Here are the most common questions we get...

General FAQ's

VolunteerCleanup.org is both a 501c3 non-profit organization and a website by the same name. Our nonprofit’s mission is to engage volunteers in shoreline cleanups as a way to raise awareness about marine debris and to encourage people to become part of the solution, especially through reducing single-use plastics in their own lives and to take further action on the issue. 

We run the www.voluntercleanup.org website as a free community resource where anyone who is organizing a cleanup can post it to this website and reach our database of volunteers, and any volunteer can come here to find a cleanup to sign up for. Our website features several cleanups each weekend from various different 3rd party organizers in our network of cleanup partners. Most of the cleanups listed on our website are not organized nor led by us directly (unless explicitly stated) We run the website, as a go-to destination online for finding cleanups and as a hub connecting cleanup volunteers and organizers together, thereby building a grassroots movement around the issue of marine debris. 

In addition to our website (our biggest program), we are also the Miami-Dade County coordinators of the annual International Coastal Cleanup in Miami-Dade, when on the 3rd Saturday of September each year, we organize 50+ simultaneous cleanups all over the county with 3,000 volunteers to take part in the world’s largest one day effort for our oceans and waterways. 

We also offer a private Corporate Day of Service Shoreline Cleanup Program where your team can engage in a fun, educational team building cleanup. 

More about who we are and what we do here: https://www.volunteercleanup.org/about/ 

On Tuesday, August 8th we launched a major overall to our entire website, including the front end design, and backend event management platform in order the better meet the needs of our cleanup organizers, volunteers, and to set us up to scale over the next few years. 

In the first 1.0 release,  Cleanup Organizers can expect all of the core functionality from the prior version, plus some great enhancements including:

  • A host “dashboard” where you can manage all of your cleanups in one place
  • The ability to communicate with registered volunteers (ie, send reminders)
  • The ability to download your RSVP list, and check people in digitally on the day of the cleanup.
  • The ability to add photos and flyers to your cleanup event page
  • The ability to add tags like beach, shoreline, paddle, and scuba cleanups, that will enable volunteers to filter and sort for those kinds of cleanups.
  • The ability to duplicate a cleanup for a future date
  • Your own ‘microsite’ profile/landing page where people can learn more about you / your organization and find all of our upcoming cleanups in one place. 

 

Over the next month or two, we will be introducing additional new features like:

  • The ability to sell tickets (kayak rentals or yoga) and collect donations
  • Integrated waiver process with the choice to use our default waiver or include your own
  • ‘Day-of’ volunteer check-in through a mobile experience
  • Automated community service certificates after check-in
  • A range of enhancements for volunteers to make it easier for them to find cleanups and connect with other good humans

Sort of. 

Once an account is established, the email account that you use to log in is permanent and cannot be changed. If you are an organizer, and want to change the email address you use for an account, then you should consider creating a brand new account, and then submit a ‘contact us’ form and give us your old and new email address and we can ‘move’ past and upcoming events to your new email address account.

Alternatively, if you just want to change the address where the system communicates with you, we can change the email address where you receive emails (RSVP’s, etc). You would need to submit a ‘contact us’ form and we can change it for you. This might get confusing for you though, so option 1 is best.

Volunteering FAQ's

  • FIND A CLEANUP 

    Every weekend there are 6-10 cleanups happening all over South Florida. You can find a variety of events including kayak, scuba, neighborhood, beach cleanups and more on our Find A Cleanup page. All of the cleanups posted are organized by thrid party partners, non-profits, local businesses or individual volunteer leaders. 

    If you have questions regarding a specific cleanup, please contact the cleanup organizer at the bottom of the event’s page.

  • GET NOTIFIED OF FUTURE CLEANUPS

If you’d like to be kept in the loop, you can create an account and sign up for Weekly Email Alerts. The system will email you of all upcoming cleanups for the next 3 weeks within a 15 mile radius of the zip code you entered.

  • ORGANIZE YOUR OWN GROUP CLEANUP 

If you would like to organize and lead your own cleanup, we have a Resources page that includes guides available for you to use. Contact us if you have any questions or requests so that we may help your cleanup be a success!

  • DO YOUR OWN SOLO CLEANUP

We offer community service for those of you that want to do a clean up on your own. Follow the instructions and we can provide up to 3 hours per cleanup completed.

You can find and search for cleanups on our website at www.volunteercleanup.org/events  You can zoom in on the map to find cleanups in a specific area or use the search options at the top of the page to find cleanups by date, distance, keyword or type.

You can always check our website for the latest cleanups, or to get notified of upcoming cleanups near you, set up an “Alert”. Each Tuesday, we will send you an email with a list of upcoming cleanups over the next 3 weeks that are within a 15 mile radius of the zip code you provided. You can create multiple alerts for different zip codes, if you’d like.

  1. Go to www.volunteercleanup.org and create an account.
  2. Once you login, from the “My Account” option on the main menu, select “Weekly Email Alerts”. 
  3. Click “Add Alert” and then enter a zip code.

Yes, volunteering at a cleanup is a great way to earn community service hours. Most of the cleanups listed on our website are hosted by 501c3 non profits that are able to provide documentation of community service hours, and usually bring the forms with them to the event. Simply ask them for a certificate after completing your volunteer shift. If you have specific paperwork you need signed from your school, bring it with you and ask the onsite leader of the cleanup to sign your paperwork. If the host didn’t bring the forms, take a photo of yourself at the cleanup and send it to [email protected] so we can send you a digital certificate. 

Soon our website will be automating and streamlining service hours. If you “check-in” with the host, at the completion of the cleanup, a certificate of community service hours will automatically be emailed to you. 

We also offer the opportunity to earn community service hours by doing a Solo Cleanup with a bonus hour for a well-written 1 page essay.

Volunteering to pick up trash does come with risks, but these can be easily mitigated with common sense and proper precautions. Here are some important safety tips:

  1. Be Aware of Hazards: You may encounter sharp items such as broken glass, hypodermic needles, metal with sharp edges, and wood with nails. Additionally, be cautious of uneven terrain, including rocks and holes covered by grass.

  2. Personal Responsibility: You are responsible for your own safety. VolunteerCleanup.Org and the event host are not liable for any accidents. Always use common sense and take appropriate precautions.

  3. Safety Gear: Wear closed-toe shoes with good traction, gloves to protect your hands, and sunscreen to prevent sunburn. Staying hydrated is also crucial, so drink plenty of water.

  4. Work in Pairs: It’s safer and more efficient to work with a partner. If you’re unsure about something, don’t hesitate to ask for another opinion or assistance.

  5. Educate Young Participants: If you’re bringing kids, teens, or young adults, ensure they understand proper safety practices. Lead by example to promote a safe environment.

By RSVP’ing to an event, you agree that you are solely responsible for your actions and any injuries. We really want you to stay safe!

For questions about a specific cleanup, it’s best to contact the host who is organizing that cleanup. You can contact them directly from the cleanup event page on our website. 

Keep in mind that VolunteerCleanup.org runs this website as a free community resource where anyone who is organizing a cleanup can post it to this website, and any volunteer can come here to find a cleanup to sign up for. Our website features several cleanups each weekend from various different 3rd party organizers in our network of cleanup partners.  Therefore, we can answer questions about cleanups in general and how to use our website but we may not know the specific details of each cleanup posted on our website.  

Who do I contact using your website? If your answer isn’t provided here in the FAQs and you need additional help, contact us at [email protected]?

On each event page for individual cleanups posted to our website the organizer is listed. You can click on the organizer or organization name to see their “microsite” with more information about their organization, their social media handle and a “Contact” button where yu can send them an email.

The supplies provided at each cleanup vary according to the host or organization leading the cleanup. What they will be providing and what you should bring are usually listed on the cleanup event page. Generally speaking, most cleanup organizers will provide gloves and garbage bags, at minimum. Some organizers (especially if they are an environmental non-profit who hosts many cleanups) will additionally provide things like pickers, buckets or sifters. Check the event page to see if they provide the details. If you have your own working gloves that you like and that fit you well, bring them!

  • You should always bring water in a reusable water to reduce plastic waste and many cleanups have onsite water fountains or provide a cooler for cold refills (you should also do this IRL!)
  • Dress for the weather. A hat and sunglasses is suggested for a hot and sunny day.
  • Sunscreen is always a good idea when outdoors, and insect repellent may be needed if the cleanup will be in mangroves. While hosts may also provide these items if you are particular about the kind of sunscreen or insect repellent you use, you should bring your own.
  • We suggest closed-toed shoes in case of broken glass or man-o-war, and especially on shorelines with rocky terrain or mangroves. If you will be cleaning a flat sand beach, wear shoes that are comfortable for walking on the sand.

Organizing FAQ's

We have created a full guide on best practices for organizing a cleanup. Please see the guide, and then get in touch if you have specific questions. 

In order to post a cleanup to be listed on our website, you will first need to create an account before you can create your event page listing.  With our new website that just launched , the steps to do this are slightly different. Here are the steps with screen shots  you can use as a reference. Organizer Screenshots for New Website  Video tutorials coming soon.

As always, get in touch if you have questions or need help. 

Basic Steps:

  1. Create an Account 
  2. Login and find the Organizer “Dashboard” 
  3. Set up your Profile Page if you wish to have a landing page/microsite with all of your cleanups listed on your own branded page (useful if you lead frequent cleanups and want an easy way to share them in one place
  4. Select “Post a Cleanup” from the dashboard  on the left navigation. Follow the on-screen prompts and forms 
  5. NOTE: you must add a ticket in order to enable RSVPs/Signups and you can set the dates for the window when tickets are available (for example if you want to cut tickets off 1-2 days before event, change the date for ticket sales end date) 
  6. Set your Max capacity (total number of tickets available for your event) 
  7. Next to the Ticket tab, there is a “Settings” tab where you can additionally set the maximum number of tickets per order. If you want to require separate order per person or if you want to allow one person to reserve2,4,6 etc spots. If you don’t set a max # of tickets per order, it will default to 10. 
  8. You can also set if you want the information (name/email) collected per volunteer in their party or per order. It’s useful to have ALL emails of everyone coming in case you need to communicate with them and eventually because we will be automating waivers and community service forms but can only do that if we have that person’s email address in our system
  9. Everything else should be fairly straightforward!

Volunteer Waivers can be downloaded here

The answer is not an easy yes or no – it really depends on the rules for whoever ‘owns’ the land you are going to be working on. For example, our County Parks Department does require a free permit and makes your volunteers sign their waiver. Another City Parks Department requires free permits (that take about 2 weeks to obtain), while another City does not require a permit at all unless you are setting up for-profit branding to promote a business or product (in which case they require a paid permit).

For smaller cleanups that you are just showing up to a park or beach and not setting up a table or doing any real branding, we often just show up and clean, but if you are operating under a non-profit and going to make a bigger setup, we do suggest you check with the property owner and do it by the book.

You can easily message all your attendees either through our system, or downloading the spreadsheet and emailing them from your own email client. 

To download your Registration List: Log in and go to your dashboard. Go to Export Registration, then use the dropdown to elect the event you want to download, then hit ‘Export CVS’ button to save your file locally.

To send a message through our System: Log in and go to your dashboard. Go to Registration Lists, then use the dropdown to select the event you want to message, and then hit the ‘Send Message to All Attendees’. 

 

If are producing free shirts for your volunteers and want to collect shirt sizes during registration, you can use the ‘Free Tickets’ for shirts. We suggest having an ‘RSVP TO EVENT’ ticket type first, then creating additional ticket types for each shirt style / size (‘ADULT SMALL SHIRT’, ‘ADULT MEDIUM SHIRT’, ‘ADULT LARGE SHIRT’.

Group Cleanup FAQ's

We have a few options for groups looking to do a cleanup together.

  • Option 1: Join A Public Cleanup RSVP as a group to any event listed on our site. Please contact the host if you want to bring a big group, provide supplies, snacks or perks for all the volunteers. This option is best if you are looking for a weekend day as most public cleanups are on the weekend. If you are more than 15 people, we encourage you to consider our private Corporate Day of Service option.
  • Option 2: Host Your Own Cleanup (Public Or Private) Giving back doesn’t require a budget. You can lead your own private cleanup or open it up to the community. Public events provide great marketing opportunities and show the community that you are good citizens. We have a free guide here and we’d be happy to schedule a call to get your project started. Feel free to Contact Us.
  • Option 3: Hire Us To Organize and Lead A Private Corporate Day Of Service Event You can find more details about this program here.  We do these full service events by donation, and are best suited to groups of 20 or more when you prefer to have a private event instead of volunteering along side others, and especially if you need it to be during the work week. 

All signups for cleanups listed on our website are done online. To join a cleanup, find the event you’re interested in and share its page link with your group. Each member can sign up individually.

Some events allow one person to register for multiple guests. This varies by event, with limits on the number of tickets per order. Check the event page to see how many tickets you can order at once.

If an event doesn’t allow you to order enough tickets for your group, have multiple group members reserve tickets, or contact the cleanup organizer for assistance. For groups of more than 15, we recommend arranging a private event.

You can learn more about our program here: https://volunteercleanup.org/corporate-days-of-service/

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VolunteerCleanup.Org engages volunteers to cleanup their neighborhoods, shorelines, and waterways as a way to raise awareness about marine debris and encourage people to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics.

VolunteerCleanup.Org is a project of Miami Dade Coastal Cleanup, Inc, a 501(c)3 non-profit registered with the IRS (EIN 42-1766017)

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