Volunteers come to SVP for a wide variety of reasons – to gain skills, to meet people, to have fun, to support our work, or a combination of these.  We firmly believe volunteering should be viewed as an exchange, where both sides will benefit from the experience, and recognising these motivations helps us to retain volunteers, often for many years.

“I like coming out with you to help because I learn new things and always feel valued. It makes me feel better about myself.”

Volunteers are crucial to everything SVP does – helping to run projects from the office and on the ground, and supporting fundraising activities.

For some, volunteering with us provides an anchor in the week and opens up a new social network in supportive surroundings. This is reinforced, and our appreciation recognised, through volunteer events where staff and volunteers can relax together.

If you want to get involved, why not come along to one of our Regular Events.

For many of our projects, targets and outcomes given to funders will include a significant contribution from volunteers. This is recognised by funders as match-funding, and gives the volunteer contribution a quantifiable economic value. We base this value on £350 per day for professional contributions, £150 per day for skilled contributions and £50 per day for unskilled.

During last financial year, volunteers gave an amazing 4429 hours which we calculate to have a value to the organisation of £41,666.07!

This is based on

• 2192 hours work on site
• 1280 hours in the office
• 200 hours organising events
• 757 hours of trustee contribution