There are many reasons to volunteer, including:

• Volunteering provides an opportunity to make a difference to both a charitable organisation and yourself; the right opportunity can be an extremely rewarding experience.
• Volunteering offers new ways to develop your skills and utilise your transferable skills. For example, research shows that volunteering can help with developing communication skills, improving an individual's ability to adapt to different environments and balance competing priorities.
• Importantly, volunteering can contribute to your overall wellbeing and helps to instil an attitude of care and responsibility for the wider community.
• Volunteering brings all walks of life together and no matter what your personality, interests, or background are, you're bound to make new friends.

The A&G Difference Giving Platform helps to match your skills and interests to hundreds of volunteer opportunities across more than 1,500 charities. The A&G Difference Giving Platformincludes both skilled, hands on volunteering for individuals and teams.

Skilled volunteering puts your skills and talents to work for the benefit of the community. Examples include project management, public relations, administration, event management, legal and governance or even advising on a Board. Hands On volunteering includes roles like tree planting and cooking for the homeless.

Please use the drop down menu or the Search functionality to find your perfect role.

You are welcome to source your own volunteer opportunity. However, it's a good idea to browse the website before you choose which volunteer opportunity is right for you.

Please apply for leave via payroll, selecting volunteer leave from the drop down options and enter the name of the organisation you are volunteering for.

Approval of volunteer leave is provided by your Manager (as per other leave requests) and is subject to operational requirements.

A&G will try to accommodate all requests for volunteer leave where possible. Please ensure that you provide your manager with suitable notice to ensure we can accommodate your request within the bounds of our business requirements.

Team volunteering can be organised through The A&G Difference Giving Platform.

Select Volunteer from the top left navigation bar

View a Charity

Select Volunteer Select the Apply as a Team tab

Describe to your team why you are wanting to volunteer

Nominate how big you want the team to be

Enter details to invite people to the event

Click Apply from the top left

Some volunteering opportunities may incur a charge to cover costs of establishing the event. For example, a community centre may ask for a monetary contribution to cover the costs of a team volunteering activity where employees prepare meals for homeless people. If costs are incurred to undertake the volunteering activity, these should be covered by the individual or individual's cost centre, with the approval of the cost centre manager. If approval is given to use the cost centre, pay via credit card and ask for a receipt so you can make the claim.

All volunteer opportunities are housed on the The A&G Difference Giving Platform and are sourced from charities registered with GoodCompany.

Charities must meet certain criteria to join the program including Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) Item 1. You can check to see if a charity is DGR item 1 by searching the Australian Business Register here.

If a charity you�re passionate about is not registered with GoodCompany and they meet the criteria, please let us know if you are willing to champion their cause via advocacy, donations, volunteering or fundraising. Details of the charity can be emailed through to support@goodcompany.org

This will be shown on your Dashboard.

Select Volunteer from the top left hand side of the navigation bar

Use the filters on the left side panel to filter and find charities, find key charity partners, skills required, location etc using the drop down boxes to browse charities by a specific criteria.

Select an opportunity that appeals to you and click view

Click Volunteer

Select Apply as an individual

Fill in the details on the application page and click apply

Your application will be emailed to the charity who will respond to you directly.

Absolutely. We encourage you to job share the project if it will enable you to deliver it on time and more effectively. Just make sure you discuss your plans with the charity involved.

All volunteer projects vary in length. Some will require only several hours of your time; others may involve several hours over weeks or months and some may involve an ongoing commitment such as joining the board or committee of a not-for-profit. Each volunteer opportunity on the site includes some information about the time commitment. Please note that A&G provides employees with one day of paid leave for volunteering. Employees wanting to volunteer more than one day or on an ongoing basis will need to do so in their own time.

You can find their contact details if you go to My Account> Volunteering Application > Click on Role > See contact details for charity

This page also displays volunteering events completed and those you've submitted.

Please allow 10 business days for the charity to respond to you. If after this period you have not heard from the charity, please contact support@goodcompany.org.

When you first meet with the charity, be open and honest about your level of commitment (taking into account your professional and personal commitments). If you think that it's too much of a commitment then you are entitled to withdraw at this stage. However, once you agree to proceed with the project, the charity will be relying on you and it costs them time and money if you pull out of the project.

If you need to withdraw once the project is already underway, ask your colleagues if they are interested in helping out. The most important thing is to communicate with the charity about your situation.

Need to go to My Account> Volunteering Application> Click on Role > and click on Action then Cancel Application

The volunteering opportunity has been scoped by the charity relative to the needs they have. Please carefully assess the criteria provided and if you need clarification or have questions, please click volunteer, add your enquiries in the reason for volunteering field then click apply.

It's important to communicate with the charity if you think you don't have the right skills. This may occur when you (and the charity) find out more about the project requirements.

If you don't have the right skills, you might want to work together with the group to re-scope the project. This is still very helpful. You may also be able to identify a colleague with the right skills and help the group to find a volunteer.

Can I give feedback?

Yes, go to Volunteering Applications and Click on Feedback. Then complete the Feedback form. This data will be shared with the charity and the People and Culture team at A&G to help us measure and improve the program.

GoodCompany encourages all our charities to provide you with feedback at the end of the project. At the conclusion of the project, GoodCompany will also ask you and the charity to complete feedback about your experience. This is your chance to provide us with feedback about the volunteering experience.