VOLY.org Case Study: Dallas Independent School District
Modernizing engagement in one of the nation’s largest school districts
With over 160,000 students across 238 campuses, Dallas Independent School District (ISD) is the second-largest school district in Texas and one of the top 20 largest in the U.S.
In a district where 80% of students live at or below the poverty line, engaging community volunteers is essential. Volunteers play a critical role in helping students stay in school, feel supported, and thrive.
But before 2016, each campus had its own approach to recruitment and management, making it difficult to understand volunteer impact district-wide or ensure a consistent experience.
To serve more students with greater consistency, Dallas ISD needed a system that could match the scale of its mission.
The Challenge
In 2015, Dallas ISD had no unified way to screen, track, or deploy its ±12,000 volunteers. Every school in the district managed volunteers on their own—through spreadsheets, paper forms, and one-off conversations with parents.
With thousands of students in need and hundreds of staff coordinating volunteers independently, the district needed a smarter, more scalable solution.
The Solution
At the start of the 2016–2017 school year, Dallas ISD launched VOLY.org across the entire district. VOLY.org provided an all-in-one platform that brought structure, simplicity, and scale to the district’s volunteer efforts.
In just the first month, 10,000 volunteers were registered, background checked, and matched with opportunities.
The VOLY.org platform gave the district the tools to:
- Launch district-wide and school-specific volunteer portals
- Post and manage unlimited volunteer opportunities
- Pre-screen volunteers and run background checks
- Track engagement, log hours, and generate reports
- Deliver a consistent, user-friendly experience for both staff and volunteers
“Before our relationship with VolunteerNow and the VOLY platform, we were doing everything with paper and pencil. We could not serve the scale of our students and partners in that way. We needed something to help us support our work and our reach.”
— Candace Sledge, Director of Partnerships and Volunteer Services, Dallas ISD
The Impact
Since launching with VOLY.org, Dallas ISD has built one of the most robust volunteer programs in the country:
- 180,000 volunteers registered
- 1.6 million volunteer hours logged
- $46 million+ in estimated value of service contributed
What started as a fragmented effort is now a unified, impactful program supporting students district-wide—thanks to a platform built for scale, strategy, and service.
