Christian Aid has become the first national development charity to be awarded the Investing in Volunteers standard.

The charity, which has been working towards the accreditation for the last year, manages 450 regular volunteer fundraisers, teachers, media officers, office administrators and public speakers across the UK.

Included in that number are 22 full time volunteer gap year recruits, aged between 18 and 25, who spend 10 months supporting regional staff to engage young people on issues such as climate change, poverty reduction, health and sanitation and HIV through campaigning, events and public speaking.

Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard recognising good practice in organisations' management of volunteers. The Standard enables an organisation to comprehensively review its volunteer management using 10 indicators of good practice, and to publicly demonstrate its commitment to volunteering.

Christian Aid has implemented a number of new procedures as a result of working towards the standard including promoting opportunities more widely to attract a greater diversity of volunteers, developing training courses to enable them to be more confident and effective in their roles and introducing feedback mechanisms to allow volunteers to share their views and ideas.

Marie Raffay, volunteering manager said: "All our volunteers make a huge contribution and we are committed to providing them with the best possible support.

"Working towards Investing in Volunteers has enabled us to identify how we can improve the way in which we recruit, train and support regular volunteers.

"Volunteering is a two-way process and we want to offer our volunteers the chance to gain new skills and feel they are a valued part of the team while making an important contribution to our work to eradicate poverty in developing countries."

Tony Edwards, Director of Trade and Enterprise at Volunteering England said: "The fact that Christian Aid is the first national development charity to be awarded the Investing in Volunteers standard is fantastic news.

"We’re always pleased to hear that organisations value their volunteers and choosing to work towards the IIV accreditation is a real illustration of this commitment.

"It’s great that this announcement comes during the 25th Volunteers Week, a week of celebrations and events which recognise and reward the efforts of volunteers across the UK, whilst opening up volunteering opportunities to potential recruits."


On the web:
People interested in volunteering with Christian Aid should visit www.christianaid.org.uk and click on the ‘get involved’ section for opportunities.