Leaders Thank Their Volunteers

A National Volunteer Week initiative in Victoria to publicly declare thanks for their volunteers has seen more than 100 leaders of organisations with volunteers signing up in less than a week.

CEO’s from organisations including Zoos Victoria, the CFA, Oxfam Australia, Girl Guides Victoria, the Australian Red Cross, the Public Advocate of Victoria, the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Museum Victoria, the Municipal Association of Victoria, the City of Melbourne and Guide Dogs Victoria have signed the petition, along with many more organisations.

“Saying thank you is a simple but powerful act,” Volunteering Victoria CEO Sue Noble said.

“For National Volunteer Week we thought we’d see how many leaders would step forward and commit to a simple thank you and public acknowledgement of their volunteers through our Victorian Leaders’ Thank You Petition.”

“One organisation, Barwon Health, went to the extraordinary length of getting each and every member of the Board, senior executive team and volunteer management team to send in signatures.

“The aim is for every CEO, General Manager or Executive Director (or Chairperson) of every organisation that has volunteers to put their name to a public appreciation ‘pledge’ demonstrating the extraordinary diversity in services, programs, charities and causes volunteers make possible.

“We wanted leaders everywhere to take a moment to consider what it might be like without their volunteers and how they contribute to work of each organisation. Without volunteers we would not have the rich community we do and most of the organisations on the petition would simply not exist – or if they did, their activities would be severely curtailed,” Noble said.

“The online petition was activated with a call to volunteer managers and coordinators to download a letter from Ms Noble, co-sign it, and pass it on to their organisation’s CEO. This led to the first flow of signatories on the petition.

“CEO’s, Board chairs and executive directors are now contacting Volunteering Victoria directly to be added. Each new signatory is announced via social media – along with their message of thanks to be shared with their volunteers via Facebook or Twitter.

“Our first corporate to sign up is the NAB banking group,” she said.

To see which leaders and organisations have pledged their thanks to their volunteers and signed the petition, click here.

Click on the National Volunteer Week banner on www.volunteeringvictoria.org.au for more information about the National Volunteer Week, or visit Volunteering Australia www.volunteeringaustralia.org