People are interested in many different causes and like to give back in many different ways. While one person might love the idea of sharing their professional skills and knowledge or helping at a charity fundraiser, another will prefer to get stuck into a painting or gardening project or participating in a climate action litter clean up. By offering a variety of ways to get involved and participate you are likely to see greater interest and uptake in volunteering by your team members.
While I-VOL, the national volunteering database, is the recommended first stop when searching for volunteering opportunities, we have listed some programmes and opportunities below to help spark ideas for how your team might engage in volunteering. Many of the opportunities below require a partnership between the company and the non-profit. Partnerships and donations support charities to deliver their vital day to day work while providing your staff with a unique opportunity to learn about a cause and give back in a meaningful way.
Supporting Education through Employee VolunteeringKinia Kinia trains employee volunteers as Early Reading Buddies. Small corporate teams come together twice a week, for 30 minutes, across 6 weeks to meet with children in need of reading support. Volunteers read with the children, bringing books to life, and instilling a love of reading for these children. This programme takes place both virtually and in person. |
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DPS Global A consulting, engineering and construction company – developed an in- house programme, called Aspire2, to support students in DEIS schools to progress to Third Level, Further Education and Apprenticeships. The programme offers a wide range of supports from direct financial support for students, student mentoring via an employee volunteer programme, youth advisory panels, work experience and a parents training programme. The programme has a full-time staff member within the company to manage the programme and ensure its continued success. The programme has recorded an 8% increase in students going on to third level. DPS Global are happy to share their programme model with other companies so please get in touch with Volunteer Ireland if you are interested in learning from them.
Junior Achievement Junior Achievement partners with businesses in areas such as entrepreneurship, employability, financial literacy and STEM. Their programme’s utilise the experience of those already in the workforce to help young people of all ages to fully understand the important role that education plays in shaping their futures. Business volunteers act as role models from the working world and all volunteers are recruited, trained, vetted, equipped and supported to deliver hands-on learning experiences in primary and second level schools. Through their entrepreneurship, employability, financial literacy and STEM programmes they encourage young people to stay in school and help them realise their potential.
Early Learning Initiative ELI at National College of Ireland was developed to address the problem of educational underachievement in marginalised communities. Building upon tried and tested models of early years’ intervention, ELI works with communities in areas of greatest need, to provide world-class parent and child learning support programmes. Through their company partnerships employee volunteers assist with a range of opportunities including mentoring, STEM, language cafés, storytelling, careers events, coding and educational gaming. |
The Clean Coasts corporate volunteering programme is an ideal opportunity for
companies to make a tangible and immediate improvement to the environment. Clean
Coast Action days take place at beaches, rivers and canals, depending on what suits the
company, and can be organised throughout the coastline of Ireland.
Stepping Stone Forest volunteers are part of a really exciting new forestry and rewilding initiative. Based in the Tallaght area the project is Ireland’s newest and fastest growing, tree planting programme. Taking place in tree planting season (generally Nov-Dec) volunteers
come together at various parks in South Dublin to help with the soil preparation phase by laying down layers of newspaper and carboard, covered by a layer of wood chip mulch. Following soil preparation volunteers plant bare root native Irish trees to help create mini woodlands throughout Dublin.
FoodCloud is an Irish social enterprise that reduces food waste by redistributing surplus food from food businesses to charity and community partners. On a daily basis small teams of company volunteers support FoodCloud’s warehouse Hub in Dublin to sort and pack food orders to be distributed to charities that day. This is a true win-win scenario, charities have access to a supply of fresh food and businesses can contribute to their community in a meaningful and practical way by ensuring that no good food goes to waste.
ReWild Wicklow partners with public, private and community partners to expand native habitats by planting trees and conducting other conservation work. Tree planting season is Oct-March and during this time volunteers meet every weekend to plant trees or
support on other conservation projects being undertaken to protect, enhance and increase native habitats across Co. Wicklow.
Ballybrack’s Climate Action Club meet each weekend for a range of climate focused activities from litter picks to pop up pollinator patch events. Litter pollution is a very significant problem in the Ballybrack area and so their focus is on preventing water pollution before it
begins. When it rains, the dye from packaging and pieces of litter left on the ground creates polluted runoff water, which flows into our drains and then into our rivers and seas. The fish eat the plastic thinking it is food! This problem is so significant that tiny pieces of
plastic are even being found in the fish we eat!
Self-organised litter clean ups happen every day around the country. If organising your own company litter clean-up, we recommend doing some research into the litter blackspots in your area or you might contact your local Tidy Towns or Council to see if they can suggest areas that are heavily littered.
Write letters and cards for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day to those in nursing homes. You will find lots of these opportunities on www.volunteer.ie or you can contact a local nursing home directly to see if they would welcome cards and letters from your employees.
Organise an Accessibility in Action team event using the Wheelmap app. This app is available for anyone to download and use and allows your team to map the wheelchair accessibility of buildings and businesses in their local area. The app is available for use by wheelchair users and others with mobility challenges to help them plan daily activities, outings and excursions.
Many organisations are thrilled to receive pre-assembled care kits and play packs for their clients. Organisations such as Children in Hospital Ireland provide much needed play packs for children who are ill in hospital, the Irish Red Cross supports Ukrainian refugees by providing essential care kits for women and children, while homeless organisations such as Novas, Simon Community and Focus Ireland are always in need of toiletry supplies and care packages for their clients.
