Investing in Volunteers Essentials

A new, free online tool for groups to help ensure that volunteers have the best possible experience

A new free tool is being made available to help ensure that your volunteers have the best possible experience and can make the biggest difference.  Investing in Volunteers (IiV) Essentials has been developed by volunteers and the staff who support them from across the UK.  Volunteer Now (alongside NCVO, Volunteer Scotland and WCVA) are launching this tool to help those of you who want to get started on improving the volunteer journey at your organisation.

Volunteering is one of the most rewarding things people can do; helping people, contributing to the community and changing the world around us.  It can be truly transformative – both for the people that volunteer, and the organisations that benefit from their time and experience.  It is incredibly powerful when the relationship works well for both the individual and the organisation.

Denise Hayward, CEO, Volunteer Now recognises why this new tool may be particularly useful at this time:

“Volunteer involving organisations are taking a good hard look at how they deliver volunteering programmes in the current climate and reconsidering how they involve volunteers across a range of service areas.  IiV Essentials is an introduction to the Investing in Volunteers quality standard for good practice in volunteer management – it’s a simple and easy way to get started on enhancing volunteer involvement in your organisation.”

Focusing on six core areas, you will be guided through a series of questions that will help you define how you support and engage your volunteers, how they contribute to your mission and how they enhance your services for the people who use them.  It is a perfect first step for those groups who want to think about using the full Investing in Volunteers quality standard in the future.

An IiV Essentials user involved in the piloting of the new tool shared that:

“The tool has been useful to not only consider the processes and background support that is in place to support volunteers in their roles, but also to consider it from the other side of how the volunteers might experience their roles and what improvements we could make to encourage more engagement and fulfilment.”

If your organisation would like to use the tool, you can find out more about IiV Essentials here.