Volunteer Hub
Volunteering with the Coalition
Volunteers do a great deal of the Coalition’s work: research, records, genealogy, and local help in the places cases happened.
Applications are open
The application takes about ten minutes. You will be asked where you live, what skills or background you have, and how much time you can give. Nothing is required beyond that to start.
What happens after you apply
Step 1
We read it
A person reads every application. Expect two to three weeks.
Step 2
Confidentiality agreement
You sign it in the portal. Case material stays inside the Coalition.
Step 3
Training
Monthly, on the third Wednesday. Recommended rather than required, and open to everyone on the list.
Step 4
The waiting list
There are more volunteers than there are open cases, so most people wait a long stretch and some are never matched to a team. The training and the resources stay open to you either way.
Three ways volunteers help
Working group members
Teams of three to six people assigned a single case, working it from scratch: building the timeline, running down research, proposing next steps.
Project volunteers
One-time tasks, usually where you live: pulling a record from a county courthouse, photographing a location, driving a family member to a TV interview.
Subject matter experts
Medical, legal, forensic, metallurgical, audiovisual, and genealogical expertise, plus lived experience. Consulted case by case rather than assigned to a team.
Already a volunteer?
Your assignments, team, documents, and trainings are in the volunteer portal. We email you a sign-in link — there is no password to remember.
Sign InOther ways to help now
Funds forensic DNA testing on active cases.
Adds your family tree to the pool our genealogists search.
Everything else, including case-specific requests.