Volunteering Officer

We are looking for an enthusiastic people person with great communications and organisational skills to help recruit and coordinate our talented volunteers. You will help take ANT to our next level of impact by leveraging volunteers to deliver tree planting and tree care activities across our woodland sites. Your role will support volunteer activities across Avon Needs Trees, but with a focus on our two largest sites: Great Avon Wood and Lower Chew Forest.

You will join a fast-growing organisation that started in 2019 with four volunteers and has grown to a staff team of nineteen (with more recruitment in the pipeline for 2024), over 1,000 volunteers and ownership of nearly 600 acres of land that will grow woodlands of over 160,000 trees.

Your legacy will be a tangible impact on slowing down climate change, helping nature recover and creating social impact by developing funding relationships that support our woodland projects and organisational development more broadly.

Main responsibilities

• Lead on the coordination of our volunteer leaders and volunteers to ensure we can deliver our volunteer tree planting, tree care days, and other activities, for example outreach volunteering or fundraising volunteering. Volunteer coordination includes:
  • Managing volunteer leader rotas and calendars
  • Ensuring all volunteers are provided with timely, accurate and clear logistical information ahead of volunteer days
  • Responding to volunteer and volunteer leader enquiries in a timely manner
  • Putting in place suitable contingency plans in the case of a volunteer leader having to pull out of a commitment
  • Administering our volunteer management system
• Work with the Chew Valley Project Team and the Engagement, Communications & Fundraising team to recruit new volunteers and volunteer leaders, and ensure the ongoing engagement of our current recruits. This includes:
  • Communications focused on volunteer recruitment
  • Coordinating volunteers along the recruitment process
  • Ensuring our web and digital assets are accurate and up to date
  • Producing high quality communications outputs targeted at our volunteers and volunteer leaders, for example, volunteer news bulletins
  • Volunteer focused project promotion on social media and other channels
• Act as the first point of contact for all volunteer related enquiries by managing our volunteer inbox and dealing with volunteer enquiries on the phone
• Ensure volunteering complies with our processes and policies, this includes:
  • Ensure all volunteer related documents are filed appropriately on our shared drive
  • Ensure all volunteer based activities are in line with ANT’s volunteer and health and safety processes and policies
  • Review volunteer expense requests
  • Escalating any issues in a timely and professional manner to the appropriate member of staff
• Work with the Chew Valley Project Team to support event delivery and logistics as required
• As with all Avon Needs Trees roles, contributing to grant writing and fundraising activities
• Work with the wider Avon Needs Trees team to help build a resilient, multi-site charity and undertake any other work necessary to pursue our aims.