In a digital volunteer environment, it's essential to protect yourself on the internet. Safeguarding your email and digital identity has become increasingly important. As an organization that offers virtual volunteerism and frequent use of email, we want to recommend email security best practices to ensure our volunteer community is protecting itself against bad actors.

Learning Ally recommends the following best practices to help you protect yourself against bad digital actors: 

Change your password regularly and use a complex password. Top tips for a secure password

• Do not reuse passwords
• Do not use information about yourself such as age, name, city, pet’s name, etc
• Use special characters such as $@!#

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) - based on your provider

• Many email providers offer two-factor authentication as an additional security measure. This method requires a password and some other form of identification, such as a biometric or a mobile phone number, to access the two-factor authentication.
  • How to Enable 2FA:  Read this resource 

Setup a recovery method with a phone number or alternate email address

• Most email providers will walk you through this step when setting up your email for the first time. However, you can also find guidance on setting up a recovery method from your email provider in the settings section.

Run a virus and malware scan

• For Windows users: Windows Security
• For macOS users: Antivirus for mac

Check if your email has been compromised on other platforms

• We recommend using this free tool

You can always find more email tips on our Support Center. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. 

The Volunteer Nation Team 

We recently learned that some of our volunteers are having trouble receiving email communications from our Volunteer database. We ask that all volunteers review the following steps to ensure you are receiving emails from us! 

Why it's important: 

• We use emails to share volunteer opportunities, reminders to log service hours, important updates regarding Learning Ally and volunteer projects, invites to upcoming events, and so much more. 

How you can be sure you receive our emails: 

1. Start by checking your SPAM folders to see if our emails are being sent there. If you do not see any emails from us in your SPAM, move on to the next step. 
2. Ensure your email is up-to-date in our database! To do this, head to the Log Hours tab and log in. The email you use to log in here will be the same email we have in our database and the one you should receive communications to. If you do not want to receive emails to this account, please update your email on while you're logged in by heading to the Profile Settings.
3. Add us to your safe-sender list: Many people use email filtering tools to reduce the amount of unwanted SPAM they receive. In some cases, these email filtering tools can also block legitimate mail from reaching you. If your email system uses SPAM filters, you can prevent these filters from blocking our email messages by adding our mail system's email addresses to your safe sender list or white list. See below for details on how to do that.

To add us to your safe list, follow the instructions for your email provider:

• America Online: If you have AOL 9.0 Enhanced, go to keyword "address book" and put mailer@volgistics.com, volunteermail@volgistics.com, and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org in email address fields in your address book.

• MSN Hotmail: Select "Options" and then "Junk Email Protection" and add mailer@volgistics.com, volunteermail@volgistics.com, and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org to your Safe List.

• Yahoo Mail: Click the "Addresses" button, then select "Add Contact." Enter mailer@volgistics.com, volunteermail@volgistics.com, and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org to your contacts list.

• Other ISPs: Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) enable spam filters that you can turn off or update to your preferences. Check your ISP's website, or contact their technical support team, if you believe you are missing messages from us. Ask them to be sure messages sent by mailer@volgistics.com, volunteermail@volgistics.com, and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org i are always accepted.

• Microsoft Outlook: From the Outlook menu choose "Actions," then "Junk Email," and then "Junk Email Options." Select the "Safe Senders" tab and then click the "Add" button. Enter mailer@volgistics.com and then click the "OK" button. Repeat these steps for volunteermail@volgistics.com and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org.

• Other Email Software: Check your email software options or settings screen to see if you can add mailer@volgistics.com, volunteermail@volgistics.com, and Volunteer@LearningAlly.org to a white list or safe list of senders that are never filtered.

To send us an email message, send your message to "volunteer@learningally.org," or click "reply" on a message we've sent to you. 

You can always find more email tips in our Support Center. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to us. 

The Volunteer Nation Team