Best practice - recognising your volunteers

The value of volunteering is immense and irreplacable.  One of the best ways to demonstrate the importance of volunteering to the Australian community is to ensure volunteers' contributions are recognised, valued and accounted for. 

Awards for volunteers are one way to recognise the contributions of volunteers.  To make it easier for volunteers and their managers to apply for awards we have created the Volunteering Awards Calendar.

This calendar is the most comprehensive collection of national and local awards for volunteers in Australia, and makes it easy for you to find out when awards are granted in your local area, and the eligibility criteria. 

The Volunteering Awards Calendar also lists national and international volunteering awards.  We are keen to see the Volunteering Awards Calendar continue to grow, so if you know of an award that is not in our calendar, please let us know.

Of course, while awards are an important way to recognise volunteers, they are only one aspect of recognition.  There are many ways that managers of volunteers, staff and other volunteers within the organisation can show that they appreciate and value the efforts of all the members of the volunteer team. 

The National Standards in part focuses on organisational practices which serve to ensure your volunteers' efforts are recognised appropriately.

As a good starting point, download our information sheet on Recognising Volunteers, which has some practical tips and advice.