered for a Specific Need Through Volunteer OBX

If you want to email registered volunteers through the Volunteer OBX portal with additional details or instructions, or send a follow-up note thanking them for their support, follow these steps:

Visit the LOGIN page on VolunteerOBX.com
After logging in, click the MY AGENCY button at the top of the page
Scroll down and select the NEEDS tab
Find the specific Volunteer Need in the light green section and click the Responses link below that listing
A window will open with the list of volunteers who signed up for the Need
Check the box to the left of each volunteer name you want to email
Click the Message Responders button to open the email form and add your message. When the message is complete and ready to send, click Send Email

If you would rather send the message from an email account connected to your organization instead of using the Volunteer OBX portal, you can copy the email addresses from the signup list and send from there.

Examples of Volunteer Portals in Other Communities

These existing volunteer hubs from other communities across the county offer examples of what the Volunteer OBX portal can become:

Hands On Asheville (NC)
Volunteer Big Sky (MT)
Volunteer Spokane (WA)

Thank you for considering this opportunity to make volunteer recruitment and management easier for our community. Questions or feedback about the Volunteer OBX portal are welcome.

Best Regards,
Jeff Schwartzenberg
Community Engagement Manager
Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
schwartzenberg@outerbanks.org
252-473-7155

Visit the Volunteer OBX Portal: 'How To' and FAQs for Our Partners page →