To explore volunteering opportunities, access is available through a subscription. More and more projects now include their volunteering options on their ActionFunder profile.
Here’s how you can find them
1. Launch a Fund
After initiating a fund, you gain access to all projects within your chosen catchment area. Projects with volunteering opportunities will be labelled accordingly.
2. Discover Tool
Utilise the discover tool on ActionFunder to find active projects within a specific postcode radius. Volunteering opportunities can be identified through the distinctive label.
Volunteering Opportunities Label on ActionFunder:
Discover What Your Team Can Engage In
Once you identify projects with volunteering opportunities, you can explore the details:
On the profile of each project labelled with volunteering opportunities, you’ll find an outline of tasks and the number of volunteers needed. This section also indicates which projects have public liability insurance, ensuring the safety of your staff during volunteering.
Volunteering Opportunity Information Section
How to Contact Funded Non-profits
When you’ve found a suitable project to volunteer with, it’s time to reach out. Follow these steps:
1. Email: Visit the non-profit’s profile and scroll to the bottom for contact information. Send an email expressing your team’s interest in volunteering.
2.Useful Information to Ask: Inquire about volunteer capacity, preferred volunteering duration (full or half day), and any financial contributions required for the session.
3. Flexible Scheduling: Offer flexible scheduling options to accommodate various work hours and commitments of non-profits. Identify at least three dates and times your team can commit to before approaching an organisation.
4.Correspondence: Keep regular correspondence with non-profits as they are often volunteer-run and may have limited time. This demonstrates your commitment and eagerness to collaborate.
Tips on Volunteering
Corporate volunteering has numerous benefits for team building, employee engagement, and personal satisfaction. However, consider the following tips:
Align with Company Values: Ensure that the volunteering opportunities align with the company’s core values, creating a stronger connection between employees and the organisation you are volunteering with.
Employee Input: Seek input from employees to identify causes they are passionate about! You can share the different project profiles from ActionFunder.
Skills-Based Volunteering: Encourage employees to utilise their professional skills and expertise for maximum community impact. If you have Tech experience why not offer some help to update their website!
Measurement and Impact: Establish clear metrics to measure the impact of volunteering initiatives. This helps in demonstrating the positive effects to both employees and non-profits.
Partnerships with Non-profits: Develop long-term partnerships with non-profits to build relationships for sustained impact.
Team Building: Incorporate team-building activities into volunteering events to strengthen internal relationships and collaboration among employees. Such as Photo competitions.
Publicise Success Stories: Share positive impact stories to inspire participation.
Communication:Clearly communicate program goals and purpose to foster commitment. When a volunteer day is organised the project coordinator and your volunteering champion will fill out a Brief to share with all the volunteers taking part.
Promote Diversity and Inclusion: Ensure that volunteering opportunities are inclusive and accessible to all employees, regardless of background, abilities, or interests.
Feedback Mechanism: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather input from employees about their volunteering experiences, for continuous improvement.
Legal and Ethical Considerations: Comply with legal and ethical standards, e.g., background checks for volunteering with young people.
With these strategies, businesses can enhance the effectiveness of their corporate volunteering initiatives, making a positive impact on both employees and the community.