Volunteering is a great way to connect with and support people while getting in to the holiday spirit, even if you have just a few hours to spare. Organisations look for volunteers throughout December, not just on the 25th, and may have opportunities for short term or once off volunteering. Apply early- Christmas volunteer roles tend to fill up fast!
Here are a few of the latest Christmas Roles:
These volunteer roles run during the Christmas season and beyond:
Below are some tips on finding other volunteering for the Christmas season:
Apply early
Thanks to the generosity of people like you, Christmas volunteer roles tend to fill up fast. If you think you’d like to get involved, start you search as soon as possible.
When we are contacted by organisations looking for volunteers for their Christmas roles, we will always put these opportunities will be posted on our I-VOL database.
We recommend that you check I-VOL regularly and remember to search for roles using our filtering tools:
You can search for volunteering by ACTIVITIES that might interest you such as DRIVING/ACCOMPANYING or CATERING.
You might also search by CATEGORY. For Example, SHORT TERM and SEASONAL/ONCE-OFF roles might suit for the Christmas period.
Contact the Organisation Directly
Visit the organisation’s website to get a better idea of the work they do and how they involve volunteers.
Not all organisations advertise roles with the Volunteer Centre, particularly Christmas Day roles. The demand from volunteers is often so high they don’t need to advertise. Some organisations may not take on new volunteers for the Christmas period: It can be too much for the stretched resources of a charity to take short-term volunteers through the screening process and have people available to support them so many will choose to only involve existing volunteers due to time/resource constraints.
Be patient, Christmas-time for a charity often means double the work load. Organisations always appreciate volunteers but managing a large volume of new requests can be a challenge at an already busy time of year. This can cause a huge strain for Volunteer Coordinators, who often have other responsibilities beyond recruiting and managing volunteers.
However, if you haven’t received a reply after 10 days, we suggest you get back in touch to check in on the status of your application. If you emailed previously, then pick-up the phone and try calling as sometimes emails can go into spam.