Volunteers play a vital role in the success of many charities. Keeping accurate records of volunteer activity can help you understand and demonstrate the value volunteers contribute to your organisation.

Record volunteer information

Charities should keep accurate records of the support they receive from volunteers.

This information can help you:

• complete your annual return
• report to your governing board, funders and the public
• recognise and communicate the value of volunteer contributions
• understand how volunteers support your activities

Report volunteer information in your annual return

All registered charities must complete an annual return. As part of this, you need to report:

• the number of volunteers who supported your charity during the year
• the total hours they volunteered

This information helps show the contribution volunteers make across the charitable sector and can help identify trends over time. The more accurate your data, the more useful it is for charities, government and policy makers.

Volunteer recording template

We have developed a simple spreadsheet template that you can use to record volunteer information each month.

The template includes fields for:

• volunteer name
• date
• hours volunteered
• activity or project 

You can add additional fields if needed. For example, you may wish to record start and finish times to calculate volunteer hours more precisely.

More information

For guidance and resources about working with volunteers, visit Volunteering New Zealand.