Volunteering is about passion. What do you want to make an impact for? How? Often you don't need any training. Enthusiasm is important. Click around the latest volunteer opportunities and see what appeals to you. Or watch the news and become aware of which social problems you are dealing with.

Whatever you do and however much time you have - everything you do has an impact. But keep the tile wisdom in mind: 'Volunteering is voluntary, not without obligation'. When you start working somewhere, people often count on you. So smart if you have thought about how much time you want to spend beforehand. And then discuss this together during an introduction. Then you will not be faced with any surprises.

On this platform you will find volunteering from 1 minute to every day and everything in between. Use the filters to find more quickly which offer suits you. Good luck!

VrijwilligersTilburg works like a marketplace: you can place both request and help offer and our e-match system matches both. So you don't feel like looking for a match in the overview of current volunteer work? Then post an offer of help with what you want to do so that anyone with a request for help can approach you. You can create a profile for this without obligation. Once you have found a match, you can turn off your offer of help again. Until you are ready for your next match of course!

Pay attention to yourself and others when you volunteer. From meeting each other for the first time to crossing carefully and sticking to the corona measures and all other situations in between. Here you can read more about all topics related to security (from GDPR to secure agreements to insurance).

Taking help is almost the hardest thing there is. Almost – because asking for help is really difficult. But that is not necessary. Because you underestimate how eager to help others.

Have you ever helped someone? How was that? Hold on to that feeling... have you felt that helping makes you happy? We like to help each other. Others want to help you too!

Time for the next step: place a request for help on this platform . This way you can safely come into contact with participants who would like to help. Post a request for help for yourself or someone else (family, neighbor, client). In your neighbourhood, or just outside it. Once, or more often. You choose all that yourself. Think about what you expect from someone to find the best match and avoid disappointment. Pay attention to personal details: for example, tell them that you love walking in the woods with your dog, but leave out where his dog bed lives.

Finally, we believe that everyone has something to offer that no one else is looking for. For example, good listening is now more valuable than ever! So don't hesitate to offer your help. That way you also meet new people and give your life a little more challenge and meaning.

If you ask for help via a platform, you obviously don't know who will respond. This often leads to very nice surprises! But that also makes it exciting. So: start small. For example, ask for help with a chore at home. Or an event to go to together. If there is a mutual click, you can then decide to meet more often.

With a small question, the threshold to respond is also much smaller. That also means a greater chance of a match!

Getting to know someone who comes to help you is extra important when volunteering. Because helping each other is quite personal. A few tips:

1. Get acquainted digitally. Have you exchanged some nice messages via this platform? Before you meet in person, you can call each other. Or even better: video calling! This way you will quickly notice whether you are a match.
2. Preparation is half the battle. There are many ways to do an extra security check if you're comfortable with that. See if anyone has a reference from others. Or find someone on LinkedIn. You can read more tips about how you and how we ensure safety here.
3. Meet in public. For the first acquaintance, you can meet in a public place, such as the library or a cafe nearby. Let friends or family know that you have made an appointment or bring someone with you.

With all the help questions on VrijwilligersTilburg, it's important that yours positively stands out. Easier said than done... but based on our data, we do have a few concrete tips that immediately generate more reactions:

• Provide an attractive (profile) photo. That doesn't include a logo ;-)
• Pay close attention to the title and the first 2 lines. You will see this first in the overview and in the e-match emails that we send to available volunteers.
• Be specific in what you need and expect. If you are flexible or open to ideas from the other person, indicate that you would like to fill this in with the volunteer. Flexibility in this is the trend of this year and is greatly appreciated by volunteers.
• Also mention why you/your client/your organization is so nice. And what it benefits the volunteer: meeting new people, good for your CV, free training sessions or intervision, etc.

Read more writing tips here.

The help questions you post on this platform are public and therefore visible to everyone. Do not share personal information such as last name, address, telephone number or sensitive information via a request for help. You can share this kind of data with volunteers via a personal message. You can of course use another name to be personal.

Not only your requests for help or vacancies are visible, the organization you work for is also visible on this platform. Handy, because then volunteers can see at a glance which vacancies there are and discover more about your organization in general.

When you register as a professional, you create a profile for yourself. You can then indicate for which organization you work or create a new organization profile. If you are 'manager' of an organization profile, you can adjust this profile. Provide a good photo, logo, enthusing description of your organization and current contact details (website, telephone number, etc.)