Volunteer Coordinator

About Indigo Volunteers

Indigo Volunteers is a coordination charity which supports grassroots organisations, working with refugee and migrant communities across the Greek islands and mainland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, Cyprus, the UK, Poland, Moldova, Slovakia and France. By connecting volunteers with humanitarian organisations working along the European migratory routes, organising training and organisational development programmes, and providing wellbeing support, we try to amplify the impact of our partners’ work with displaced people and develop more sustainable practices within the sector.

Purpose

The purpose of the Volunteer Coordinator role is to support our network of partner organisations by carrying out Indigo’s volunteer-matching programme. Your main responsibility is to ensure that we meet our partner’s volunteer needs by connecting them with suitable applicants from our database. You will be working closely with another Volunteer Coordinator to serve as Indigo’s placement team, and be the key point of contact for volunteers and partner organisations within the placement process. In addition to this, you will support the diversification of our volunteer recruitment by contributing to marketing and outreach efforts.

As a Volunteer Coordinator, you are expected to maintain positive working relationships with the 45+ current partner organisations supported by Indigo as well as potential new partners, primarily through remote catch-ups. Within Indigo itself, you will be engaging regularly with our international team of 5 people and several volunteers to discuss operational issues, help us carry out our organisational development and wellbeing support programmes, and to pick up any other relevant tasks within our operations where needed.

You will be expected to be an ambassador for Indigo, promoting happy, healthy, and responsible volunteer practices for all. You need to have a good understanding of the situation of refugees and displaced people in Europe and be able to signpost volunteers to key information and organisations.

You will also become a part of our Indigo team 🙂 joining regular team building space, remote team lunches & engaging in conversations and activities to keep our organisation growing.

Responsibilities

Volunteer-matching

• Understand the volunteer needs of our partner organisations through regular engagement with their volunteer coordinators.
• Continuously update our partners’ volunteer needs across different media and recruitment platforms.
• Review volunteer applications and connect them to the right partner organisation.
• Guide our volunteers through the matchmaking process, from their initial application to their placement.
• Follow up with the volunteer and partner organisation when needed to ensure that the placement is successful.
• Log all relevant details in our Client Relationship Management (CRM) system Salesforce.
• Support evaluation mechanisms to continuously assess Indigo’s impact.
• Run introductory meetings for volunteers, in collaboration with the coordination team.
• Conduct 1:1 calls with volunteers when needed.

Communications/Marketing

• Support the marketing team in gathering content from the different refugee hotspots and sharing information on our partners and their current volunteer needs.
• Support the implementation of volunteer recruitment and outreach aimed at expanding our pool of volunteers by engaging with media groups and other actors.
• Support our Salesforce Administrator with updating volunteer communications, FAQs and other online resources where needed.
• Support our Head of Programmes & Partnerships with training announcements and general partner communications where needed.

Day-to-day development

• Maintain inboxes and databases, keeping them manageable and up to date.
• Signpost partners to available resources and key documents – e.g. volunteer code of conduct, management tools, safeguarding/whistleblowing policies etc .
• Promote collaboration and resource sharing between partners where possible and appropriate.
• Always be an advocate for responsible volunteering, and make partners and volunteers aware of the resources and training opportunities that are available.
• Support the Head of Programmes & Partnerships with onboarding new partner organisations and visiting partners on the ground.
• Take on any other needed ad hoc organisational tasks that fit your interest and skill-set.

Skills & Experience

• Previous experience and/or demonstrated interest in the refugees and migrants sector, knowledge of the responsible volunteering concept.
• Excellent communication skills, including intercultural awareness, and the ability to effectively and diplomatically represent Indigo in a professional context.
• Experience in recruitment marketing and outreach with focus on diversity and inclusion is a big plus!
• Experience working remotely, managing your own time and multitasking.
• Excellent computer skills (e.g. Microsoft Office, Google Docs/Drive, social media, etc.),
• Strong organisation and planning skills.
• Strong team player.
• Ability to work within a challenging and high pressure sector.
• Enthusiastic about the grassroots sector – previous experience working or volunteering with displaced people preferable!

Deliverables

• Match volunteers with partner organisations through Salesforce.
• Ensure that our volunteer placement numbers are on target.
• Develop and maintain positive and regular working relationships with our partners’ volunteer coordinators.

We particularly welcome applications from groups that are often underrepresented.

Indigo Volunteers is against discrimination of any kind and committed to upholding an equal and inclusive working environment irrespective of ethnicity, gender, gender identity, marital status, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, mental health, religion, or age. We recognise that unconscious bias and internalised prejudice are present in the sector and we actively work to educate ourselves in allyship and non-discriminatory practice. We recognise that having a diversity of experiences and perspectives is crucial to growing and improving as an organisation and particularly welcome applications from a wide variety of backgrounds who are motivated by these values and who can drive and inspire change for refugees and displaced people.