Need volunteers? How Volunteer Centres can help

Volunteer Centres can help you put together your plans for involving volunteers in your organisation.

Before registering voluntary opportunities with a Volunteer Centre, it's worth thinking through a few basic things. Time spent beforehand in planning how volunteers will fit into your group will pay dividends in the long run. An ill-conceived project will have volunteers leaving as quickly as they join. Don't let this happen to you.

Research has shown that a high proportion of volunteers leave projects after only a few weeks - that’s if they even get started!

This can be due to a number of factors: -

• not being made welcome
• not feeling needed
• not being sure what to do
• not feeling prepared to do the tasks
• no induction or training
• not having skills recognised
• a mismatch of tasks and skills
• having no space to work

Planning to involve volunteers. Questions to ask and answer before advertising (check out FAQ for some of the answers) :-

• Why are volunteers important to your group?
• What will volunteers get out of it? Not an unreasonable question! Volunteering should be a win:win thing. Click here for Why Volunteer?
• What will volunteers do? Will task descriptions be drawn up?
• Is the voluntary work ongoing, or for a specific length of time?
• Will a volunteers' handbook or information pack be produced?
• How will volunteers be recruited? Where will you advertise?
• How will suitable volunteers be selected?
• Who will welcome new volunteers and be responsible for looking after them?
• Will some form of training or preparation be necessary?
• Will volunteers be offered out-of-pocket expenses?
• Are volunteers covered by insurance?
• Are there health & safety issues for volunteers?
• Has your organisation got a Volunteering Policy?

Volunteer Centres can offer templates for volunteering policies and volunteer application forms etc. Please contact your nearest Centre for help.

Once you have your volunteer involving plans finalised please register with your Volunteer Centre and we will start advertising for you. Click the links to see how our services can work for your organisation.

Another excellent source of information is Volunteering Englands Good Practice page.