On this page:

• Volunteers’ Week
• Volunteering principles and getting started
• Recruitment and satisfaction
• Model policies
• Managing volunteer exits
• Investing in Volunteers quality mark
• Employer supported volunteering
• Turning volunteering experience into employment
• Volunteering and welfare benefits
• Social media

Volunteers’ Week 2024 #VolunteersWeek

Volunteers’ Week is a special week earmarked to thank volunteers for all that they bring to their local communities.

2024 marks the 40^th Anniversary of Volunteers’ Week, and organisations across the UK will be celebrating from Monday 3 June 2024 to Sunday 9 June 2024.

Take a look at the exciting new look for Volunteers’ Week by visiting volunteersweek.org where you’ll find information on how to get involved and resources (available in English and Welsh) to help you celebrate your volunteers.

Volunteering principles and getting started

Developing a volunteer strategy

This information sheet takes you through a process of structured thinking to enable you to construct a volunteer strategy if you are considering bringing volunteers into your organisation or formalising volunteering with your organisation.

Creating a volunteering policy

This information sheet is for organisations that have already identified a role for volunteers and are ready to develop their volunteer policies.

Keeping volunteers safe

This information sheet outlines the steps your organisation can take to keep volunteers safe, including information on how to carry out a risk assessment.

Risk assessment – volunteers based at home

This information sheet outlines the considerations your organisation should make if volunteers are based at home.

Volunteers and insurance

This information sheet outlines the different types of insurance that can cover volunteers and where else you can go for further information.

Code of practice for involving volunteers

The code of practice has been developed to help anyone who works with volunteers to ensure that they do so within the framework of good practice. 

E-mail help@wcva.cymru to request a hard copy.

Volunteers and the law

This is a revised comprehensive guide for volunteer managers or anyone that supports volunteers – the answers to all your legal questions in one place on the Knowhow website (just sign in).

Environmental Volunteering Toolkit

Improve your own personal and professional skills whilst helping to protect habitats and wildlife for the benefit of current and future generations.

Youth Volunteering and Social Action Charter

The Charter sets out a number of commitments encouraging organisations to provide the best possible social action and volunteering experiences for young people. The charter also outlines expectations for young people that take part in these experiences.

Recruitment and satisfaction

Volunteering Wales is a digital volunteering platform from Third Sector Support Wales. The platform hosts hundreds of volunteering opportunities from across Wales in one place, making it easy to find and recruit volunteers – or start on your own volunteering journey. Visit volunteering-wales.net.

Recruiting young volunteers

The resource can be used by volunteers themselves or used as a tool by someone that supports volunteers in most settings.

How to ensure volunteer satisfaction

This information sheet shares a variety of approaches to ensure volunteer satisfaction, enabling your organisation to build a positive volunteering experience that keeps volunteers engaged.

Model policies 

Model policies are a useful way of ensuring that you are using best practice when working with volunteers. The policies can be adapted for your own organisation and purpose.

• Model volunteering policy
• Volunteer agreement
• Model complaints policy
• Model expenses policy
• Model role description
• Model supervision guidelines
• Guidelines on safety for home visits
• Model recruitment of ex-offenders policy
• Model policy on safeguarding
• Example risk assessment form

Our series of resources on volunteering may also be of help to you.

Managing volunteer exits

This information sheet talks through approaches to managing volunteer exits in a sensitive, clear and respectful manner.

Investing in Volunteers

If you want to assess the quality of your volunteer management and involvement, prove and improve the effectiveness of your work with volunteers, and enhance your organisation’s reputation, Investing in Volunteers provides the ideal framework. IiV is available to any voluntary organisation and is equally recognised in all four nations in the UK.

Achieving the standard shows your volunteers – and potential volunteers – how much they are valued and gives them confidence in your ability to provide an outstanding volunteer experience. It also reassures funders of the quality of your practices.

For more information please visit iiv.investinginvolunteers.org.uk.

Employer supported volunteering

Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV), also known as corporate volunteering, gives employees the opportunity to volunteer during working hours and become involved in causes which are important to them and their organisation. Read our information sheet.

Turning volunteering experience into employment

To help volunteers of all ages we worked with WCIA to develop a simple presentation and infographic that can be used to help volunteers understand what they have gained from volunteering and turn it into language that could be used on a CV, in a personal statement or in an interview.

This resource is now available here as an infographic and presentation.

The resource can be used by volunteers themselves or used as a tool by someone that supports volunteers in most settings.

Volunteering and welfare benefits

The DWP and Volunteering Wales Guide to volunteering‘s main aim is to help inform people claiming state benefits about the advantages of becoming a volunteer. It provides practical information on volunteering including DWP Guidance and useful websites.

Social media

The best resources for successful social media engagement in 2018

Social media can be used to increase and improve customer experience, here are a few tips and guidance on how to get the most out of social media.

Five tips to manage a social media crisis

Issues can escalate very quickly on social media, so you need to be prepared for crisis situation when they arrive.

A guide to safeguarding young volunteers on social media 2018

This guide highlights the importance of safeguarding young volunteers on social media and provides a few practical tips on how to do this.

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