Volunteers are an important and valued part of the National Botanic Garden of Wales
As one of the most visited Gardens in the UK, we are noted for our friendly atmosphere and approach to our visitors. We value and very much appreciate our volunteers and regard them amongst our important ambassadors, whether on-site or wherever they go in the world, contributing to developing and promoting our reputation.
Why we support and need Volunteers
The Garden recognises that the activities of volunteers are an important positive force in raising the organisation’s profile and support in the community. Volunteers are a vital part of the Garden’s lifeblood and are amongst its ambassadors. Volunteers are able to bring special extra skills, experience, and dimensions to benefit the Garden. They also help link the Garden closely with the wider community – the community of place and the community of people. Engaging a wide diversity of perspectives and approaches is widely acknowledged as bringing added value to organisations.
As with a lot of charities in the UK, the Garden’s resources are limited. Therefore, to enable the Garden to meet its objectives it has developed and maintains an essential, balanced, effective, and mutually beneficial staff/volunteer partnership. This is based on the principle that Garden staff provide the structure, organisation, direction and day-to-day management, whilst volunteers add value to the Garden’s work by performing a wide range of roles, contributing their time, flexibility, experience and specialist skills. Thus within this framework, volunteering is a legitimate and crucial activity which is supported and encouraged by the Garden.
Fundraising Team
Got great administration skills? Then we would love you to join our Fundraising team and help organise the smooth running of our fundraising activities. By sharing your organisational skills with us, you will help us to respond efficiently to enquiries and raise more funds to benefit our charitable activities, inspiring more people about plants.
The benefits of being a fundraising volunteer
As a volunteer you will gain a range of skills and experience, which will mean you can develop your CV and learn skills that will boost your job prospects. These include:
- IT and administrative skills
- increased confidence
- teamwork
- problem solving
- project management
Types of fundraising volunteer work
Some examples of projects you can get involved in include:
- Researching fundraising opportunities, including charitable trusts, corporates and grants
- Drafting text for proposals, including sourcing pictures and editing content
- Updating the fundraising areas of the website, writing blogs and engaging with the marketing team
- Gaining fundraising insight through looking at other charities and how they might be innovating around the fundraising
- Contacting new and existing donors, updating them of our activities and nurturing new relationships
- Responding to enquiries and maintaining records
For further details, please contact: jane.down@gardenofwales.org.uk