Volunteers Offering Services For Payment?

From time to time we get complaints from you, our registered charities, about iT4Communities volunteers asking for payment for either goods or services.

In the past few weeks some of you may have been asked by an iT4Communities volunteer for a monthly fee to host your website. This request is not endorsed by iT4Communities, it breaks our volunteer code of conduct and we strongly recommend that you do not accept this offer. We are very sorry if you have been approached in this way.

If an iT4Communities volunteer asks for payment - other than for legitimate expenses (see below what is acceptable and what is not) - please contact either myself or Anne Stafford, iT4Communities's Programme Manager.

iT4Communities exists to enable those IT volunteers who wish to make a valuable donation of their time and skills to charities and for those charities to gain free IT help - help that they may otherwise not be able to get. So volunteers, working through iT4Communities, must offer a pro bono service. This means that they donate their time and skills to the charity or voluntary organisation entirely free of charge.

It is acceptable for a volunteer to:

  • Ask if the organisation is able to cover reasonable travel expenses to visit their offices. We recommend that the level of travel expenses is agreed in advance. (Your organisation may not be in a position to pay any travel expenses at all, in which case this must be made clear to the volunteer)
  • Accept refreshments offered by the organisation
  • Advise the organisation about where to purchase IT equipment and software - even ordering it on their behalf

It is not acceptable for a volunteer to:

  • Accept any payment for the work carried out for the organisation
  • Request any payment for work to be carried out
  • Advise the organisation to use goods or services provided by the volunteer or a third party from which the volunteer will benefit financially.

A reminder of our rules can be found on our website

Our volunteers are required to tick a disclaimer box on the volunteer registration form which says, "I agree to provide pro bono services and will not seek payment for goods or services from contacts made via iT4Communities". Any volunteer who ticks the box and then ignores the disclaimer has their account disabled, which is the course of action we have taken in this recent case.

Thankfully this doesn't happen very often. The vast majority of our volunteers continue to do a tremendous job.

Since 2002 they, along with help from our team of project definers, have provided over 2,500 VCOs with help, advice and guidance and our volunteers give £750,000 of support to UK charities every year, helping organisations to run efficiently, make good use of new technologies and free up staff time to deliver vital services to the communities across the UK.

If you have any instances of volunteers asking for payment or if you need any further information, please contact me, Nigel Davies, or Anne Stafford at info@it4communities.org.uk

Nigel Davies, iT4Communities Administrator