Volunteer Toolkit
Resources for organisations
This is a set of resources developed for organisations to assist in running your volunteer programmes containing sample policies, documents to help you in planning, and examples of best practice. You can download individual documents below, or click here to download the full toolkit.
Planning and volunteer recruitment
The key starting point when setting up a new volunteer programme is to think why your organisation wants to involve volunteers in the first place and to identify what exactly you want to achieve by involving volunteers. A clear vision and understanding as to how volunteers can contribute to your organisation will help determine how you support, involve and manage your volunteers on an ongoing basis.
Day to Day Management of Volunteers
The day to day management of volunteers is a key part of volunteer leadership and is crucial for volunteer retention. This section will cover how to welcome and introduce volunteers to your organisation and help them feel part of the team, ensuring clarity for both the volunteer and the organisation through ongoing clear communication from the first day and throughout.
Returning to volunteering safely
Because of the Pandemic, organisations are having to adapt to challenges in recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers. These challenges also present new opportunities in terms of the need for innovation and rethinking how “things are usually done”. As society gradually reopens, the safety and well-being of volunteers and those they help is paramount. This resource contains practical advice that should be used as a guide to support volunteer involving organisations to put measures in place that will allow volunteering to resume safely and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Individual organisations can use it to develop their own protocols.
Screening and Selection
Screening and selection is the process of ensuring your organisation chooses the appropriate applicant for the appropriate role. Ideally, screening and selection incorporates a variety of steps and does not rely on any one method or measure. Getting each step right will improve the quality of applications and ultimately improve your chances of finding the right match. The level and extent to which you screen volunteers is determined by the services you provide and the nature of the role. Screening is particularly important if volunteers work with children, young people or vulnerable adults. Screening may also be necessary in cases where volunteers are unsupervised, deal with finances or visit a client’s home. It is vital to remember that screening does not provide a 100% guarantee that the volunteer will be a perfect fit.
Garda Vetting may form an important part of your organisation’s screening process. South Dublin Volunteer Centre provide a Garda Vetting service for not-for-profit groups in the South Dublin County area. The service is available for organisations that wish to vet persons but who do not have access to a Liaison Person within their own organisation. Click here for more information on this service.
Volunteer Policy and Programme Development
Every organisation should have a volunteer policy in place as a statement of how they involve volunteers. Below is a step-by-step guide is designed to help you through the stages of putting such a policy together. Obviously, this is a guide and will not necessarily apply to every organisation or to every volunteer, but we are happy to help on an individual basis with specific issues or challenges. A volunteer policy need not be a complex document. General policy headings are:
- Why we involve volunteers
- Volunteer recruitment and selection
- Volunteer induction and training
- Volunteer management
- Volunteer recognition
- Plus any policies specific to your organisation, e.g. confidentiality
Policy development often serves as a good “health check” for your organisation and will help you highlight areas for attention.