Select the tab that says ‘volunteer’ and then, from the drop down list, select the second option, ‘find opportunities’:
This will take you to the search page, as per below. This is where you can choose different types of volunteer roles according to various activities, causes, time availability, in your local postcode area etc. Simply select the items that are important to you or appeal to you and click ‘search’:
This will return a summarised list of available volunteer roles that fit your criteria. For example, if we select ‘administration/office work’ in the ‘activity’ category, it will return a list of 15 volunteer roles that are currently in this category, see below:
The list will default to a ‘random order’ list but you may find it easier to change this to an ‘a-z’ list. Simply click on the small orange down arrow next to ‘random order’ to change this order. If we then select ‘ethnic minorities’ from the ‘causes’ list, we can see that this will reduce the number of volunteer roles to 3. So, the more criteria you enter, the less volunteer opportunities will be returned:
This list is only a summary of each role. To view the full details of any role please click on ‘view’. It is helpful to right click on ‘view’ so that you can open the volunteer role details in a separate tab. This will enable you to maintain your list of possible roles and any viewed volunteer adverts that you may wish to go back and look at again:
The advert page looks like this:
You will see the title of the role and a role description, the name of the organisation who are recruiting volunteers for this role and some information about them and their work.
The experience, skills and attributes they are looking for in a volunteer for this role. Please note that often organisations are more interested in your reliability, enthusiasm and natural attributes than formal qualifications or experience and will usually offer training to enable you to do the role. If this is not the case, it will be stated in this ‘Experience Required’ section of the advert.
Details of any training offered will be included next, followed by the location of the role and any expenses offered. Organisations will, if they can, cover your travel and occasionally, lunch expenses. But please note this is not a requirement and some organisations do not have a budget to cover expenses. You will also see the days and times of the week that the role is available. Most volunteer opportunities have a time commitment of one day or even one morning/afternoon a week. However, some are more and some are less.
You will notice at the bottom of each advert page there is an orange ‘enquire’ button:
If you see a volunteer role you like and would like more information about it, this is the best way to proceed. Simply click on the orange ‘enquire’ button and a simple online form will open:
Complete the form with your name and contact details. We have included a simple message to the organisation which you can leave as it is, add to it or delete it and write your own message. Then just click ‘submit’ at the bottom of the form to send the message to the organisation who are recruiting for that particular role.
Please note that you are not applying for the role by sending our ‘enquire’ form, you are simply asking for more information about the role and making contact with the recruiting organisation.
The organisation will get back to you within two weeks to give you more information and discuss the role further with you. If you do decide you would like to apply for the role, they will guide you through their own application process.
We are here to support and advise you with any part of this process should you require it.
If you would like to ask any further questions or clarify any of the information in this guide, please mail hello@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.
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