Volunteer portal

The new volunteer portal stores your volunteering information, as well as listings of upcoming volunteering opportunities happening at the Trust. As a volunteer, you can log into the portal to view when and where volunteering opportunities are happening, browse new opportunities which you can then apply or register for, and access documents like risk assessments and handbook guides all in one place. You will have your own ‘profile’ on the portal, which allows you to edit and change your personal contact information directly, giving you control over your own data.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust relies upon the support of over 950 volunteers to help us achieve our vision for a network of healthy, resilient ecosystems on land and sea, supporting Scotland’s wildlife and people. This new volunteer management system improves the access, control and security of our volunteer data. Volunteer Management Systems are becoming the increasingly common way for charities to securely manage volunteer data – if you volunteer for another organisation you may already be familiar with them.

Current volunteers

Upon launch, all current volunteers should have received an email inviting them to log onto the platform, change their password, and amend any personal details if necessary.

Emails from the portal will come from TeamKinetic (the company that hosts the portal), at this email address: volunteering@mail.teamkinetic.co.uk

If you have not received this email, please contact the Volunteer Database Officer at chaley@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk

New volunteers

When new volunteers register for a volunteering opportunity online, they will be prompted to create an account and supply the information required to complete the volunteer registration process. If you are applying for a volunteering opportunity in person or by phone, your volunteer manager can enter your registration details on your behalf and help you set up an account.

Young volunteers (aged 12-16) require the consent of a parent or guardian to create an account on the portal.

You will have your own personal login for your account on the volunteer portal. This login will be the email address associated with your account and the password that you set up when first logging in. You can save these details to your browser or a password manager. If you forget or lose these details, you can reset your password easily on the login page.

If you are not able to login or use the platform, speak to your volunteer manager or contact the Volunteer Database Officer at chaley@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk

Your data will be stored securely in accordance with Scottish Wildlife Trust’s privacy policy. Your data will be visible to your volunteer managers, so that they can get in touch with you and access any emergency contact details you have provided. It will also be visible to a small group of Trust staff who act as administrators of the online portal. It will not be visible to anyone else.

You can view the privacy policies of TeamKinetic, the company which hosts this new portal, here.

You can view the Trust’s privacy notice here.

Yes! Your volunteer manager is still your main point of contact with the Trust and they will continue to contact you via email and telephone as appropriate. They are also able to send emails via the volunteer portal, so these will come from their usual email address but have the portal’s signature email branding. If you need to reply, your reply email will still go to the usual email address of the volunteer manager.

Many parts of your profile are optional to complete, but the more information you provide us with the better your volunteer manager can get to know you and how we can best support your volunteering. It’s important that we have up-to-date contact details so please take a moment to check these when you first log in. It’s also important for your safety that we have an emergency contact on record.

You will receive most of your communications around volunteering directly from volunteer managers. You may receive automated emails through the portal to tell you if timings/dates have changed on your volunteering opportunities, or, if you have applied for opportunities, the status of your applications. Managers may prefer to contact you directly, however, especially if there are any updates to scheduled volunteering.

There are no current plans to use the portal to send out general volunteering news, however you can opt out of marketing emails from the portal when you sign up, or after signing up in the Notifications tab of your profile. This will not affect emails you receive that directly relate to your own volunteering.

If you would like to receive our bi-montly volunteer newsletter, and don’t currently receive it, please let us know and we can update your preferences.

All the information contained in the the ‘My Volunteering’ section, such as handbooks and risk assessments, are now available on the new portal, under the ‘resources and help’ tab. So there is no need to log in to two different places to access everything you need to volunteer with us!

These files have now been removed from the Scottish Wildlife Trust website. If you are struggling to find what you need, please get in touch with your volunteer manager or Peter Gilbert, Volunteer Development Officer: pgilbert@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk

If you are undertaking volunteering with SSRS only you do not need to create an account on the new portal, as the SSRS Community Hub is continuing in its current format as the primary means for volunteers and staff to connect and manage volunteer related activities and squirrel related data.

If, however, you separately volunteer for the Trust in a different capacity, you will be sent an email from the new portal to login for these separate volunteering activities.