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Although it is called the 'voluntary sector', not all organisations use volunteers in carrying out their work. It is only the governing body (the people ultimately responsible for the organisation) who have to be volunteers, and even that is now not absolutely essential. (See Glossary)

IVR quotes the following statistics: 22 million adults volunteer each year to complete 90 million hours of work a week (source not stated).

Recruiting and Managing Volunteers

• A good place to start is Volunteering England. Website has all sorts of resources for volunteer managers such as good practice information sheets, volunteer management portal. Phone and email information line is only available to members - freephone/textphone 0800 028 3304. Offices in London and Birmingham, phone 0845 305 6979, email: information@volunteeringengland.org

• Volunteer Development Scotland The Scottish national centre for volunteering. 'Volunteering from Home' magazine (sponsored by Volunteer Development Scotland) comes from Engage Scotland. For both phone 01786 479593.

• Volunteer Now (previously Volunteer Development Agency) provides support, information and training in Northern Ireland. See their Publications page for a good selection of material under Volunteer Management available for download, such as Volunteer Policy, Volunteers and the Law. 129 Ormeau Road , Belfast, BT7 1SH, phone 028 9023 6100.

• Wales Council for Voluntary Action. The Volunteering Wales site is mainly for prospective volunteers.

• Employee Volunteering - see Employer Supported Volunteering resource hub of Volunteering England site.

• CSV 'creates opportunities for people to play an active part in the life of their communities'. 237 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9NJ. Their management wing, CSV Consulting (link problem March 2012), organises seminars, study tours, site visits and other learning opportunities that are customised as needed. It also provides an outsourcing facility for organisations that want to contract out their volunteering management. Phone 020 7643 1402.

• v, the youth volunteering agency for England set up by the government in 2006.

• Student Volunteering England is part of Volunteering England.

• Student Volunteering Scotland.

• Youth Action Network Membership organisation that supports and develops a range of youth volunteering projects across England.

• Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, when we looked, had a good selection of news headlines and good stuff in the Resources section.

• A Volunteer Training Pack has been developed by Renaissance London and is now hosted by the Museum of london website.

Also see our Volunteering Opportunities for other agencies.

Online Volunteering

Virtual Volunteering Resources (Service leader.org at University of Texas)'.

Online Volunteering, managed by United Nations Volunteers, is also worth a look.

Jayne Cravens is an expert in online volunteering. She refers to the above two sites, but adds (in a UKVPM posting) a caution not expect to launch a community of OVs over night. "Start with just one or two online volunteering tasks, and a very small number of online volunteers, so you can build up your own skills in online people management. Don't overwhelm yourself -- it's so easy to do when starting an OV project."

"GuideStar works with MSDN Online to connect nonprofit organizations with web developer and designer volunteers" (direct link to info on this no longer works, Jan 03). IT4Communities sort of does this in the UK, but you can't directly match up online.

Organisations for Volunteer Managers

• Association of Volunteer Managers for those who manage volunteers in England.

• Association of Voluntary Services Managers was formed to support voluntary services managers in palliative care.

• UK Volunteer Manager forum (UKVPM) is an email discussion list with generally active and helpful contributors.

• Workers in Student Community Volunteering has an email list dedicated to student volunteering (HE/FE) queries, email: wiscv@jiscmail.ac.uk or see JISCmail server.

Training for Volunteer Managers

As well as short courses provided on relevant subjects, by most of the umbrella bodies listed in the first section on this page and those listed on our short courses page, check out:

• Investing in Volunteers is a quality standard for organisations that involve volunteers in their work, covering planning for volunteer involvement, recruiting volunteers, selecting and matching volunteers and supporting and retaining volunteers. There is also Investing in Volunteers for Employers, for those running employee volunteering programmes.

• National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Managing Volunteers, on Skills Third Sector site.

• One-year part-time Certificate in the Effective Management of Volunteers from Queen's University Belfast School of Education, with Volunteer Development Agency (NI).

• St. Mary's University College, Twickenham runs a NVQ Level 3 course in the Management of Volunteers.

• Institute of Leadership & Management has launched, June 06, a suite of qualifications which starts at NVQ level 3 and going up to level 5 (depending on responsibility etc.) Designed specifically for individuals who manage volunteers. For the nearest ILM Centre offering the NVQs phone 01543 266867 or email: customer@i-l-m.com

• Award in Volunteer Management is assessed by Lantra Awards. The qualification, relating to the NOS, is for those already involved in supervising or managing volunteers, and is assessed by a single project. LearnDirect may have an online course which connects (we couldn't find it on the website at March 08). Also see Volunteering England's Excellence in Volunteer Management pages.

• PNE Development provides a range of NVQ qualifications (ILM accredited) for Volunteer Managers and deliver them through an e-learning and e-assessment system.

• Various Scottish courses from Volunteer Development Scotland and Volunteer Centre Network in Scotland.

Further Resources

Volunteer Management Software

Involve is the database system designed specifically for Volunteer Managers by IVR (see above).

V-Base has been developed by YouthNet UK in partnership with volunteering agencies. Connects with the Do-It online volunteering vacancies site, as well as handling mailing list management, activity log, etc. Requires MS Office.

Volbase There are various programs around this name, including one used by IBM for their own use in volunteer matching. The Volbase most likely to be encountered in the voluntary sector is a database for infrastructure bodies - see specialist software page.

VolSoft, an American outfit, produces The Volunteer Reporter, which has been mentioned on UKVPM as worth checking.

Volunteer2, a web-based system originally from Canada, now has a UK distribution arrangement.

Volgistics is a web-based recruiting tracking and coordinating system from the US. The previous VolunteerWorks desktop program has been retired.

VolunteerHub is another American online offering for managing volunteers.

Go2give is a UK based operation that allows volunteers to book shifts via its web based portal.

Also see: Membership (and fundraising) systems will often have relevant facilities for volunteer management.

More information on the web

• Brighton & Hove Volunteer Centre has a useful online good practice section.

• A part of society: Refugees and asylum seekers volunteering in the UK is a report based on 10 case studies, from Tandem communications and research.

• Institute of Volunteering Research.

• VolunteerToday is an American 'electronic gazette' with some useful tips.

American/International

• Energize is a comprehensive, but American, web site on 'volunteerism'. Useful if you can translate the terminology.

• Another US site with helpful articles is Volunteering Today.

• e-Volunteerism is a quarterly online publication. While mainly US in origin, it does have contributors from Australia, Canada, UK, Italy, Japan and also features a 'Keyboard Roundtable' of international representatives. To access most articles, you need to subscribe or pay a per article fee (3 dollars?). There's lots to plough through.

• International Association for Volunteer Effort promotes, celebrates, and strengthens volunteerism worldwide.

• UN Volunteers.

• OneWorld has a development focused Volunteering Guide.

• World Volunteer Web. Building on International Year of Volunteers and connected with UN Volunteers, to help share knowledge and involvement.

Volunteer Management Issues

A lot of avoidable tensions between volunteers and the rest of an organisation are about differences in expectations, often unvoiced. Remember it is a two-way contract - volunteers want something in return for their efforts, whether it is 'only' a feeling of satisfaction from doing something useful or contributing to society. They could also be looking for work experience, including learning new skills, something to put on their CV or a chance to influence. It is helpful if this 'unwritten contract' is out in the open, along with what level of commitment the organisation is looking for, and policies on behaviour (eg advance warning of absences, conforming to equal opportunities requirements) and expenses, for instance.

For issues around trade union relations and how volunteers relate to paid staff in rpoviding services, see our Glossary, under Drain Guidlelines, for Guidelines for relations between volunteers and paid workers in the Health and Personal Social Services.

For legal issues around using volunteers see Volunteers and the Law, or Volunteer expenses.

Volunteer England's Risk Toolkit: How to take care of risk in volunteering: a guide for organisations, (pdf, 4.7MB) published Oct 06, is a very useful guide, providing reassurance on what can seem to be a scary subject but, as they say, in practice is often ‘what we've always done – only formalised’ (and maybe the odd thing you'd never thought of before).