As a part-time volunteer, we are aware that you are probably helping us on top of your already busy life. We have noted the days that you prefer to volunteer from your application form but it is completely up to you when you do this during the week. However, it is helpful if you can log into your email address regularly to avoid emails going unanswered. We ideally prefer a 24-hour turn around for emails on Mon - Fri. There might of course be occasional tasks that need to be done on a certain day. If you can't do it, just let us know and we will of course get somebody else to do that task.

This will be different for everybody. You could be creating social media posts, emailing editors with press releases or researching Human Animal Conflict solutions. When you complete your volunteer application form you get to tell us about your skills, experience and tasks that interest you. We then agree what role will suit both your personal goals and our organisation’s needs. The tasks will then align with your assigned role.

Yes, you always have a mentor. They could be your Team Leader or Kate Fox, the Founder. You will also have a Volunteer Buddy who you will share tasks with.

We believe volunteering should bring benefits to both parties. We are very keen to help volunteers progress by changing roles. This allows you to gain insights into different roles, and bolster your C.V. We would however encourage a minimum of 6 months doing one role to get the most out of it. We would then time it so that you switch roles once the project you are on is complete. If however, you want to increase the number of hours you are volunteering, we would happily get you started on a second project or a different role in tandem with your original role. But this of course depends on your availability.

This may fluctuate depending on what is going on in your life but it helps to keep momentum and enthusiasm going if you commit to a minimum number of hours each week. We try to agree what hours you feel comfortable committing during your induction stage and we encourage you to think carefully about this. We don’t want you overcommitting and feeling stressed that you cannot fit everything in or disappointed that you have failed to do something. We really want you to enjoy your time with Verify Humanity. If you have a visa that only allows a certain amount of volunteering, it is of course your responsibility to ensure that you do not go over those hours. Please keep us informed on a regular basis of your hours so we can help you do this. You may of course just be volunteering for a one-off project. eg: writing an article or doing some art work for some publicity.

Just contact your agreed Point of Contact and let them know that you cannot do your usual volunteering that week. We are very understanding and appreciate that your kids may be ill, you have a holiday booked or you are moving house etc. We obviously prefer to have some warning as this helps us ensure important work is carried out by somebody else.

We really appreciate that you have donated your time free of charge and we would struggle to be effective without this incredible kindness. However, we are a young organisation with no funding and need to keep our costs to a minimum. If you feel there are going to be project expenses, please contact Kate Fox in advance so that she can decide whether they are essential, or if she can find better value alternatives or authorise and pay for these through the organisation’s official bank account. We may not be able to pay for expenses if they have not followed these steps. We will not be able to cover any general expenses such as electricity, broadband, mobile, heating, air conditioning or any home office costs. We hope that volunteers understand that this would not be possible for such a small organisation.

Well this again depends on how you are supporting us. You may have found a very compelling stock photo on Shutterstock for an important publicity project that you think would be a good purchase. You may need to access some research papers for evidence based reports to support a project. We tend to only purchase very niche research or extremely broad research papers.

No, all roles within the organisation are unpaid as we have no funding. Even the Founder volunteers full time unpaid.

Problems are after all a normal part of everyday life so do reach out to your point of contact or Kate, if you have any worries. It could be anything from not understanding your volunteer task, being diagnosed with a health problem or a much loved family pet dying. Please don’t feel you can’t discuss any problems with us while volunteering. Even if you think we don’t want to hear it! We believe the only real problem is something you don’t feel you can talk to us about. Even if we have got something wrong, we genuinely want to know. Transparency is actually one of our organisation’s values as we believe understanding our mistakes is an excellent way to learn.

Unfortunately, we can only accept applicants based in the UK for insurance purposes. This means that even when volunteers are on holiday, they cannot volunteer for us. Due to our insurance policy, we are only able to accept volunteers who are physically located within the UK while carrying out their volunteering duties. Of course, you're welcome to take holidays abroad—just let us know in advance and refrain from carrying out any volunteer tasks while you’re away.