Welcome to the staff volunteering leave page
This page provides information on the benefits of volunteering; the paid leave provision and process; plus several links to help you find volunteering opportunities.
The School’s staff volunteering provision applies to all employees at the School and has been designed to enable staff to proactively identify and get involved with volunteering opportunities. The School supports and encourages volunteering by enabling staff to take up to five paid days a year (pro-rata for part time staff, running from January to December) to undertake voluntary work, which should be calculated and recorded locally.
The School recognises the benefit and reward of taking on such work and the impact it can make on a charity or individual. The benefits of volunteering are well known, and can range from ‘giving back’ to a community, learning new skills and can also be linked to improving your own wellbeing. Further benefits can be found on the LSE Volunteer Centre intranet page. Although the LSE Volunteer Centre is aimed at students and School alumni, it contains a lot of useful information about volunteering, so please do take a look.
If you choose to take up the School’s volunteering leave, we hope that you enjoy this valuable experience. Please do get in touch (staffwellbeing@lse.ac.uk) if you would be happy to feature as a case study on this page and/or in communications to promote the provision.
If you are interested in volunteering during working hours, please could you complete the online form here.
As with any leave request, this must be agreed by your line manager and should be discussed well in advance of the leave dates. Although completing the online form does not approve your leave, it does allow us to see what types of volunteering are taking place, which we can use to promote the provision further!
If you would like advice on arranging a group activity for your department, with students and staff, the LSE Volunteering Centre are happy to offer their expertise, so do contact them on volunteer@lse.ac.uk
If you are planning a team or department away day and you are considering volunteering, please contact your HR Partner for advice about developing and organising team building activities.
Volunteering can range from working with a registered charity to spending time reading with children at a local school.
Volunteering opportunities should normally be with organisations which have charitable status.
A number have staff have already volunteered at a wide variety of charities. If you would like further information on volunteering opportunities, please select the following links:
Do It is a national volunteering database and lists over 1 million volunteering opportunities that are posted by volunteer centres, national/local charities and voluntary groups. Do it enables 250,000 people every month to donate their time and build their skills and ensures that over 50,000 organisations find the help they need to provide vital services to the community.
Team London is a volunteering database that is focussed on opportunities in London. These can be either long term or short term. Those interested in short term opportunities may wish to contact Speed Volunteer.
You might also find it useful read the LSE Volunteer Centre Blog or connect with the LSE Volunteer Centre for further inspiration.