Principles of Volunteering
Principles of Volunteering
Agreed by the London Stakeholders Volunteering Forum, 2009
In January 2009, the Forum came together with guest stakeholders to discuss the definition of volunteering.
The Compact code on Volunteering currently defines volunteering as
“any activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing something which aims to benefit someone (individuals or groups) other than or in addition to close relatives, or to benefit the environment.”
In response to an increasing interest in volunteering as a means to support people (back) into employment, and some clarity required around the differences between volunteering and work experience, the Forum felt it necessary to establish the principles behind the term ‘volunteering’.
Volunteering:
- Is mutually beneficial (to individual and organisation)
- Is independently chosen and freely given
- Is enabling and flexible wherever possible
- Has a community or social benefit
- Offered to not-for-profit activities
These principles will guide the volunteering infrastructure (members of the Forum) in providing support to volunteering activity.
In addition, the Forum notes the following considerations when developing a volunteering opportunity:
- Any financial benefit from the involvement of volunteers is reinvested to the community or allows a not-for-profit to continue to exist
- Organisations need to be clear where paid roles should be protected or reinstated again when affordable
- Volunteering roles should be designed with a Mutuality of Expectations statement to clarify expectations of commitment without entering into a contract which changes the role into one with employment rights
- Any other form of unpaid work or experience should not be labelled volunteering.
For example, a large employer supplying employees to support the development of small businesses are part of a mentoring scheme. Employees should be referred to as ‘mentors’ and the programme as a ‘mentoring scheme’. Voluntary work as a term might be applied, but volunteering may not.
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