Volunteers

GiveNow.org, the online giving site, is launching a new volunteering section to make the site the first, claims Charities Aid Foundation, for all donors' giving - whether of time or money.

Student Volunteering England has published its first national survey of student volunteering in England.

The survey found that students who volunteered each gave on average around 82 hours per year in time, worth £42 million. The figures are based on organised volunteer programmes at higher education institutes.

More than 100 volunteering groups across the UK have been chosen as winners of this year's Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

RSPB has invested £500,000 in a Volunteer Management System and RNIB has received £598,934 from the Community Fund to reorganise its volunteer management and expand its regional volunteer development.

The RSPB's new Volunteer Management System (VMS) will give the the charity's 12,000 volunteers an easier way to get involved in

Over 200 of Volunteering England's local volunteer recruitment bureaux will rebrand tomorrow as 'volunteer centres' and take the brand identity of the new national volunteering body.

US online fundraising company Kintera has reported that volunteer fundraisers using its "Friends Asking Friends®" (FAF) solicitation service raised more than four times as much in the year to 31 March 2004 as they did in the year to 31 March 2003.

Amnesty International UK has opened its seventh Books for Amnesty bookshop.

The seventh Amnesty bookshop was opened in April in Reading by former hostage Brian Keenan. It is close to the university so should attract good custom.

Volunteers' Week 2004 will run from 1 - 7 June 2004 and offers good opportunities to promote your volunteering needs and to recognise your current volunteers.

Run by the newly-merged Volunteering England, Volunteers' Week aims to recruit, reward and recognise volunteers. It is an annual celebration of volunteers in the voluntary, community, public and private sectors.

The role of volunteers in the 21st Century will be debated in "Question Time"-style panel discussion with 2,500 delegates at the annual Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland Conference on 24 April 2004.