Volunteers at Events

by Denise Hayward, Chief Executive, Volunteer Now

Volunteers are a huge part of the many community, arts and sports events which are taking place over the next few months.

Many organisations involve volunteers in their events and could not run them without the help of their volunteers.  Volunteer Now worked with Tourism NI to create a Toolkit to support volunteering at events, which might be helpful when planning to involve volunteers in events.  The top tips are: don’t involve volunteers as an afterthought, make sure their roles are intrinsic to the planning and that roles are reasonable and rewarding.  Volunteer uniforms are a key part of branding for the event and can create a great team feeling, they need to be practical and accessible to volunteers.

Events can be a great way to engage a wider group of volunteers who are interested in short term opportunities but if you keep in touch, they can get to know your organisation and build a longer term relationship with your work.  As with any volunteer, it is really important to say thank you and to recognise the time and commitment people have given.  It is vital that your PR messages about the event also include the important role that volunteers are playing.

Having volunteers at the heart of your events can feed into a vibrant volunteer programme and be valuable for the organisation and enjoyable and rewarding for volunteers!

Volunteer Now have an amazing group of volunteers who support us to deliver events of many shapes and sizes!  You can see the events we are currently recruiting volunteers for, such as One Young World and the Clear Water Antrim Coast Half Marathon here.