Volunteers and Volunteer Management

What is volunteering?

Although in the UK legal system there isn't an overall definition of volunteering, a broad definition of volunteering is 'any act that involves giving time and effort, for no financial payment, of free will, to provide for those beyond one's own close family'.

Where does formal volunteering take place?

Across all sectors of the economy! Although research undertaken by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which was published in 2019 showed that 67% of formal volunteering occurs in organisations that operate in the voluntary sector.

Who volunteers?

People from every walk of life, regardless of age, gender, religious beliefs . Using the NCVO research we can see that volunteering is spread almost evening across gender, with the highest level of volunteers in the 35 - 49 years of age and 65 - 74 years of age.

Volunteering activities

Volunteers undertake a wide range of activities including: -

• Trustees or committee members

• Befriending or mentoring

• Providing information, advice or guidance

• Fundraising and/or supporting events

• Providing transport or driving

Looking for volunteers for your organisation?

Think about the roles in your organisation and your current staff members. Identify:-

• Where are the gaps?

• What skills do you need to feel the gaps?

• How many hours per week do you need someone to commit to these roles?

• Do you have capacity in your team to manage volunteers?

• Do you have the skills in you team to manage volunteers?

Next steps

Once you have identified the gaps and the skills needed, look at drafting a job specification, it can just be something simple. Look on job sites for job roles similar to the volunteer role you are looking to recruit into and use their person specification etc for inspiration.

Managing volunteers

In the same way that you would manage staff, ensuring that support, guidance, policies and procedures are in place, volunteers should be treated in the same way. Information on recruitment, managing volunteers, template job roles etc can be found in our Volunteer Management Toolkit: - https://bewell-cms-production-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/cms-assets/cwb/cwb-volunteer-toolkit-1727039214.docx