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Two charities invest over £1 million in volunteering
Howard Lake | 1 June 2004 | News
RSPB has invested £500,000 in a Volunteer Management System and RNIB has received £598,934 from the Community Fund to reorganise its volunteer management and expand its regional volunteer development.
The RSPB’s new Volunteer Management System (VMS) will give the the charity’s 12,000 volunteers an easier way to get involved in
supporting wildlife conservation. Via the RSPB’s Web site, they will be able to match their own skills and preferences to the thousands of RSPB volunteering opportunities available across the UK.
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Alan Murray, RSPB Volunteering Development Manager, said: “This is the biggest investment in volunteering the RSPB has ever made”.
The RSPB estimates that volunteers contribute the equivalent of £3.7 million worth of staff hours each year.
RNIB’s grant from the Community Fund’s Strategic Grants Programme will help the charity employ 10 regional volunteer managers. Working with other staff they will help them to recruit, train and support volunteers as well as develop new volunteering opportunities throughout the UK. RNIB currently has over 5,000 volunteers.
This is the largest ever Lottery grant received by RNIB, although it has now received £4.2 million from the Lottery distributors.
- 42,000 students volunteered in England in 2003 (6 June 2004)
- GiveNow.org adds volunteering section (9 June 2004)
- Maureen Lipman becomes first patron of Myeloma charity (19 June 2004)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.