Searching for a Superhero

Bright One’s clients perform feats of amazing power every day and we’re behind them all the way. To help our teams of volunteers we’re looking for a Volunteer Manager, a special kind of person who will go the extra mile for our volunteers.

We’re putting the call out for a Superhero.

The Organisation

For those of you that weren’t aware, Bright One is a completely volunteer-run organisation. We have no paid staff and everyone who volunteers for Bright One does it in their spare time, often fitting it around full time job or their studies. Just like Superman and Spiderman.

Every day that Bright One progresses, we see the fantastic work that our volunteers do for their clients and for Bright One itself. In it’s first year of operation, Bright One’s volunteers donated over 1,500 hours of their time to help charitable organisations such as Refugee Week, The Pixel Project and Child’s i Foundation. This resulted in our clients being able to access the equivalent of over £180,000 of professional communications support and advice. A truly heroic effort.

You can read more about what we have achieved in our Annual Report.

The Challenge

This year, we want to help support more organisations with their communications needs. For that we’ll need more volunteers to work in teams and help these clients achieve their goals. But we also need to look after our current volunteers, as we want to make sure our current clients continue to get a fantastic level of service. And for that to happen we’ll need a Volunteer Manager to look after all of these superheroes.

The Opportunity

The Volunteer Manager is and always will be one of the most important roles for Bright One. Our volunteers are our greatest asset and we work hard to make sure they have the best volunteering expereince with us – from the moment they send us a message to enquire about a volunteer position until the moment they move on from Bright One for whatever reason.

Managing volunteers can be a challenging but rewarding experience. You’ll need to be friendly, sociable, highly organised, self-motivating and a pleasure to work with.

You don’t need to be able to fly, see through brick walls or read minds (though that may help). But you do need to be passionate about about the work of Bright One’s volunteers. You should be excited about the opportunities we are offering to volunteers and about the difference they will make. If you can get passionate about the volunteering opportunities Bright One offers, the possibilities of the difference we can make will increase immeasurably, to superhuman proportions.

The Special Power

What is even more special about this role is that you’ll be a ‘volunteer’ Volunteer Manager, which means that you’ll need to not be afraid of the challenge that this gives rise to, just as we’re not afraid to wait until we have found the perfect person for the job before filling the position.

Volunteers managing volunteers is a difficult relationship to balance and we’re working on making these relationships as smooth as possible through our daily work with Bright One’s various teams. You’ll need to use your Special Powers to work closely with the Bright One management team and come up with ways to make our volunteers work together effectively.

However, we are looking into funding options, so this may well turn into a paid position in the near future – but unfortunately in the current funding climate we can’t guarantee this.

The Role

A typical week will involve ‘meeting and greeting’ between 3 and 5 volunteers, finding out more about them and what causes they’re interested in, capturing their details on a volunteer database, and liaising with the Bright One management team to place the volunteers on to suitable accounts.

The role is expected to take around 4 hours each week and preferable you’ll be based in or around London as this is where the majority of our clients and volunteers are based.

You can view the formal role description here.

The Process

If this description is more exciting than scary, more inspiring than off-putting and you want to apply for the position, please send us your covering email with your CV attached to ben@brightone.org.uk.

We’d also like you to answer the following question to give us an idea about how you might fit into the role:

“What are the three super powers you have that will make you a Volunteer Manager of Superhero proportions?”

We’ll be waiting by the Bat Phone for your call.