Funding for more volunteering

Many people ask us whether there are specific funding sources available to support volunteering.

There are one or two but they are limited in size, restricted to targeted organisations and – at the time of writing – they are currently closed to new applicants.

Instead, the crucial thing to do – in our view – is to review, plan ahead and look at building in the costs of facilitating increased volunteering within the budgets that are being developed to deliver services and activities for your wider beneficiaries:

• Examine and explore which of the organisation’s wider priorities could be supported by people volunteering particularly in the context of the emerging trends listed here, then…
• Use the dynamic model to design appropriate roles (download PDF document), identifying the resources required to support each specific role (clearly some will require a lot less than others);
• Build any financial resources into the appropriate overall programme budgets – just as you would for any required staff employment costs;
• Identify funding sources that look to support the people your organisation works with – by using these services, for example*:
  • Funding Scotland
  • GCVS Funding and Fundraising Team

We can help you with the first three steps above! Sign up for Smarter Volunteer Manager Training or contact us and speak to Derek Craig our Training Officer to explore your needs.

*These services are provided by our partners at SCVO and GCVS respectively.