About IiVIntroduction
Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers in their work.
IiV is owned by the UK Volunteering Forum, which consists of the chief executives of the National Volunteering Development Agencies (independent charities), namely Volunteer Now (Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland); WCVA (Wales); Volunteer Development Scotland and the Executive Director of Volunteering and Development at NCVO. In 2013, Volunteer Ireland entered into a partnership with Volunteer Now to facilitate delivery of IiV in the Republic of Ireland.
Over 650 organisations have achieved this quality accreditation throughout the UK, ranging from small community groups that are totally volunteer-led to large national multi branch charities that have thousands of volunteers.
If you want to ensure that your volunteer management structure is adhering to good practice then this is the quality standard for you.
First step: register your interest
To achieve the quality standard, organisations must sign up with their country agency to receive a cost estimate. The whole process can be achieved within six to twelve months and your award is valid for three years once you have met the standard. Click here to register now.
Once you complete the details of your volunteer structure, we can then provide you with a quote for the cost of going through the quality accreditation process.
If you would like to speak to somebody before registering, please contact your national office:
If your organisation is interested in applying for a UK wide accreditation, please contact the England office above.
Renewing your accreditation?
The Investing in Volunteers quality accreditation lasts for three years. If you are interested in renewing your award, please contact your local agency by clicking on the relevant country above.
What some of our IiV achievers have to say:
“Investing in Volunteers makes sure that we invest in our volunteers”
“Volunteer engagement is crucial to the success of Young Enterprise, and we are delighted with this prestigious recognition of our commitment to volunteer involvement. Through our suite of innovative business and enterprise programmes, local business leaders use their own knowledge and expertise to bring our programmes to life in the classroom. Through the Investing in Volunteers accreditation process we have achieved many business benefits, including improvement of our policies and processes, and the development of an innovative Volunteering Programme, and we look forward to building on this success.”
"The Investing in Volunteers standard has provided a benchmark against which we can measure our performance, identify gaps, further develop our work, and promote the immense value of volunteers to any organisation.”
Cindy Scott
Belfast Central Mission
“I would advise any Voluntary Services Manager interested in developing good practice in the management of volunteers to go through the Investing in Volunteers process.”
Voluntary Services Manager -Trinity Hospice
“Achieving the Investing in Volunteers standard has been of enormous benefit to Christian Aid. We are now much more confident about our procedures and are able to offer our volunteers more consistent support. The profile of volunteering has grown considerably within our organisation and we have become much more aware of the potential that our volunteers offer.”
Marie Raffay
Volunteering Manager - Christian Aid
"We embarked on the process of the Investing in Volunteers award to ensure that we develop best practice in supporting our valuable volunteers, many of whom have arthritis – delivering support and service to people with arthritis across Scotland, whilst facing up to the challenge of arthritis in their own lives. As an organistion the onus is on us to ensure their contribution is recognised, valued and well supported – and the assessment process is enabling us to discover new ways of reaching these goals."
Angela Donaldson
Director - Arthritis Care in Scotland
"As an organisation we are aware of the importance of recognising volunteers contributions in the workplace. This is our reason for applying to achieve the Investing in Volunteers quality mark. It is important for our organisation to maintain and hopefully exceed national standards for quality volunteer involvement. It is also important that potential volunteers acknowledge that we are working to achieve this award for positive progression within the organisation."
Emma Lewis
Volunteer Co-ordinator- MEWN Swansea
