I am proud and pleased to say the brand new Quality Standard called Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) is now live!
Designed by a volunteer infrastructure organisation for volunteer infrastructure organisations. To explain in other words, I have selfishly created a Quality Standard that I want for my volunteer infrastructure organisations and so it will probably be beneficial for others too.
NCVO’s announcement last year that it was no longer delivering quality standards and would be handing over VCQA to another organisation has led to many volunteer infrastructure organisations thinking about quality standards for the first time in a few years.
“What Quality Standard is right for my organisation?”
“Do I even need a Quality Standard?”
“What about the costs and time to do it?”
“If I don’t do it, will a rival organisation do it?”
The reason the Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) Quality Standard works for my organisations is that it is an accreditation that not only independently assesses my organisation as the lead volunteering organisation for my area, but will actually help me raise the organisation’s profile with funders, partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries. It is both straight forward to carry out and inexpensive.
It is also, by definition, exclusive so I can be assured that no other organisation will be able to get it. Only organisations that can truly demonstrate they are the lead volunteering organisation will be able to provide the necessary evidence to meet the standard.
The LVO Quality Standard has 5 main areas:
- Acting as Lead Volunteer Agency for Area
- Connecting People to Volunteering Opportunities
- Promoting & Championing Volunteering
- Supporting Volunteer Managers and Developing Good Practice
- Emergency Volunteering
Through researching volunteer infrastructure organisations across the country it became crystal clear very quickly that a “one-size-fits-all’ prescriptive approach to evidence for LVO would not work. Depending on funding, the voluntary sector environment, local authorities, organisational ethos and models of practice, volunteer infrastructure can look quite different across England. Therefore, LVO takes a flexible but robust approach to providing evidence to meet the 5 areas of the standard.
To help organisations understand more about LVO to assess if it is right for their organisation, two information webinars with Q&A have been set up. The first was on 27th July which generated lots of positive discussion and the second one is online on Thurs Sept 8th at 11am. If you would like to attend, please click this link to register on Eventbrite:
If you want to know more but cannot attend or wait for the webinar, please contact me: dominic@works-4u.com
Dominic Pinkney's World of Volunteering 