Volunteer grants & NAB’s global trends Report

A reader has alerted us to ‘small grants for volunteers’ winners in Victoria and the National Australia Bank, as a sponsor of National Volunteer Week, reports on global trends in skill-based volunteering corporations.

Help for Darfur community to meet & coordinate volunteering.

This community is widely dispersed across Melbourne from Fitzroy to Dandenong – a difficulty when it comes to managing volunteers. Now these western Sudanese
volunteers have won a $5000 National Volunteer Week state government grant towards their ‘Linking and Learning: Opportunities for Greater Volunteer Participation’ project, which aims to introduce new people to volunteering and to train and support them to get more involved in the community.

The Volunteer Small Grants program is part of a $21 million Victorian package to help volunteer organisations recruit and train additional volunteer workers and increase volunteering opportunities. See below for other ‘winners’ and perhaps interstaters could let us know about winners in other states and territories?

The NAB Report states that globally:

Volunteering corporations are tapping into skills they hold in areas such as:

• marketing
• IT
• property
• asset management
• financial planning
• accounting
• business strategy
• human resource management
• transferring these skills to build capacity in NGO’s and other community organisations.

Public policy and economic consultancy firm Allen Consulting Group carried out the research which shows that until recently, skill-based volunteering has been more about responding to requests from volunteer hosts for more strategic volunteer time rather than following a deliberate strategy.

Key findings include:

• a rapid increase in community sector demand for volunteers with business skills and expertise;
• a desire by corporate volunteers to apply not only their general skills, but their work skills in particular to assist the community;
• skill-based volunteering being able to engage employees in a manner far more powerful than general volunteering activity.

Other Victorian Volunteer Small Grants
Dutchcare Ltd – Volunteer Recruitment Training $2,500
Darfur Australia Network – Volunteer Recruitment and Training $5,000
Greek Orthodox Community Hobson Bay – Youth Group Kick Start $2,350
McIvor Health & Community Services – Volunteering Brochures $2,200
Omiros College – Cultural Support $4,000
Self Help Addiction Resource Centre Inc – Family Drug Helpline $3,500
Medley Mag Inc – All Wired Up $4,100
Colac Basketball Association – Referee Mentor Program $3,500
Spring Hills Football Club – Attracting Volunteers $1,000
St John of Krondstadt Russian Welfare Society – Volunteer Development $4,000
Friends of Eltham West Drain – Membership Drive $800
Afghan Australian Association of Victoria Inc – Volunteer Program $2,500
Fusion Australia Ltd (Ballarat) – Fusion Youth and Community Work $4,000
Roarhouse Preston – Recruit and Train Volunteers $5,000
Interchange Southern – Hosting a Child with a Disability DVD $4,000
Hepburn Springs Swiss Italian Festa – Volunteer Training Program $2,500
Disability Media Inc – Recruitment and Induction Programme $5,000
Open Family Australia Incorporated – Participation through Education $5,000
Arthurs Creek & Strathewen Rural Fire Brigade – Recruitment and Training Drive $3,250
Western Region Health Centre – Western Storm Program $3,500
Technical Aid to the Disabled (TADVIC) – Recruitment Drive for New Volunteers $3,000
Reconciliation Victoria – Referendum Volunteer Recruitment $5,000
Outlook (Vic) Inc – Volunteer Training Package $3,650
Filipino Australian Society of Melbourne’s Northwest – Traditional Filipino Dances Tutorial $3,500