You’re more likely to hear from students if your activity falls within academic term times, which can vary slightly from year to year. You could have a look at our academic dates and plan your activities to avoid holidays and revision weeks. Alternatively, you might want to have a continuity plan for your activities to run whilst students are unavailable.

Most students are usually available between October and mid-December, and between February and April. Speak to your volunteers about their schedules and holiday plans when they join the organisation to avoid any unexpected drop-outs.

Students often take the location of an opportunity into consideration when applying, as only a small minority drive in Bristol and public transport can be expensive. Specifying where your volunteering activities take place can encourage more students living in the local area to apply.

If your activity is further away from the city centre, we recommend that you highlight local bus routes in your ad and identify whether you can cover travel expenses.

Students are increasingly interested in one-off events. It’s an ideal way into volunteering for those who’ve never tried it before but are keen to get involved. Many postgraduates and third-year students would love to work with to a local organisation but can only afford small pockets of time.

One-off volunteering days can be particularly attractive to students, so you might want to think about altering the opportunity you’re advertising to accommodate this. Once students get a taste of volunteering with your project, they’ll be more likely to consider a long-term role.

Make sure you complete your volunteer advert in full, highlighting the level of time commitment that is required for the role.

Think about the types of skills students can expect to gain from your opportunity. If you need ideas, take a look at our Skills Framework, which outlines the skills students are looking to acquire to maximise their employability.

Consider what type of support you’re able to offer. Shout about any training and resources available for your volunteers, and whether you’re able to give a reference at the end of their time with you.

Bristol SU is home to around 400 sports clubs and societies, and many of them are engaged in fundraising and volunteering activities. There’s also a group of student-led volunteering projects working primarily in the community.

Your volunteering opportunities might align with what existing student groups are already doing. They’re all very keen to collaborate with local projects, so have a browse and drop them an email.

Check your spam folder for emails from bristolsu-volunteering@bristol.ac.uk. If there’s nothing there, try to log in with the details you registered with. We tend to approve organisations and opportunities within a day or so, so even if you haven’t received the email, you should be able to log in fairly swiftly.

Our registration is a two-stage process. You need to register your organisation before you create a volunteer advert. If you’ve only completed the first stage, your opportunity will not show up on our hub. If your advert had an expiry date, it might have been taken down following its expiration.