Supporting volunteering

Volunteering Canterbury is likely known for its recruitment service for not-for-profits who wish to build volunteer teams to enable them to get their services, whatever they may be, out into the community.

Recruitment is just one part of the picture, though, and there is much to know!

Volunteers gift their time to not-for-profit organisations and receive no financial benefit. They do this because they want to, and that contribution makes a difference to the wider community.

However, for organisations with volunteer programmes, there is a real need to be astute with the process around managing volunteer teams; volunteers want a worthwhile experience!

Alongside a well-utilised recruitment platform, Volunteering Canterbury provides a series of training to support volunteer management, and that includes around the recruitment, retention and recognition of those volunteers.

There are processes in paid workplaces, which must be in place for those in unpaid workplaces. Health and Safety is the one which most readily springs to mind; the provision of a safe workspace for all those on-site, whether paid or unpaid, for example.

Rather than expect every organisation to know every detail about its obligations to volunteer teams, Volunteering Canterbury runs a full annual programme of training, which seeks to provide support for those in volunteer management/coordinator roles, Tautoko Network: Supporting the Community Sector. This network offers monthly one-hour sessions cover topics such as: engaging youth, reimbursement for volunteers, privacy, polices and procedures, health and safety, fraud.

Alongside those sessions, more in-depth workshops are also on offer, such as Evaluating your Organisation, Positive Youth Development and Unpacking the Gifts of Good Supervision.

Volunteering Canterbury also recognises that the governance teams of not-for-profits are also almost entirely volunteer-driven. And they too need support!

With this in mind, a range of opportunities for training is offered around the topic of governance throughout the year, most notably the Governance Bites sessions which, funded by Rātā Foundation, are held one evening each month.

Topics covered in this series so far this year have included: Board and Management – Getting the Balance Right; Better Board Decision Making, and Non-Profit Boards Adding Value. Still to come are Confident Oversight of Finances and the Board’s Role as a Great Employer.

For more information on any of these opportunities, please go to the ‘events’ page on our website: www.volcan.org.nz.

New Zealand has a high volunteering participation rate, with over 50 percent of the population volunteering with an organisation or directly in their communities. Volunteering has a statistically discernible positive impact on wellbeing and social cohesion and the economic value of volunteering is estimated at $4 billion a year.

Supporting that volunteer effort is a key role for Volunteering Canterbury.

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