Volunteer at the Sanctuary
When you become a Best Friends Sanctuary volunteer, you're giving the animals what they want and need most: personal attention, hands-on care and love. Whether you volunteer for a day, a week or longer, the animals at the sanctuary truly appreciate the time you spend with them.
Although we are a working sanctuary, your volunteer experience can be as laid-back or active as you like. Volunteer activities include things such as spending quiet time socializing with our animals, walking, feeding, grooming and assisting with the cleaning of the animal areas. Taking some of our animals on outings to town or other nearby locations is another way our volunteers help give them new and valuable experiences.
Volunteers can also take some of our animals on sleepovers which help prepare them for their forever home. All of these volunteer activities are very important for our animals and we appreciate you coming to the sanctuary and pitching in!
Volunteers are welcome to volunteer in one or more of our animal areas at Best Friends. To learn more about each of these areas, please click on the animal areas in the column on the left of the page.
How to Arrange for your Volunteer Time
You'll find lots of information to help you plan your visit to Best Friends and volunteer experience at Visiting Best Friends.
To register to be a Sanctuary Volunteer, click here. If you are a new volunteer, select New Volunteer Signup. Once you have created your new online account, select Search Opportunities to find just the right one for you.
Please contact our Volunteer Department at volunteers@bestfriends.org or at (435) 644-2001 ext. 4119 to make arrangements prior to your arrival. This will help ensure that you get to volunteer in your favorite animal areas.
What's needed?
In order to schedule your volunteer time with us we will need the following information from you. Please email volunteers@bestfriends.org with the answers to the following:
Has each person created an Account and Volunteer Profile?
Has each person in your volunteer group fully completed and returned (via email) to us the required Volunteer Agreement and Minor Permission form (if applicable). Please have the others in your group reference your name if they will be sending their agreements separately.
The exact dates you will be here to volunteer (your beginning and ending dates).
What animal area(s) you'd like to volunteer in (all of our animal areas have maximum volunteer limits, so we ask that you are flexible with regard to volunteering. Some animal areas may be at capacity while others may have openings.
How much volunteering you'd like to do (morning sessions, afternoon sessions, or both).
If you'd like to take a tour, let us know date and time.
The first and last names of all who will volunteer (please include ages of those under 18 years).
Orientation:
Volunteer orientations are pre-scheduled by the Volunteer Department and are offered on a daily basis at specific times: 7:30am, 11:00am, and 3:00pm. Everyone that wishes to volunteer at the sanctuary must attend a volunteer orientation prior to volunteering. We will determine the best time for your orientation based on your tour time (if applicable), and/or your animal areas of preference, and if your first day of volunteering will be for a morning session or afternoon session.
Please also be aware that due to the large volume of people that come to the sanctuary to volunteer, we must adhere to our orientation times. If you are late and miss your scheduled orientation time you may have to wait until the next scheduled time to go through your orientation.