Volunteer Centres Ireland and Minister Pat Carey launched a new online toolkit at the Wood Quay Venue, Dublin to address the fact that there is a shortage of interesting and relevant volunteer roles. 50,000 volunteers are registered with Volunteers Centres Ireland national online recruitment platform, but Charitable organisations are missing a chance as many of them are not creating relevant and suitable roles to tap into the demand that exists. Charitable organisations need help. 

Volunteer Centres Ireland's new online toolkit is designed specifically to assist charitable organisations get strategic and creative and to help them create new, engaging and relevant volunteer roles that will, in turn, help them build capacity, develop themselves as organisations and most importantly extend their services in the communities they serve. 

Dr Yvonne McKenna, CEO of Volunteer Centres Ireland said "Organisations need support and educational tools to inspire them as to the myriad ways in which they can engage volunteers with business skills. It’s highly unusual for a non-profit to possess all the business skills they need under one roof and they rarely have budget to recruit or outsource what’s missing. Today’s volunteer is dynamic, impactful, educated and experienced and is very keen to fit volunteering into their busy schedule. Today’s volunteers can work virtually, in short bursts or on longer term projects. Charitable organisations must meet the needs of today’s volunteer and learn to benefit from the resources at their disposal. This new toolkit helps them do exactly that. 

Volunteer Centres Ireland works with over 6,000 organisations all over Ireland - we are very excited about sharing these tools: video stories, role descriptions, volunteer profiles, FAQs and case studies, and helping charitable organisations take volunteering to the next level”. This new online toolkit was develop by Fiona Sexton and is a result of funding received by her winning the Vodafone World of Difference Competition. Check out www.volunteer.ie/involving-volunteers