Funding Volunteers
Submitted by Craig Blake on Thu, 04/03/2010 - 12:53
I'm a new young social entrepreneur and am looking for consistent funding so that i can take on volunteers. We are looking for funding so that we can afford the insurance, expenses, first aid training, etc which comes with having volunteers within the workplace. Does anyone know of any funds, grants, etc which may be of use to us?
Regards,
Craig
Big question Craig.
Sadly, in the current climate, funds for taking on new staff are hard to find, unless you can prove how they will be sustainable (i.e. generate their own worth).
This is a little out of date, but I suggest you use it to put a price tag on any volunteers you currently have and work out the value of any you intend to take on: http://www.volunteering.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/0F4C3354-82C4-4306-907D-FBC31DCD0B04/0/Calculatingvolunteervalue.pdf
Then, once you have these figures, you can put it up as match and in-kind funding on any bids you put in. Donors like that :)
I know recently the Job Centre was offering something like £1,000 and support for organisations taking on unemployed young people. I think that might have finished, and it may only have been for salaried positions, but you could contact them and ask whether there are any schemes for unemployed volunteers: www.jobcentreonline.com
My first call however, would be to your local volunteering centre. Each region has one and they can offer lots of advice and support on volunteer management, recruitment and potentially on support schemes for small scale organisations.
If you're young enough, you could also ask the Princes Trust, they have lots of information for young entrepreneurs: http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/ - they'd probably be very interested in a voluntary project, as may the YMCA.
It's unlikely to be easy though as continuation funding (meaning a donor gives you more money when you run out, for a sustained period of time) is highly unpopular at the moment. You're more likely to get money to set up a volunteering scheme if you can prove that it can then sustain itself once in place. Hard to do but not impossible, depending on your field of focus. You'll need to have very clear objectives though - of how long you need funding for, how much and what you will have achieved by the end of the funding.
Good luck with it!