Does your organisation involve volunteers?

Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations that involve volunteers in their work and it recognises good practice in volunteer involvement and management. The award gives national recognition to excellent volunteer involvement and management.

To achieve the IiV Standard organisations need to be able to demonstrate good practice in four key areas of volunteer management:: planning for volunteer involvement, recruiting volunteers, selecting and matching volunteers supporting and retaining volunteers

Applying for Investing in Volunteers status provides the opportunity for organisations to review and develop their volunteer management and for good practice to be recognised and rewarded. It is also a way for organisations to publicly demonstrate their commitment to volunteering and to providing their volunteers with the best possible experience.

The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has provided additional funding for an Investing in Volunteers (IiV) Subsidy Scheme which will be administered by Volunteer Centre Edinburgh (VCE). The Edinburgh IiV Subsidy Scheme is designed to enable organisations that involve volunteers in Edinburgh to access a grant to help them meet the cost of achieving the IiV Standard.

Why choose Investing in Volunteers?

"We had some very good and established recruitment, induction and training practices. IiV helped us to recognise the good things we did and highlighted where the gaps in our support to volunteers lay. Setting a timescale, allocating tasks/activities and learning from the best practice of other organisations was a real motivation for us." Edinburgh Subsidy Scheme Recipient 2006.

Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers in their work. The standard enables organisations to comprehensively review their volunteer management, and publicly demonstrates their commitment to volunteering.

"The IiV process has reaffirmed my belief in the need to invest in volunteer management. It has encouraged us to formalise a lot of its existing good practice, which means that the way we work with volunteers will be more sustainable in the long run."

"I think that the IIV process is extremely valuable and encourages organisations to focus on the importance of excellent practice in volunteer management."

100% of organisation who went through the IiV Process in Edinburgh last year would recommend IiV to another organisation.

Download Guidance Notes on Applying to the IiV Edinburgh Subsidy Scheme here

Download an IiV Edinburgh Subsidy Scheme Application form here.

Full details of IIV can be found on the Investing in Volunteers website.

The IiV Standard is administered in Scotland by Volunteer Development Scotland.