Managing Volunteers can bring with it a wide variety of challenges. Here we provide a number of resources to offer advice and support to those of you who are recruiting and organising volunteers:
Attracting Volunteers
Help in attracting volunteers can be found in an online resource called Turn your Organisation into a Volunteering Magnet. This is available to download by clicking here
Turn Your Organisation Into a Volunteer Magnet is an electronic book containing a collection of short articles about various ways to make your organisation attractive to volunteers, with contributions by grassroots volunteer coordinators in Britain, Australia and the USA - plus one or two special guest contributors. The e-book has been produced free-of-charge as a 'community' project within the volunteer management profession, with colleagues sharing their lessons and insights for their peers. It is already receiving a positive response and is being widely distributed in Australia, is available through the Energize.com bookstore in the USA, and was recently given coverage here in The Guardian newspaper's voluntary sector briefing.
Dealing With Volunteers
In some circumstances it can be difficult to know what to say to a volunteer. Download these snippets of advice for the following circumstances:
Generic Role Descriptions
There are a number of roles that are consistently filled by volunteers in some organisations, especially where there is a voluntary committee. Download these generic job roles to help you find the right person in each case:
Information on Trustee Liability
The responsibility for a charity or voluntary and community sector organisation ultimately rests with its board of trustees. Trustees are defined by what they do, not by their job title and may therefore also be known as:
- Management Committee Members
- Council Members
- Board Members
- Governors Directors
- Executive Committee Members
It is not always easy to identify exactly who the trustees are, especially where an organisation has a complex or multi-layered governance structure but what all trustees have in common is that they are the final arbiters of what their organisation does. It is therefore essential that these board members have the awareness, knowledge and confidence to identify and manage the risks associated with their role.
Reducing the Risks - A Guide to Trustee Liabilities by James Sinclair Taylor of the charity team at Russell-Cooke Solicitors, is a new guide that provides unambiguous information on trustee liability, dispels some of the myths around this issue, offers practical advice on assessing and minimising the risks associated with trustee liability and provides examples and case studies of risk and how to avoid it. The guide was launched on 15 December 2006 by the Governance Hub and can be downloaded from www.governancehub.org.uk
Guide to producing a volunteers' handbook
It is good practice to provide your volunteers with a handbook, download our guide for producing one here.
Guidelines for writing a volunteer policy - step by step information
A volunteer policy forms the foundation of any organisation's involvement of volunteers and should be written as a guide and point of reference for the entire organisation. Guidelines for producing one can be found here.
Awards For All
Awards for All is a joint Lottery grants scheme aimed at local communities and it can help your organisation or community by funding certain projects. Download more information here or visit the Awards for All website.
RunningSports
RunningSports is dedicated to providing skills and support for volunteers working in sport. Whether you are want to get started in sports volunteering, are already a volunteer, manage volunteers or are responsible for volunteering within a sport, county or local authority, runningsports can help you.
You will find practical tools and helpful tips, best practice guides from other volunteers, downloadable resources for your use right and details on many other items in the Runningsports portfolio like fun and informative workshops that you can participate in. For further details see their website.
