You are here:  
Home | News | Archive
Irish Charities missing great opportunity by not tapping into a huge and highly educated, willing and able, Irish volunteer pool
Contrary to common perception today’s challenge is not finding volunteers, it’s about creating suitable interesting and engaging roles for them...

01 September 2010...Volunteer Centres Ireland and minister Pat Carey today launch a new online toolkit at Wood Quay, Civic Buildings, Dublin to address the fact that there is a shortage of interesting and relevant volunteer roles.

50,000 volunteers are registered with Volunteers Centres Ireland national online recruitment platform. But Charitable organisations are missing a chance, they are not creating relevant and suitable roles to tap into the demand that exists. Charitable organisations need help. Volunteer Centres Ireland new online toolkit is designed specifically to assist charitable organisations get strategic and creative and to help them create new, engaging and relevant volunteer roles that will in turn help them build capacity, develop themselves as organisations and most importantly extend their services in the communities they serve.

Dr Yvonne McKenna, CEO of Volunteer Centres Ireland said "Organisations need support and educational tools to inspire them as to the myriad ways in which they can engage volunteers with business skills. It’s highly unusual for a non-profit to possess all the business skills they need under one roof and they rarely have the budget to recruit or outsource what’s missing. Today’s volunteer is dynamic, impactful, educated and experienced and is very keen to fit volunteering into their busy schedule. Today’s volunteers can work virtually, in short bursts or on longer term projects. Charitable organisations must meet the needs of today’s volunteer and learn to benefit from the resources at their disposal. This new toolkit helps them do exactly that. Volunteer Centres Ireland works with over 6,000 organisations all over Ireland - we are very excited about sharing these tools: video stories, role descriptions, volunteer profiles, FAQs and case studies, and helping charitable organisations take volunteering to the next level.

This new online toolkit was developed by Fiona Sexton and is a result of funding received by her winning the Vodafone World of Difference Competition.

Check out www.volunteer.ie/involving-volunteers/

About Volunteer Centres Ireland

Volunteer Centres Ireland (VCI) is the national organisation with responsibility for the development of volunteering nationally and locally, a mandate approved and supported by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. VCI is a membership organisation, comprising of 22 local Volunteer Centres that exist to improve the extent, range and quality of volunteering. They do so by advertising and sourcing volunteers via Ireland’s only national online volunteer recruitment platform and by providing guidance and support to anyone wishing to volunteer and to any non profit organisation involving volunteers in their work. Today there are 50,000 volunteers registered online, 4,000 opportunities are currently being advertised, and 6,000 charitable organisation avail of Volunteer Centres Irelands services on a daily basis.

 

 

 
Your local centre
map of your local centre
Give it a Swirl Day