Volunteers do not get paid for their time, they give this freely to an organisation or a cause.

Organisations can reimburse expenses incurred whilst volunteering, for example bus fares or other travel costs but you must not pay volunteers for their time.

To get volunteers, start by listing what tasks you need help with and an estimate of when and how much time is needed.

Here are some examples, adapt them to fit your organisation:

• Trustee – four hours per month, making governance decisions, managing staff and overseeing finances.
• Centre office cover – Mondays and Fridays, 9am to 4pm, answering phones and welcoming visitors.
• Activity volunteer – Wednesdays, 10am to 12pm, making refreshments, helping with activities, chatting to people in the group.

When you know what you want, it is much easier to put a volunteer role guide and advert together. Being specific is helpful to people looking for a volunteering opportunity. Details about what tasks they will be doing, how much time they need to commit and on what days can help them work out if it’s worth making an enquiry. Make sure you are ready to respond promptly to offers of help.

Where to advertise for volunteers

For volunteer opportunities in the Bradford District, you can advertise online on:

• Snicket.org
• Volunteer Bradford District
• University of Bradford Union of Students

These national organisations can also promote your volunteering opportunities:

• Reach Volunteering
• Get Volunteering
• Do It
• GoVo

Involving volunteers

Find out more about involving volunteers advice from NCVO.

Written role descriptions can help you manage volunteers and expectations on both sides about what work needs doing. Read the NCVO guides to what to include in a volunteer role description and how to make sure you don’t create an employment contract because you should not create a volunteer role that would otherwise be done by paid staff.

How Community Action can help

Need to talk through your options? If the community organisation is in Bradford district UK (including Shipley, Ilkley, Bingley and Keighley), Community Action can help.

Make an appointment to talk to one of our development officers or book a place on the next Managing Volunteers course. For organisations with an annual income under £100,000 advice and getting started training courses are free of charge.

Community Action offers a range of free and paid for volunteering support for organisations including one-to-one in person consultations and development work around policies, good practice, support and supervision.

We can provide several different training courses (Volunteering: What an organisation needs to know; Supporting and supervising volunteers; and Involving young volunteers) – these can be delivered in-house to 12 people for just £90 online or £180 at your premises.

Please email Chris Bulmer chris.bulmer@cabad.org.uk or telephone 07816 045309 with any enquiries or questions related to volunteering.

Want help for a for-profit business or a sole trader? Sorry, Community Action doesn’t provide advice to those groups.

Managing volunteers training – next dates