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Name of Organisation |
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Christian Aid |
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Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers? |
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As a UK-wide organisation we wanted to ensure that our work with volunteers was consistently professional both to give our current volunteers the best possible support and to attract new volunteers. |
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What benefits have you found from working towards Investing in Volunteers? |
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Working towards the IiV standard provided us with a tool to bring about changes that we wanted to make anyway.It was helpful to be able to assess performance against an agreed standard and have clear goals for improvement. The fact that we were working towards the standard also meant that we got high levels of support and co-operation from colleagues. |
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Tell us about your experience of the assessment process in your organisation. |
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The self assessments were carried out on 16 different sites around the UK.Groups of staff and volunteers met with a member of the steering group to go through a questionnaire.In addition about 120 volunteers completed on-line questionnaires. The final assessment took place on six different sites and we had an additional six half days of telephone interviews.This took quite a lot of detailed planning but ran very smoothly (in spite of the worst snow for 20 years).Volunteers reported that the interviews had been friendly and non-threatening and that they had enjoyed the experience. |
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5 Practical tips you would give another organisation working towards Investing in Volunteers ·Make sure you have the support of senior managers and trustees – especially helpful if you are trying to introduce change ·Make sure everyone concerned knows why you are going for IiV ·Involve at least two volunteers in the steering group ·Keep key people in the organisation informed of progress ·Share out the tasks ·Make use of the Volunteering England Information Service ·Don’t be afraid to ask other IiV achievers for help or advice |