Fido continues to help members recruit skilled volunteers

6 May 2008 | The Centre for Volunteering

Did you know that the Sydney Morning Herald provides space free of charge for The Centre for Volunteering and our members to advertise vacant volunteering positions on Mondays and Saturdays?

The Fido Help Desk column can be found on Saturdays on the inside back page of the Herald's News Review section and on Mondays on the inside back page of the main news section. In providing the material each week for the column, The Centre gives priority to positions requiring skills, qualifications or experience etc. Five volunteer positions are advertised on Mondays and three on Saturdays. In addition, details of these positions are posted weekly on the Fido website and are emailed to around 1100 people registered on the website to receive the weekly jobs e-bulletin.

Denis Porter, who looks after the Fido service, says that members advertising through Fido generally have a good success rate with the service. "The ability to advertise in the Herald is a very valuable feature of Fido," Denis said. "With an average readership of around 900,000 on weekdays and 1.2 million on Saturdays and a significant readership in the professional/ skilled/ higher income segments of the community, the Herald is an ideal way to reach the Fido target audience. Members are continually giving us feedback that Fido generates interest in a wide variety of positions, many of which are specialised roles which may be difficult to fill through other channels."

Over the last 12 months around 250 positions have been advertised in Fido for dozens of member organisations. With many of these positions involving more than one volunteer, the effective number advertised has been significantly higher.

Positions recently advertised through Fido have covered a wide range and have included IT specialists, English and literacy tutors, tutors for refugee children, accountants, counsellors, librarians, event organisers, report and submission writers, and engineers.

Denis also works closely with the staff of The Centre's Volunteer Referral Service (VRS) which links people wishing to volunteer with member organisations with vacancies for volunteers. The VRS lists vacancies on the Seek and GoVolunteer websites and refers applicants who appear suitable to the relevant organisation. Some of the positions listed by members with the VRS are also selected to be advertised through Fido.

Fido is being used by a wide range of members, but potential exists for more members to take advantage of it. So if you would like to use the service, log onto the Fido website, complete the brief request form and hit the send button. It's as simple as that.