Category Archives: News

Careers Advice, guest blogger, News, Transferable Skills, Voluntary work

How to Volunteer for Charities

Leave a comment

Charities run on peoples’ goodwill and time. They are funded by peoples’ generosity and receive no government funding. They are staffed by a few managers and other key staff who are paid but a major part of their workforce is made up of volunteers.

Volunteering for a charity is worthwhile and very rewarding, but it is important to find a role that really suits you and makes the most of the time you have to offer. You may have important skills or certain personality traits that would make you perfect for a particular role.

There is a huge range of volunteering positions within charities. You could do anything from working in a charity shop to helping out at fundraising events to walking dogs for a dog shelter or fostering animals until they are adopted.

Charities are all organisations and although they do not seek to make a profit they do have to be run like a business, with people helping with budgets, marketing, fundraising and IT. If you have office-based skills, these can easily be translated into volunteer work for charities.

Many people volunteer as a way to get back into the working world after a career break or long period of ill-health. Volunteering builds confidence and gets you back into the routine of work. It is important that you are clear about what times and hours you are able to offer and how long you will be available for so that the charity can find a suitable role for you.

Volunteering can also look very good on your C.V. if you are searching for employment, as it shows a willingness to work, compassion and trustworthiness. Some volunteers go on to get paid positions within the charities that they have worked for, by showing their dedication, commitment and a ‘can-do’ attitude, but others are more than happy to just give their time knowing that they are helping a worthwhile cause.

If you are more interested in volunteering in a ‘hands-on’ way, the best sort of charities to work for are animal charities, which need a lot of help to care for the animals they look after. If you have always wanted pets but cannot afford one or cannot commit the time needed to care for one, then volunteering for an animal charity such as the RSPCA will be a great way for you to get to spend time with the animals you love.

If you are interested in volunteering, contact charities of your choice and ask if they have any positions available. Talk to them about what you would like and what you can offer and see where it leads you!

This is a guest post by Claire Chat a new Londoner, travel passionate and animal lover. She blogs about Pets and Travelling in Europe. If you want Claire to write you specific content, you can find email her here or contact her on Twitter (Claire_Chat).

guest blogger, News, Observations, project teams

Does Working in a Team Have to Cause You This Much Grief?

Leave a comment

Working in a team is something which can make any job more interesting but it can also cause you a bit of grief if difficult situations aren’t handled in the right way. I decided to have a look back at some of the worst team situations I have been in to see whether they could have been fairly easily avoided or fixed.

Jealousy and Pickles

Isn’t it strange how even the most mild-mannered colleague can get overcome by rage at some point in their career? I used to work with a chap whose only notable personality trait was that he ate cheese and pickle sandwiches at his desk at the same time every single day during 4 years.  One day he discovered that he had been overlooked for promotion and went ballistic. For a second I thought that I was going to end up with cheese and pickle all over my new suit. This is one of the most difficult subjects to handle but with a bit of proper team building and better communication I am sure that he would have appreciated the efforts of his colleagues more and not got so annoyed at the news of someone else’s promotion.

Everyone Doing the Same Thing Differently

I once got involved in a fairly big project which had people working on it in different parts of the country. The only bad part of it was that we all ended up doing similar tasks in different ways because we didn’t speak to one another. When we finally all got together for a meeting and a bit of team building no one knew what was going on any more. In this case the communication had to come earlier on, as it was obviously that a geographically dispersed team was going to have problems in this respect.

Longer Working Hours But No Pizza?

I remember another job in which we needed to deliver a report at very short notice. The boss took the wrong approach and tried to force us into staying till late to get it done. The whole office rebelled and by a minute past 5 the place was deserted. For about a month afterwards the office was filled with a hostile and frosty atmosphere due to this problem. What our boss should have done was explain the situation and try to persuade us to stay by offering us overtime pay or even just offering to order in a pizza or something.  Staying late and pulling together to achieve a difficult target is actually a good way of fostering a team spirit through team building, provided it is done the right way and pizza is involved of course.

If you want to stop your team members having a hard time at work then you should look to get some team building done as soon as you can.

Careers Advice, guest blogger, News, Recruitment

Standing Out To Employers In These Economic Times

Leave a comment

Getting on to the employment ladder is a very tough task for a lot of people nowadays. The economy finds itself in a state of continued difficulty and there is little argument to be had regarding the assertion that the credit crunch has separated the weak and the strong in terms of supposedly simple things such as having a job.

The days of employees being able to casually amble on through their working lives, doing the bare minimum and spending half of the day watching the clock and waiting for the glorious moment when the little hand hits 5pm seem to have come to an end. In fact, to some people’s horror, it is quite the opposite; now there simply are not enough hours in the day and most people find themselves taking their work home with them.

The truth of the matter is that this is exactly what separates people in the employment game. Companies can no longer afford to hire staff that simply will not pull their weight any more. Of course they would not have wanted to in the first place, but financing for businesses is now at a situation where a few wrong moves in the recruitment sector and the business could be facing severe difficulties. Nowadays, companies demand the most from their employees and rightly so. A lot of companies can demand employees that are willing to go above and beyond the call of duty in their roles; they want employees that are willing to stay behind after hours to ensure that the work gets done.

This new found expectation from employers has no doubt come as a bit of a shock for some people and may be a factor that is directly attributed towards the high unemployment figures that seem to be reported every other day.

What is the solution for those people who would not exactly classify themselves as the dedicated type when it comes to giving their all in the name of employment? The only thing those people can do is either adopt a working pattern to make an employer sit up and take notice or alternatively they can join the millions of other people in the Job Centre. The tough economic times are certainly not what anyone wanted or envisaged but they are still here and they are affecting people so the only solution is to, as with most things, get your head down and work.

This blog post was written by Kelvin Whittaker, a specialist in the recruitment field, particularly accounting and tax recruitment writing on behalf of www.pro-tax.co.uk.

Fundraising, guest blogger, News, Planning, project teams

4 Tips For Aspiring Fundraisers – guest blog

Leave a comment

So you have this idea that you are passionate about, and you want to share that idea with the rest of the world.  You have all these ideas about how this idea that you are passionate about can change the world and make it a better place, but you have one small problem, and that is that you do not have any money.  Raising funds to get an idea of yours off the ground is doable, but before you go out and start your fundraising project, there are certainly some things that you need to take into consideration, and here are a few of them:

Are You Up For The Task?

Fundraising, while exciting, is a very time-consuming and tedious process, to say the least.  You will also be spending lots and lots of time and even money without seeing any money in return.  In fact, your fundraiser could be a complete flop, and all your efforts could go down the drain.  I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, but it’s important to know what you are getting yourself into.

Establish a Solid Leadership Team

Once you decide that you are willing to take the risk and invest the time and energy, you need to put together a strong, mature leadership team.  This may be one of the most vital steps in the fundraising process.  You need a team who is experienced, but more importantly a team that shares your same passion and vision.  Afterall, that is the only way you are going to find free labor.

Develop Very Specific Goals

You need goals and you need to make sure that they are clear for everyone to understand.  Developing mile markers and short term goals to achieve will help give you team a sense of accomplishment in the short-term and will help to keep morale high.  Your long term goals need to be especially clear to those that you are seeking get money from.  Anyone donating to a fundraiser is going to want to know exactly how and when their contributions are going to be applied.

Know Your Audience

Your fundraiser, no matter how properly planned, will go nowhere if it does not attract the interest of anyone with money to give.  So you need to know where to find these people.  Well, do some brainstorming.  If you are raising money to cure cancer, then ask yourself, “What are cancer survivors involved in?  Social clubs, health organizations, other fundraising venues, etc.  can be great ways to get the word out about your fundraiser.  Even organization like the Chamber of Commerce can be resources as well.

Brandon Jones enjoys writing about school fundraising companies.