The European Commission has decided to propose that 2011 be designated as the "European Year of Volunteering". The expectation is that this “should help volunteers and volunteering organisations from everywhere in Europe to meet and to learn what is done best in other countries.”

• Image credit: Art photo by Darina V: A sculpture by Oleg Dergachov
  

The Commission proposes to allocate a budget of 6 million Euros for the European Year and an additional amount of 2 million Euros for the preparatory actions starting in 2010. The proposed activities should focus on communication and awareness-raising measures, such as conferences, seminars, exchange of experience and publications.

What are the benefits of volunteering for the cultural organisation and for the volunteers themselves? What to have in mind when recruiting volunteers? How to measure the volunteer involvement?

Volunteers are an important resource in any cultural organisation as they bring new spirit and enthusiasm and help keep costs low. Volunteering is primarily a phenomenon of the non-profit sector. Business companies rarely use volunteers – and usually only in some specific cases when partnering a charity event or for special fundraising campaigns for social causes.

Working with volunteers has it pros and cons. The benefits are that:

• volunteers are usually enthusiastic and willing to learn;
• they do it for fun, contacts and image;
• they have less demands and expectation;
• they cost less money (but on the other hand require more co-ordination and training).

Volunteers work without contracts and without payment. They might not feel responsible and committed enough because of the unpaid nature of their work. Therefore it is important to be prepared that they might leave. To avoid them leaving it is important to do everything possible to increase their commitment by; organising motivation sessions and providing detailed and structured explanations about the expected work commitment.  Constant encouragement is a must as volunteers need to feel needed, useful and appreciated. Volunteers are not responsible for the event, managers are. They only help and they should not be expected to deal with problems and risks that might occur.

Possible benefits for a volunteer to donate his/her free time could be that it is an opportunity:

-       for professional development, learning and skills development in a specific area;

-       to see ’back stage‘ artistic processes;

-       for visibility amongst the community;

-       to develop personal satisfaction and pride;

-       to have fun, meet new people and socialise.

Volunteers are usually attracted to programmes that are focused on positive, honest and enthusiastic appeals and are valuable social causes.

Volunteers can practically perform any job and duty in a cultural organisation – from low to high skilled jobs. Volunteers could be involved also in functional areas, such as marketing, fundraising, financial operations or the production process. These volunteers are usually students that are studying in these fields or people interested in obtaining training. 

Finding the right volunteers, training them and involving them, is a time-consuming job that has several stages:

-       Identifying the volunteer job positions and preparing short job descriptions.

-       Developing applicable policies and procedures for attracting volunteers.

-       Recruitment of volunteers.

-       Orientation and training sessions for volunteers.

-       Educating others in the organisation about how to involve and motivate volunteers.

-       Supervising volunteers in their work and securing a system for mentoring.

-       Brief evaluation at the end of the volunteering services.

-       Provision of recognition and thanks for volunteer services.

Useful places to find volunteers are: schools, colleges and universities; social networking platforms (such as facebook), announcement for volunteer recruitment on the organisation’s website, through friends and colleagues’ friends.

If an organisation regularly uses volunteers to perform certain activities, the evaluation of volunteer involvement can be managed using several indicators such as:

-       number of volunteers;

-       number of volunteering hours/days;

-       percentage of increase/decrease of voluntary participation;

-       feedback from the volunteers about their satisfaction and learning during the services performed.

Look at few websites providing placements and projects for volunteers:

Voluntary Arts Network - http://www.voluntaryarts.org/

Cross Cultural Solutions - http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/

Outreach International, UK - http://www.outreachinternational.co.uk

Projects Abroad, UK - http://www.projects-abroad.co.uk/

Volunteer in Europe - http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/volunteer/volunteerprogramseurope.shtml

Volunteer Opportunities in Europe - http://www.jobmonkey.com/europejobs/volunteering.html

European Voluntary Service - http://www.icye.org/eng/prog_evs.html

Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations - http://www.alliance-network.eu/