Funding

General advice

Seeking funding? If you wish to seek funding for Investing in Volunteers, there are a number of options.

• When making an application for funding, build the cost of Investing in Volunteers into the bid. There should be a section on the application for costs associated with service delivery / building capacity / management costs.
• Talk to an existing funder. There may possibly be under spend on your project or some other monies available. Explain that this additional money will enable you to build your organisation’s capacity to involve and retain volunteers and therefore improve service delivery.

Are you a funder?

If you are a funder interested in finding out more about what holding the Investing in Volunteers standard means then please contact the Investing in Volunteers team at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Michael Scott on Tel. 020 7520 8958.

Make the case for Investing in Volunteers

With both options, remember that you need to explain why funders would want to fund this. What benefits will they see? See Benefits of Investing in Volunteers for more information. Additionally, Investing in Volunteers also falls within the government’s stated priority to improve infrastructure / performance and skills within the voluntary and community sector.

Some funders align their funding priorities with government priorities so in theory it should be a good time to make the case for Investing in Volunteers with these funders.

A number of Volunteer Centres have managed to secure funding to assist small organisations in their area with the cost of Investing in Volunteers. Volunteer Centre Waltham Forest received Lottery Funding in 2005 to support organisations to achieve Investing in Volunteers in their area. Read their local press coverage to see what Waltham Forest have achieved.