Raising Standards of Excellence in volunteering
National Standards for Volunteer Involvement
The National Standards for Volunteer Involvement (National Standards) are a best practice framework to guide volunteer involvement. They are an essential resource for all organisations and groups that engage volunteers.
The National Standards can be used flexibly, recognising that volunteering takes place in highly diverse settings and ways.
The National Standards for Volunteer Involvement were developed in 2015. The Standards underwent a refresh in 2024, in consultation with the Australian volunteering sector, to ensure they are contemporary and inclusive of the diversity in volunteering.
Who are they for?
The National Standards are for any organisation, group, club, or association that involves volunteers. They have been designed to help:
- Improve the volunteer experience
- Ensure the wellbeing of volunteers is supported and their contributions are valued
- Provide best practice guidance and benchmarks to help organisations attract, manage and retain volunteers
- Support effective risk and safety practices.
What are the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement?
Designed for organisations that strive for best practice, the National Standards offer simple, practical criteria that can be applied to a broad range of volunteering scenarios. They are scalable to organisation size and available resources.
The eight National Standards for Volunteer Involvement are a best practice framework to
support safe, effective and inclusive volunteering.
Standard 1: Volunteering is embedded in leadership, governance and culture
Standard 2: Volunteer participation is championed and modelled
Standard 3: Volunteer roles are meaningful and tailored
Standard 4: Recruitment is equitable and diversity is valued
Standard 5: Volunteers are supported and developed
Standard 6: Volunteer safety and wellbeing is protected
Standard 7: Volunteers are recognised
Standard 8: Policies and practices are continuously improved
Each standard is accompanied by specific criteria and examples of evidence that indicate whether they have been met.
National Standards Framework
National Standards for Volunteer Involvement Resouces
Volunteering SA&NT offers a variety of resources and tools to assist your organisation to demonstrate compliance with the Standards These include:
- A general guide to improving practice.
- Guidelines or a checklist to help identify opportunities for making improvements.
- A framework to assist in planning and establishing a new volunteering program.
- An audit tool that provides a snapshot of organisational performance.
- A baseline from which progress in making improvements can be monitored and measured.
Gap Analysis Tool
This self-assessment checklist against the National Standards and underpinning criteria. Completing the checklist is a helpful starting point in implementing the National Standards.
Implementation Guide
This self-assessment checklist against the National Standards and underpinning criteria. Completing the checklist is a helpful starting point in implementing the National Standards.
Evidence Guide
This tool identifies the practices, processes, policies and documentation that can be used to show that an organisation has implemented the National Standards.
Volunteer Experience Checklists
The Volunteer Experience Checklist can be used to understand National Standards implementation from a volunteer’s perspective.
NSVI Self-assessment portal
This online tool helps volunteer-involving organisations achieve best practice by measuring their performance with volunteer involvement.
It is an easy to use, online self-assessment.
In partnership with Breaking New Ground (BNG), we’ve developed an easy-to-use, online self-assessment tool, empowering you to meet the new National Standards for Volunteer Involvement.
This vital new resource measures your organisation’s performance in volunteer involvement, equipping you with the information you need to achieve best practice and secure your reputation as a great place to volunteer with. Ultimately, this helps build the foundations needed to attract and retain volunteers in your organisation.
The functions of this tool include:
- Assessment of your organisation’s performance against the Standards
- Recommendations on how to achieve compliance with the Standards
- Automatically generated action plan for good practice
- Great workflow management tools, including a shared digital workspace, the ability to assign actions, and a weekly reminder system
- Several resources to help run your organisation
How to access the tool
The self-assessment tool is offered complimentary, and places are limited.
In South Australia this tool is being offered to VSA&NT Members, and in the Northern Territory, this tool is being offered to all volunteer-involving organisations, with priority given to VSA&NT Members.
It only takes a few minutes to register your expression of interest to access the tool. Submit your expression of interest today! Fill in your details, and a member of VSA&NT will contact you regarding full access to the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement Tool.
National Standards Training
To register your interest for a National Standards training session, and information on upcoming training sessions, contact the team at Volunteering SA&NT.
For more information on how Volunteering SA&NT can support your journey with the National Standards, please reach out – we’re here to help!
Please note, the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement (2024) are the intellectual property of Volunteering Australia. They are recognised within Australia as the best practice framework for volunteer involvement.
As the owners of the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement, Volunteering Australia has endorsed its foundation members, the state and territory peak bodies for volunteering, as being the sole organisations authorised to deliver training and develop resources on the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement.
Any unauthorised use of the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement is strictly prohibited.