The Volunteer Development Manager (VDM) is dedicated to designing, delivering and supporting a first-class volunteer experience at SSAFA. By collaborating with internal and external stakeholders at a local, regional, and cross-organisational level, including both staff and volunteers, the VDM will promote best practice in volunteering to ensure the organisation can attract, support, and retain volunteers to meet the needs of our beneficiaries. They will support the implementation of the volunteer strategy and promote the strategic value and impact of volunteering across the whole organisation, ensuring it remains a priority focus.

Key responsibilities include:

• Act as a subject matter expert providing guidance, advice, and upskilling to volunteer-involving teams, defining and embedding best practice in the recruitment, induction, supervision, and celebration of volunteers – in alignment with SSAFA’s policies and procedures.
• Collaborate with volunteer-involving services, programmes, and branches to understand their needs and support the creation of plans with the aim of increasing volunteer numbers and bringing relevant skills and experiences into the SSAFA network.
• Ensure that volunteering activity is delivered and communicated in line with SSAFA’s values and commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, and actively consider the needs of current and future volunteers.
• Work with Learning & Development colleagues to co-design and co-deliver volunteer management training to diverse groups of volunteer managers both in person and virtually.
• Horizon scan in terms of the voluntary sector more widely to keep up to date with emerging and best practice.
• Develop volunteering at SSAFA, through pilots of new roles, new opportunities and partnerships.
• Maintain up-to-date operational knowledge of our Volunteer Management System to support its effective use by staff and volunteers and monitoring its effectiveness.
• Support the transition of volunteer-involving teams to new operational models in line with NDP and governance changes. This includes the recruitment and induction of caseworkers during both the migration and embedding phases.
• Lead on Volunteer Experience projects and initiatives as required to further improve the volunteer experience and to deliver the volunteer strategy.
• Raise the profile of volunteering across SSAFA, ensuring everyone understands the part they play in developing a great volunteer experience.

The below map highlights the 6 SSAFA regions - each has a dedicated Volunteer Development Manager:

Your Volunteer Development Managers (VDMs) are:

Scotland Region - Wendy Taylor: [email protected]

Northern Region - Fiona Ward: [email protected]

Central Region - Lara Stevenson: [email protected]

South East and London - Matt Mahoney: [email protected]

South West Region - Pippa Weaver: [email protected]

Wales, Overseas, NI and ROI Region - Dorothy Urban: [email protected]