The scope of volunteerism is expanding in
South Africa, as it is all around our increasingly connected and informed world. The traditional view of a volunteer as a ‘do-gooder’ with time on their hands has transformed into the 21st Century view of the volunteer as a valuable member of society, willing and able to contribute to the greater good.
Organized volunteer initiatives, volunteer networks and employee volunteer programmes attract a wide range of skilled, active people who are drawn to short or long term opportunities to invest their time and energy in community efforts.
The main reason to involve volunteers is because they can help your organization to fulfill its mission and assist you delivering better service to your community.
Through www.GreaterGoodSA.co.za and its campaigns you can ‘market’ requests for the volunteer time and skills that will benefit your organization.
If you think of potential volunteers as a resource of expertise, skills and energy that you can tap to achieve your organization’s goals, you will probably come up with some innovative volunteer requests.
How do I draw up a volunteer request?
Preparation:
-
Assess your organization’s core operations and identify any shortcomings due to a lack of human resources (skills and time).
-
Assess your organization’s community programmes and projects, and identify any shortcomings due to a lack of human resources (skills and time).
-
Assess your organization’s fundraising and marketing/communication programmes, and identify any shortcomings due to a lack of human resources (skills and time).
-
Define the current volunteer opportunities at your organization based on this evaluation.
Write a brief overview of each volunteer opportunity that includes:
1. A statement describing your organization’s volunteer opportunity;
2. Detail the skills/expertise/experience you think the volunteer may need to have;
3. Detail any personal qualities that the volunteer needs to have to work well in your organization;
4. State whether the volunteer opportunity is short-term, long-term or for the duration of a specific project;
5. Describe the positive impact that will be made if you receive the volunteer time and skills that you have requested. Who will benefit? How will the volunteer make a good difference in your community?
An example of a volunteer request:
1. Overview of the volunteer opportunity:
Our organization runs a job creation project that involves 30 otherwise unemployed men and women who make crafts for sale out of wire and beads. Currently, the sales of our products fall short of providing the crafters with a sustainable livelihood. We have had feedback from several sources that our range is not innovative enough. We require the volunteer skills and time of a designer who will help the crafters to improve the quality of their designs and products.
2. Volunteers skills:
Our volunteer will need to have design know-how and the capacity to train others to effectively transform their designs into quality finished products.
3. Personal qualities:
A key value of our organization is to recognize and respect the unique talents of individuals. Therefore, we would like to attract a patient, sharing person who is able to encourage others to explore their own creativity.
4. Time required:
We would like to arrange 2 workshops that this volunteer would run at our premises. The first workshop would be to transfer knowledge and skills. The second workshop would be a follow-up, held approximately 3 months later, to assess the results with our crafters and brainstorm further improvements. Depending on the volunteer’s availability, these workshops could be scheduled during the working week, on Saturdays or in the evening.
5. Impact:
Our crafters will benefit greatly from design innovation expertise. They are talented people, eager to learn and improve their work. Education and new knowledge will help them overcome the frustration they feel that their hours of dedicated work are not currently resulting in sales that can sustain them.
