The Quality Label is a process that certifies that an organisation is able and willing to carry out high quality solidarity activities in compliance with the principles, objectives and quality standards of the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). Obtaining a Quality Label is a non-budgetary award and it is a prerequisite for an organisation to participate in any activities supported by the Corps. A Quality Label does not provide automatic access to funding, but it does simplify the grant application process into separate stages and thereby enables easier access to funding for applicants holding a Quality Label. The Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering certifies that an organisation is able to carry out high quality solidarity activities in compliance with the principles, objectives and requirements of the action "European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps", and obtaining this Quality Label is a precondition for participation only in volunteering activities in support of humanitarian aid operations. Our guide on what the European Solidarity Corps is introduces the programme itself, and what Humanitarian Aid Volunteering is covers the humanitarian strand.
Last updated: October 2026.
What are the three types of ESC Quality Label?
There are three types of Quality Label, depending on the role or roles that the organisation wishes to play in the process.
🏠 Host role: the host role covers the full range of activities related to hosting a participant, including the development of a programme of the young person's activities and providing guidance and support to the participant during all the phases as appropriate. Our guide on how to become a host organisation for ESCwalks through what hosting asks of an organisation.
🤝 Support role: the support role entails supporting, preparing and/or training participants before departure, a mediation between them and their host organisations and/or providing support to participants upon return from their activity. Our guide on the supporting organisation describes the organisation that prepares you at home.
🧩 Lead role: the lead role is for organisations who apply for grants, manage and coordinate Volunteering Projects, and the lead role cannot be awarded independently, because organisations must hold a Quality Label for host or support in order to be able to act in a lead capacity. Obtaining a Quality Label for lead organisations is a precondition for applying for funds to implement Volunteering Projects.
📌 How the lead role is reached: the award of a Quality Label for lead organisations depends on being successful in the application for a Quality Label for host and/or support role. Organisations who are holders of a Quality Label for host or support have the possibility to apply for a Quality Label for lead organisation at any time during the programming period.
🌍 Two roles in humanitarian aid: when applying for a Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering, applicant organisations can choose one of the following roles, the support role or the host role. The support role entails supporting, preparing and/or training participants before departure, mediation between them and their host organisations and/or providing support to participants upon return from their activity, and the support role also entitles the organisation to submit project applications and coordinate partnerships for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering projects. The host role covers the full range of activities related to hosting a Solidarity Corps participant, including the development of a programme of the young person's activities and providing guidance and support to the participant during all the phases as appropriate.
How does an organisation get a Quality Label?
The requirements to obtain the Quality Label vary depending on the type of Quality Label requested. The Quality Label is awarded following a fair and transparent selection process carried out by the National Agencies, involving three main stages, submission of Quality Label application, assessment and award. The applications for the Quality Label can be submitted on a continuous basis, at any time. The organisations submit application forms by filling in parts which are relevant for the Quality Label roles they wish to play. Our guide on what National Agencies are explains who runs the programme in each country, and what an Organisation ID (OID) is covers the identifier an organisation needs before it applies.
📋 Who can apply: a Quality Label applicant can be any public or private entity, whether non-profit or profit making, local, regional, national or international, legally established in an EU Member State, a third country associated to the Programme or a third country not associated to the Programme, or any international organisation.
🗓️ Who can apply for the lead role: a Quality Label for lead organisations is open to any public or private entity, whether non-profit or profit making, local, regional, national or international that has been legally established in an EU Member State or a third country associated to the Programme for at least one year, or any international organisation.
🏢 One application per organisation: a Quality Label application should only refer to the entirety of an organisation with its departments and/or branches, and groups of young people are not eligible.
⏳ Duration of Quality Label validity: all types of Quality Label are valid for the whole duration of the programming period 2021-2027, subject to compliance monitoring and periodical reassessments which will be carried out by the National Agency. After the end of the 2021-2027 programming period, the Quality Label remains valid until the end of the last activity in which the organisation is involved, and the Quality Label for lead organisations remains valid until the end of the last grant agreement signed by the beneficiary organisation.
What does a Quality Label organisation promise you?
The activities of the European Solidarity Corps are based on a common understanding of key principles and standards, including:
⚖️ Highest ethical standards: volunteering activities must be organised by taking into account EU values and ethical principles highlighted in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union and Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and other applicable EU, international and national law, including the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679.
🙌 Equal opportunities and non-discrimination: volunteers are to be selected in a fair, transparent and objective way, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, political opinion or disability. No previous qualifications, educational level, specific experience or language knowledge must be required, and a more specific profile of the volunteer might be drawn up if justified by the nature of the tasks of the activity or by the project context. Participation in volunteering activities must be free of charge for the volunteer. The activities should respect the principles set out in Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Our guide on what makes an ideal volunteer looks at what organisations actually read in an application.
🚫 Avoidance of job substitution: volunteering activities must not substitute traineeships or jobs, so that any adverse effect on potential or existing paid employment is avoided. The involvement of volunteers should complement the work of paid staff, and volunteers should not replace paid staff or undercut their pay and conditions of service.
🛡️ Avoidance of harmful activities: security and safety of the participants, participating organisations and target groups must be ensured, and such security and safety should include appropriate clearance requirements for participants working with vulnerable groups in accordance with applicable national law. Volunteering activities should be implemented with due consideration for the impact of unforeseen circumstances such as environmental crises, conflicts or pandemics. The activities should respect the principles set out in the EU Guidelines for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child.
📈 High quality, easily accessible and inclusive activities: the volunteering tasks should enable participants to develop skills and competencies for personal, social and civic development. Organisations should embed the activities of volunteers within the local context and facilitate volunteers' interaction with the local community and civil society. The value and benefits of European Solidarity Corps volunteering should be recognised for volunteers, through identification and documentation of learning outcomes, preferably through Youthpass. Our guide on what Youthpass is explains the certificate you receive at the end.
📝 Adequate training and volunteering arrangements: safe and decent living and volunteering conditions must be ensured for participants, and the young people and the organisations must sign a volunteering agreement that will outline the rights and responsibilities of both parties and will include a well-defined set of volunteering tasks. Our guide on the agreement you sign before starting goes through that document line by line.
💶 No profit: in accordance with the EU Financial Regulation, beneficiaries must not derive any profit from the activities funded by the grants awarded. Organisations should cover the participants' expenditure arising from participation in such solidarity activities but should not provide them with salaries or an economic benefit. Our guide on how much pocket money you get on ESC shows what the personal allowance looks like in practice.
What does the host organisation have to do while you are there?
Organisations implementing volunteering activities must carry out a set of tasks and responsibilities, and when applying for a Quality Label organisations must be able to demonstrate their capacity to perform the tasks and responsibilities relevant to the role they are applying for.
🎓 Learning, mentoring and support: during the activity the host role covers ensuring that the volunteer attends the full Training and Evaluation Cycle (if applicable), ensuring that the volunteer makes proper use of the European Health Insurance Card, and only uses the insurance scheme when required by the circumstances (if applicable), offering the volunteer the opportunity to carry out a well-defined set of tasks allowing some of the volunteer's ideas, creativity and experience to be integrated, identifying clear learning opportunities for and with the volunteer, providing task related support, supervision and guidance to the volunteer, and supporting the volunteers undertaking language courses, if necessary.
📄 Writing down what you learn: the host role covers providing support to the volunteers to reflect on the learning process and to identify and document their learning outcomes, through EU validation tools, in particular Youthpass or Europass or national tools, and this task may also be undertaken by the support organisation. Our guide on how to prepare your Europass CV shows how to turn the experience into a document employers read.
🧑🏫 A mentor: the host role must identify a mentor who is responsible for providing to the volunteers support to carry out self-reflection on the learning and personal support. Our guide on your ESC mentorexplains what you can bring to that person.
🏠 Living and working conditions: the host role covers providing suitable accommodation and healthy meals, or a food allowance, to the volunteer, including during the holiday period, ensuring that means of local transport are available for the volunteer, and providing the due allowance to the volunteer on a weekly or monthly basis. Our guide on whether ESC is fully funded sets out what is and is not paid for.
🤝 A place in the community: the host role covers encouraging contact with other European Solidarity Corps participants whenever possible and providing opportunities to integrate in the local community, meet other people, etc.. Our guide on how to make local friends on an Erasmus+ project has the practical side of that.
What does the supporting organisation do before and after?
The support role covers tasks before the activity and after the activity. Our guide on the supporting organisation goes through each of those tasks.
How is the Quality Label checked, and can it be taken away?
The Quality Label for lead, host and support roles will be periodically reassessed and monitored at least once during the programming period, until 31 December 2027, by the national agencies or relevant SALTO centres for organisations established in a third country not associated to the Programme. The National Agency or SALTO may issue a survey, carry out desk monitoring, use data from final reports and participant reports, organise monitoring visits, formal checks or request and assess progress reports or conduct a structured monitoring visit etc. to track the performance of organisations, assess the respect of the agreed quality standards, and provide support. A progress report is obligatory only for lead organisations, while for host and support roles the progress report is optional, and other monitoring methods and sources may be used. Formal checks may take the form of desk checks or visits to the organisation and any other premises where activities do take or have taken place. The organisations holding a Quality Label must notify the National Agency or SALTO of any changes in their organisation that should be reflected in their Quality Label. Our guide on how we verify every opportunity explains the checks we run on our side.
🟡 Observation: in case of organisations who are considered high risk or who fail to comply with National Agency's instructions and deadlines, have very low performance resulting from reporting, monitoring and quality assurance checks, or repeatedly violate the rules of the Programme (including in another action), the National Agency may take remedial measures. If put under observation, the National Agency may limit the level of funding that an organisation holding a Quality Label for lead organisations can apply for, and observation measures for organisations with host and/or support role may include limiting the number of volunteers involved in activities.
🔴 Suspension: if suspended, organisations will no longer be able to participate in the programme until they have taken measures and improved performance. Suspended organisations holding a Quality Label for lead organisation are no longer able to apply for funding, and the National Agency may also terminate some or all of their ongoing grant agreements. Organisations under suspension or observation may not apply for a new Quality Label.
⛔ Termination: in cases of serious underperformance, failure to comply with National Agency's instructions and deadlines or repeated violations of the Programme rules, the Quality Label can be withdrawn. The National Agency will give due consideration to each case of non-compliance and will prompt the organisation well in advance to allow enough time to take corrective measures. In addition, the National Agencies may terminate a Quality Label if the organisation ceases to exist or, in the case of lead organisations, following a period of at least three consecutive years in which no grant requests have been made. Our guide on how to spot fake offers shows the signs of an offer that never went through this process, and when things go wrong covers what to do if a real project turns bad.
Is the Quality Label different for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering?
The Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering is awarded following a selection process, involving three main stages, submission of application, assessment and award. The applications for the Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering can be submitted on a continuous basis, at any time, during the programming period, to the Executive Agency, which is the sole implementing body for this action. The applications will be evaluated at set intervals, according to an annual timetable, which is aligned to the timetable of the Humanitarian Aid Volunteering call for projects. The Executive Agency will award this Quality Label and monitor compliance and may carry out periodical reassessments, and the Quality Label will be valid for the entire duration of the programming period and until the end of the last project in which the organisation is involved. Our guide on what Humanitarian Aid Volunteering is describes where these projects run.
📋 Eligible applicants: for the support role, eligible applicants are international organisations and any organisation legally established in an EU Member State or a third country associated to the Programme. The Quality Label for host role is open to any organisation operating in those regions of third countries not associated to the Programme where humanitarian aid activities and operations take place and where there are no ongoing international or non-international armed conflicts. A Quality Label application should only refer to the entirety of an organisation with its departments and/or branches, and groups of young people are not eligible.
🏢 Applying for branches: an organisation that applies for a Quality Label in a support role or in a host role may also apply for host role on behalf of its branches located in those regions of third countries where humanitarian aid activities and operations take place and where there are no ongoing international or non-international armed conflicts, and with which it shares the same legal personality. The applicant organisation is accountable for the quality and safety of the activities offered by host organisations on behalf of which it is applying.
⚖️ The same principles: participating organisations must respect the following principles and standards, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, avoidance of job substitution, avoidance of harmful activities, provision of high quality, easily accessible and inclusive activities, adequate training, working and volunteering arrangements, and no profit. In order to promote inclusion, participation in volunteering activities must be free of charge for the volunteer.
🧭 Learning, mentoring and support: in Humanitarian Aid Volunteering the host role covers ensuring that the volunteer attends on-arrival training, including security briefing, ensuring the implementation of mid-term evaluation, ensuring that the volunteer attends the full Training and Evaluation Cycle (if applicable), offering to the volunteer the opportunity to carry out a well-defined set of tasks, allowing some of the volunteer's ideas, creativity and experience to be integrated, identifying clear learning opportunities for and with the volunteer, providing task related support, supervision and guidance to the volunteer through experienced staff, providing support to the volunteers in their learning process, supporting the volunteers undertaking language courses, if necessary, and identifying a mentor who is responsible for providing to the volunteers support to carry out self-reflection on the learning progress and personal support.
🛂 Papers, safety and daily life: in Humanitarian Aid Volunteering the host role covers supporting the volunteer's efforts to obtain visa and/or residence permit or other legally required documents for the volunteering activity, ensuring safety and security of participants in accordance with the approved procedures and evacuation plan, providing adequate living and working conditions to the volunteer, facilitating integration of the volunteer in the local community and interaction with expatriate community, ensuring conflict prevention, mediation and well-being, including psychological support where necessary, ensuring that means of local transport are available for the volunteer, ensuring the volunteer's access to means of communication for contact with consortium partners, other European Solidarity Corps volunteers and close relatives, providing agreed financial contributions to the volunteer, and providing necessary additional support to the volunteer, in particular when the volunteer is a young person with fewer opportunities. Our guide on visas and residence permits for ESC and Erasmus+ covers the paperwork, and mental health and wellbeing on a project covers the support side.
🔍 Notifying changes: the organisations holding a Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering must notify the awarding body of any changes in their organisation that should be reflected in their Quality Label. The Executive Agency may carry out regular or ad hoc monitoring visits to verify that the organisations holding a Quality Label still meet the quality standards. In cases of serious underperformance, failure to comply with Executive Agency's instructions and deadlines or repeated violations of the Programme rules, the Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering can be withdrawn. In addition, the Executive Agency may terminate a Quality Label if the organisation ceases to exist.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Quality Label provide access to funding?
No, obtaining a Quality Label is a non-budgetary award and a Quality Label does not provide automatic access to funding. A Quality Label does simplify the grant application process into separate stages and thereby enables easier access to funding for applicants holding a Quality Label. Our guide on what National Agencies are explains who selects the project applications that get funded.
Where are Quality Label organisations published?
In order to facilitate partner-finding, profiles of all organisations holding a Quality Label are published in a database of Quality Label organisations. In order to facilitate partner-finding and the setting up of project consortia, profiles of all organisations holding the Quality Label for Humanitarian Aid Volunteering are published in a database of Quality Label organisations on the European Solidarity Corps Portal. Our guide on the European Solidarity Corps Portal covers how to set up your own account there.
Who publishes volunteering activities on the European Solidarity Corps Portal?
Once awarded a Quality Label, organisations have access to the European Solidarity Corps Portal where they are invited to publish volunteering activities for which they are looking for participants. Organisations must make use of the European Solidarity Corps Portal's database to search for potential participants, and information in the database is published as it is formulated in the Quality Label application form. Our guide on how to register on the ESC Portal covers the account you need to be found.
Can an organisation host you in more than one place?
Yes, organisations applying for a host role may declare locations during the application for a Quality Label, and organisations can declare and host volunteers in more than one location. A location is a place in which the activities are organised for a specific number of volunteers, a location must be under the legal and managerial responsibility of the host organisation, by default the main address of the host organisation is considered as a first location, and all locations must be in the same country where the host organisation is based. Our guide on becoming an ESC host organisation covers the host side of the Quality Label.
Do you know in advance what tasks you will do?
An organisation applying for the Quality Label with a host role must declare pre-defined activities, that is standard activities in which volunteers are involved, with a set of tasks that they will carry out in the organisation. The pre-defined activities that the volunteers will be involved in, in terms of tasks to be performed, must also be defined for each location. Our guide on the agreement you sign before starting covers how those tasks are put in writing.
Can an organisation without a lead Quality Label take part in projects?
Yes, organisations who do not hold a Quality Label for lead organisation may act as partners in projects, but they cannot apply for funding. Our guide on the 2026 EU project deadlines for organisations lists when funding applications are due.
What can the National Agency do if an organisation performs badly?
The National Agency may put an organisation under observation, and if suspended, organisations will no longer be able to participate in the programme until they have taken measures and improved performance. In cases of serious underperformance, failure to comply with National Agency's instructions and deadlines or repeated violations of the Programme rules, the Quality Label can be withdrawn. Our guide on what a National Agency does covers the monitoring work behind these measures.
Why this label matters to you
In cases of serious underperformance, failure to comply with National Agency's instructions and deadlines or repeated violations of the Programme rules, the Quality Label can be withdrawn. The related pages below from Youth Works Hub cover each part of this guide in more detail.
Related pages: the supporting organisation · your ESC mentor · the agreement you sign before starting · what National Agencies are · how to become a host organisation for ESC · how to spot fake offers
👉 ESC projects: youthworkshub.org/category/esc-projects
