ChildLine launches its first national volunteering campaign
Howard Lake | 4 October 2004 | News
Children’s charity ChildLine aims to recruit 50% more volunteers over the next six months with its ‘Whatever You Do, You Can Do This Too’ campaign.
To mark the launch of the campaign ChildLine has published the results of the first survey of its existing volunteers, which found that 96% of them felt that helping ChildLine benefited other areas of their lives.
In preparing for its first national volunteering campaign, ChildLine asked its volunteers what messages they would use to encourage others to give their time. Their responses have inspired a new range of posters and postcards, supported by BT, which promote the value of volunteering for ChildLine.
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The campaign aims to recruit 700 volunteers across the UK, of which 500 will be trained to answer children’s calls to the charity’s free, 24-hour helpline. A further 200 volunteers are needed at ChildLine centres across the UK to help provide fundraising support, outreach work with schools, administration and help in other areas.
The survey found that working is no barrier to volunteering; many ChildLine volunteers have full time jobs, and 59% said that volunteering had a positive impact on the skills they used at work.
Local contacts and promotion seem to be at the root of successful volunteer recruitment. The survey found that 22% of ChildLine’s volunteers said they heard about the charity through word of mouth, while 21% were inspired by a report in their local media. The survey also revealed that ChildLine volunteers are willing to travel, with 14% travelling over 20 miles to reach their nearest counselling centre.
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.