For-Purpose Organisations with a Group Volunteering Opportunity

Are you a for-purpose organisation in the Western Bay of Plenty in need of a team to help complete a project? We can connect you with enthusiastic volunteer groups ready to lend a hand. Whether it’s organising an event, supporting an educational program, or doing an environmental clean-up, we can help you find the right volunteers to get the job done.

Click the button ‘Submit a project’ below, add your request details, and we’ll do our best to match you with a team of volunteers.

How It Works:

1. Submit Your Project:

Fill out our project submission form with details about your project, including the nature of the work, the number of volunteers needed, and the expected duration.

2. Project Review:

Our team will review your submission to ensure it meets our criteria and matches with the skills and interests of our volunteer groups.

3. Volunteer Match:

We will match your project with a suitable volunteer group.

4. Get Started:

Once a match is made, we’ll connect you with the volunteer group to begin your project.

Frequently Asked Questions:

  • People

People power for big tasks: Short-term group volunteers can tackle projects that require many hands – like event setup, food packing, gardening, or inventory sorting.

Get things done quickly: What might take staff days can be completed in hours by a motivated group.

  • Exposure to New Supporters

Awareness: Volunteers learn about the organisation’s mission and services

Future donors or advocates: Even one-time participants may become long-term supporters, fundraisers, or recurring volunteers.

  • Corporate Partnerships & Funding Opportunities

Access to new sponsors: Companies may fund or donate to the organisations where their employees volunteer.

Build relationships: A successful volunteer day can open the door to longer-term corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships.

  • Future Volunteers

Try before they commit: Some group members might realise a personal connection with the cause and return individually.

Identify standout volunteers: Organisations can observe who is truly engaged and potentially recruit them for future roles including governance roles

  • Community Visibility & Trust

Positive public perception: Hosting volunteer groups shows you are active, inclusive, and collaborative.

Increased credibility: Especially with corporate or civic groups involved, it can raise your profile in the community.

  • New Skills and Perspectives 

Diverse skill sets: Even short-term volunteers might bring valuable professional skills/ideas.

Fresh energy: New people bring enthusiasm that can help refresh routines or events.

  • Efficient When Well-Structured

With good planning and clear task delegation, you can maximise output with minimal demand on staff. 

Repeated group engagements can be standardised (e.g. having a set activity that can be “done-in-a-day” like a deep clean, a stock-take, weeding/gardening etc.), reducing future admin load on your staff/regular volunteers.

  • Provide information and advice about Group Volunteering.
  • Consult with your representative to ensure we have the appropriate details about the project so that we can try and match it with a group.
  • Advise when we have found a suitable group to undertake your project.
  • Broker the project between your organisation and the volunteer group.
  • Provision of a Group Volunteering Agreement to be signed by all parties.
  • Provide you with a direct contact for the group representative. 
  • Promotional material and presentations to teams about Group Volunteering
  • Feedback from participants/host group

A group wants to know that they have made a difference and to feel the mahi they are doing is having an impact. It is important to consider this when listing your project. Having someone from your organisation explain directly how the work the group is doing will support/assist your mahi will help with this. Here are some ideas of activities that you could look at getting a group to assist with:

  • Organisation & Sorting
    • Sort donations
    • Stock take/sorting stock
  • Practical Tasks
    • Painting – repaint rooms/corridors/community spaces
    • Gardening/landscaping
    • Cleaning/tidying
    • Meal preparation for community meals
  • Event Support
    • Setting up/packing down events
    • Stewarding
    • Marshalling
  • Production & Packing
    • Assembling care packages
    • Filling goodie bags
    • Preparing food boxes
    • Assisting in a food drive
  • Seasonal Projects
    • Planting/Weeding/Baiting 
    • Decorating/packing down spaces for different holidays
    • Packing/sorting Christmas boxes

Whilst your project can be on the weekend, the majority of our groups that are registering are wanting to do these projects during work/school time so we may not be able to find a group to assist. We would recommend also registering your organisation (if not already) with Volunteering Services and listing your volunteer roles for weekend events through Seek Volunteer.

We provide groups with the option of choosing between a half day (morning or afternoon) or a full day project.

At this time the service Volunteering Services offers has no cost to organisations. We will ask the volunteer group to consider a Koha to your organisation to acknowledge the time/resource required to host. We will support to facilitate this.

  • Provide clear information about the day/time of the project and a good idea of what the group should expect to be doing on the day.
  • Provide information about what the Group need to bring and to wear (including food/drink.) 
  • Advise Volunteering Services & the group representative ASAP if postponement is unavoidable.

  • Advise the Group and Volunteering Services ASAP if postponement is necessary.
  • Meet the volunteers on site.
  • Complete a briefing at the start of the event explaining Health and Safety Regulations and provide clear instructions as to the tasks required and use of any necessary equipment
  • Provide any specialist equipment/PPE that is required for the project.
  • Supervise the task being undertaken and be available for questions. It is a great opportunity to use this time to provide some education/discussion around your mahi.

Yes, your organisation will be responsible for having a Health & Safety plan in place for the day. The group will need to be briefed on this at the start of the project. If this is something that is worrying you please contact Volunteering Services as we may be able to assist with a customisable template.

It will be up to you to make a decision regarding the weather. If it is meant to be outside, do you have an option for an indoor project instead as a back up plan? Alternatively you can reschedule the project with the group. This would need to be done with as much notice as possible.

No, the Group will need to arrange its own transport to and from the project site.

No, this is up to you as an organisation. A recommendation would be to have some tea/coffee making facilities available however this is not a necessity. Food/drink requirements will need to be communicated to the group/volunteering services.

No, we wish we could guarantee this however it is dependent on the Groups we have registered and could be limited if the project is listed at shorter notice. We will do our utmost to try and source a suitable group and will provide support/recommendations to assist as much as we can.

Yes! Having regular opportunities that we can use as options for groups is extremely useful and increases the visibility/awareness around your mahi.