Time spent working for a charity can help you make a difference to both your local community and your CV. For those Brits who are currently looking for work, or are simply keen for a new challenge, now could be the perfect opportunity to donate your time and experience – but many simply don't know how to go about it.

What skills are charities looking for? How do you know if you have the right experience? And what is the correct way to approach an organisation? Also up for consideration is whether you would want to work for a large charity, or a smaller one that may have a more specific cause. It is also important to consider whether the organisation shares your own morals and outlook. Making sure you choose the right charity is key.

Last week the Vodafone Foundation unveiled their new World of Difference programme which is giving 500 people across the UK the chance to take a two month paid placement with a local charity of their choice. The new scheme is open to anyone over eighteen anywhere in the UK – but you've got just over a month to enter - the closing date is 3rd November.

Over the next three weeks, through a series of live interactive Web TV shows, Vodafone World of Difference is giving you the power to find out how to donate yourself to charity.

All programmes go live at 2pm:

• Episode 2 [30/09/09]: Why working with a charity can make a difference to your career.
• Episode 3 [05/10/09]: How do you donate yourself to a charity you're passionate about?
• Episode 4 [12/10/09]: What can I do for the World of Difference programme?

In Episode 2 we are joined by Ivan Wise from WorldWide Volunteering – who can explain just what charities are looking for, and the best way to approach them. Joining him is Flora Taylor from Family Friends – a small charity that supports disadvantaged families with children under 16 through befriending and mentoring services – who can explain firsthand the real difference you could make to smaller organisations. There will also be more information about the Vodafone World of Difference programme and how to apply.

Ivan Wise and Flora Taylor join us live on Wednesday 30th September at 14:00

For more information visit http://www.vodafone.co.uk/worldofdifference

H: Vicky Letch, host
I: Ivan Wise, Worldwide Volunteering
F: Flora Taylor, Family Friends

H: Hello and welcome to the second in a series of special Vodafone Foundation Web Shows, I’m Vicky letch. For those of you who missed out on the show last week, today we’re talking about an absolutely fantastic opportunity brought to you by Vodafone Foundation World of Difference. 500 lucky people will be paid to work for two months for their UK based charity of their choice. Today we’re going to be specifically looking at what charities look for from those people working for them, and how this kind of work can be a great CV booster for you at home. So joining me today to tell us about this is Ivon Wise from Worldwide Volunteering, and Flora Taylor from Family Friends, a small charity that supports disadvantaged families with children under the age of 16. Welcome to you both

I: Good afternoon

H: Thank you very much for joining us. Of course we are live so if you are interested in this fantastic opportunity, ask a question, do it now, in the box on the screen and click submit and we’ll answer it for you. So again welcome to both of you. Flora I just want to kick off with you – just tell us a little bit about your charity and the type of work you do?

F: Well Family Friends is a charity that supports disadvantaged families through befriending and mentoring services, and we do this through a network of volunteers that we train and recruit, and then each volunteer is matched to one family. We operate in two boroughs only, we’re in Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham, which people think of as well-off boroughs, but in fact there’s bit pockets of deprivation there, and that’s where our support is focused. And we work with families who are struggling with overcrowded housing, poverty, disability and illness and how we work is that each volunteer works with one family and they become a friend of that family and visit them every week in their home for two hours, for a period of a year, and offer them practical and emotional support. So practical support might be helping mum with parenting or helping with visits to the park, or really just being a listening ear for her, and with the children it’s support around – it might be academic support or help with homework or being a role model, giving support around, introduction to new interests and visits to museums, so it’s really about helping families over a long period of time, and empowering them so that our mission is to help families to help themselves

H: Ok

F: So it’s a long term sort of period of supporting families

H: Ok now that’s quite specialised isn’t it, and of course straight away you would think, right, you are looking for – person people – people persons – is that the right way round? Something like that isn’t it? What other skills are you looking for?

F: Well we’re actually, for this particular placement, we’re actually looking for someone who can come in and support us, because we’re such a small charity, we just have 4 full time staff and 2 part time staff, and we realise that we really need to expand because we have such a big waiting list of families on our books who are wanting more support from volunteers, and what we really want is someone who can come in and help the charity and really broaden out the sort of communication of us to the sort of wealth of organisations and businesses in the borough who might not know about us, because we haven’t had time to reach them all

H: Of course. Now we will talk about that in more detail as we get through the show today, but Ivan let’s get to you, you’re waiting in the wings there. What other skills do you think charities will be looking for? If someone’s at home now thinking oh that’s not quite me, what other skills do you think people could be looking for?

I: The number one thing any charity is looking for is passion. Can you as an applicant show that you have passion for the cause? If the charity helps protect endangered species, like orangutans, gorillas, can you show, can you demonstrate that you care and have an interest in orangutans and gorillas

H: Yes

I: If you don’t, go and look at a charity that works with some other group, but the important thing is you show you’ve got a passion for the cause that they work for. And the second thing charities are looking for is can you show that you can do something of value for them, do you have a skill, are you efficient at IT, do you have a qualified – are you qualified as an accountant, are you good at human resources, are you good at working with people? These are the sorts of skills that they want to see that you can do an effective job for that charity in particular

H: I think that’s going to be a surprise to lots of people, I still think in this day and age, lots of people who if you say to them “charity” they’ll think well that’s me going to my local charity shop and giving two hours of my day up, but when you say accountancy for example, that could open up you know a broad – a wide range of people sat at home thinking wow, well that’s me, I can help in that area

I: Well there’s a huge range of ways in which you can help a charity, and charities have finance departments and IT departments like any business, so if you have an ability or a skill in that area, it will be relevant for almost any charity that you can think of. But conversely if you don’t have any skill in that area, that doesn’t mean charities aren’t interested. Yes you might want to work in a charity shop but equally you might want to work as a befriender, you might want to work –

H: Yes

I: Doing caring work, you might want to work in a hospital or a school, or a prison or a museum

H: Yes

I: Or any number of places, so qualification, vocational qualifications will certainly help, but even if you don’t have them, there are many ways in which you can help your charity of choice

H: So the strongest message so far today would be that absolutely everyone, more than likely will have something to offer the programme?

I: Yes and it’s a mistake to think oh I’m only 19 or I’ve never done this before therefore it’s not relevant – actually what charities are looking for, as I said, is passion which people have from all walks of society

H: Yes

I: but also a commitment to do something that they specifically need, that might be stuffing envelopes, it might be working in a shop, but the important thing is if you go to that charity and say look this is what I’m interested in and this is what I can do, they’ll probably find a H: role that’s relevant for you

H: Absolutely. And a lot of honing in on your skills that you think will be relevant will be finding that charity that works for you and therefore you work for them –how can we help people with that, because lots of people will be stumped on where to even begin finding a charity?

I: Well on the Vodafone site, vodafone.co.uk/worldofdifference there is something called a charity Match maker and really it just asks you a couple of questions, firstly what sort of group do you want to work with, so do you want to work with children, do you want to work with animals, do you want to work with homeless people or do you want to work with refugees. And the second question is whereabouts do you want to do that? Now this scheme is only for the UK but obviously there are many different places within the UK that charities are based. So if you can find answers to those two questions, what sort of charity do you want to work for and whereabouts you want to do it, the charity match maker will then search the database to come up with relevant organisations that match that search

H: Ok and it’s being fearless, it’s ok to approach these charities. Flora, you know from the horse’s mouth

F: Yes

H: You are ok about people emailing you, expressing an interest and –

F: Oh yes absolutely we love anyone to give us a call, email us, write to us – we – you know we’re a busy organisation but we’ve always got time for people who want to come and help us, we really appreciate that so –

H: Yes ok

F: The message is really yes, yes just get in contact

H: Ok and also on the flip side of all of this, if you are an organisation watching at home, don’t be afraid to be active in your search as well. I mean don’t just wait around thinking we’re a small charity, no one’s going to be knocking on our door – if charities need help then they can be active in their search just as you are being?

F: mmm yes absolutely. It’s good to think through what your needs are as an organisation and to work them out

H: Yes

F: And then be open to other people who might not completely fit what you’re looking for, but you can sort of work something around it

H: Yes great. Right let’s get away with some of these questions, thank you for everyone whose been emailing in. Mandy H says “how can I tell if a charity is registered or not? Does it matter if they are not?” who wants to go first?

I: If you go on the charity website and there’s a link to all the charities’ websites from the charity match maker on the Vodafone site, it will say at the bottom of their homepage whether or not they’re a registered charity. If you want to do a double check, on the charity commission website it will say whether or not the charity is registered. It must be a registered charity for you to take part in this scheme, so it is important that you find out htat they are registered

H: Ok. And from Holly James, thank you Holly – Holly says “if I win this can I keep working for the charity once my placement has finished? I’d love to do more charity work and I think this is a great way in.”

I: Well it depends if you do a good job, doesn’t it?

H: Fighting talk from Ivan!

I: If you go to the charity and do two months of really good work, if they’re happy with you and they’ve got the resources to keep you on, then of course they will, because if you’ve done a good job for two months I’m sure they’ll want to keep you on. It’s not guaranteed but it is dependent – in part – by how well you work for them and how much you need the needs that they have

H: It’s such an exciting opportunity because although it changes your life immediately for two months, it could of course then grow into something – you know a long term commitment

I: Absolutely

H: And completely change someone’s life

I: Two months working for a charity where you can do something of real value to the organisation, whether it’s setting up events, whether it’s doing really useful marketing, whether it’s doing fundraising, whatever it may be, that may have profound implications for the long term growth of the charity

H: Yes

I: It may really help them and they may look at you and think well we can’t lose you now, you’ve done all this for us in two months. So mainly to a long term job, and that’s really one of the big reasons why anybody should consider doing this, that by doing two months for charity in this scheme it may very much help your college or university applications if you’re going down that route, and it will certainly improve your CV. If I was an employer and somebody had this sort of scheme on their CV, I would be much more likely to hire them later on

H: Yes absolutely. Right this is from Mike, Flora for you – “isn’t charity work just working in a shop or doing stuff like driving people around? If there was more to it I would do it?”

F: Oh –

H: She is shocked Mike! Shocked and horrified! There is so much more to it isn’t there?

F: Yes there’s absolutely masses to it – I mean there’s everything from marketing to publicity to basically working with clients, so there’s a whole host of skills that are needed within charities. Of course every charity is different and has different needs so yes

H: Yes I mean what you were saying before about your role as the befriender, I mean no one day could be the same as the other, it must be different obstacles all the time that these people are facing?

F: Yes absolutely, I mean as a befriender you would – you might be helping someone with their homework one day and you might be going out to a museum the next day, you might be just sitting drinking coffee with mum another day – so it’s really varied. Yes it’s not just standing waiting for people to come to the tills – items in a charity shop

H:Yes we must banish this misconception, there is so much more to charity work. And of course if you are lucky enough to be one of these 500 people, you could find out first hand just how much more there is to the world of charity. Let’s go for a question from Natalie, “will future employers question this as a gap in my employment?”

I: Well no they won’t because it is employment, it’s not a gap in your employment, it’s two months very usefully spend, doing work that’s going to gain you experience that’s going to be useful in your career afterwards. So no, any sensible employer’s going to see this as relevant and valuable on your CV

H: Yes I agree, I think it can only colour your CV, it shows you have more strings to your bow which is what it’s all about these days. And just very quickly because we are running out of time, again what is the correct way to approach your charity? So we’ve spoken about match maker, you can find your charity that way, if you are cold-calling that’s another way to approach them?

I: Well the match maker is very sensible because it will come up with organisations that match the passion that you have and the location that you want to do it in. It’s important to think what person within the charity should you be ringing up, and I would suggest ringing up, not emailing because it’s much harder to ignore a phone call than it is an email

H: Yes

I: If it’s a small charity, talk to the chief executive, talk to the director, don’t be intimidated by their position. It may be that if it’s a small charity, they’re the only person in the office anyway so you have to talk to them

H: Yes

I: If it’s a large organisation go for the volunteer co-ordinator, go for someone who sets up new projects. The important thing is to find somebody in the organisation who can make decisions. If they ignore your phone calls and they ignore your emails, call them back. Talk to them again or talk to somebody in authority and say look this is what I want to do, I want to come and work for you for two months, is it possible and can we discuss it further? Don’t give up because they ignore a couple of your calls

H: So, be persistent, do not be afraid. Keep calling. Flora’s going I’m going to get bombarded with emails and telephone calls!

I: And it’s very easy to say, it’s very easy for us to say oh don’t be bombarded, but within Worldwide Volunteering we work with a lot of young people who are put off, they are intimidated by the idea of calling up a charity, but the important thing is to say charities want to hear from you – they would much rather have people apply for this scheme than not, because it is a very, very positive thing for the charities as well. They get somebody to come and do work for them that otherwise might not be done, so they will want to hear from you and they will be sympathetic to your call

H: Absolutely. And of course it could perhaps, maybe build future relationships if people who apply this time around aren’t successful, they aren’t one of those selected 500 places, then perhaps they’ve built that relationship with the charity, they can do something together in the future perhaps?

F: Yes absolutely I mean you might not have a need for them straight away but a couple of years down the line you know you can go back to them again and say you know what’s your situation now, or they can come back to you

H: Yes, yes. Ok. Right we’re going to end with a question from Beryl Sudbury, thank you very much. Beryl says “my son is 22 years old and has a degree from Hull university.” Well done your son! “He hasn’t had a job since he graduated last year and I’m really worried for him. I think this would be a tremendous opportunity for him, what can I do to get him involved? Please help, good luck with this, I think it’s a splendid idea. Thank you, Beryl.” Thank you Beryl. Actually next week’s show will probably be more specific for you but we can just sort of dance around it if you want to just briefly –

I: Well what Beryl can do is repeat some of the things that we’ve been saying, but for her son this is a great way to get into a career if that’s what he’s looking to do, to get experience that he might not have otherwise got so far. What it will do for him is it will allow him to meet people, it will allow him to work for a cause that he feels really passionate about, and it will allow him to get skills and experience that will get him jobs further down the line. So if Beryl’s son has any sense at all, he will look into this scheme, he will find a charity that he feels sympathy for

H: Yes

I: And he will apply

H: I’m getting the impression people don’t say no to you very often in your life Ivan! Right brilliant, so very quickly then just to wrap things up, how do you apply for World of Difference programme

I: The best thing to do is to find a charity through the charity match maker that you think is relevant to your tastes and location and so forth. Contact the charity and say look I want to come and work for you next year for two months, work out the role that you’ll be doing for them for two months, and once they’ve agreed to it and they think this is going to work, go on the Vodafone.co.uk/worldofdifference site

H: Yes

I: There are 4 questions on there and you need to answer 4 of them. Up to 350 words and apply. The closing date is the 3^rd November, so you haven’t got that long, but the important thing is pick the charity, get the charity’s consent that they want you, and what the role is

H: Yes

I: And then get on that website and apply

H: Great thank you very much. Thank you both so much for your time

F: Thank you

H: Very insightful stuff. And yes I hope this has inspired you all to give this a go. If you do fancy applying, log on to vodafone.co.uk/worldofdiffernece and of course do remember you can keep up-to-date with all the action as it unfolds at facebook.com/worldofdifference. Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you here, same time, same place next week. Goodbye