Volunteering Business Partner

Dogs Trust; England; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading charity organization in the UK seeks a Volunteering Business Partner to advocate for volunteering and enhance volunteer experiences. You will work with stakeholders to promote best practices and manage volunteering initiatives across various teams. The ideal candidate has experience in volunteering development and strong stakeholder engagement skills. This role will be based at any Dogs Trust site, with some regional travel required.

Qualifications

• Experience in supporting volunteering development in organizations.
• Up-to-date understanding of best practices in volunteering.
• Proven ability to engage stakeholders across all levels.

Responsibilities

• Advocate for volunteering and implement the volunteering vision.
• Build relationships with stakeholders to enhance volunteer experiences.
• Take ownership of activities supporting the volunteering strategy.

Skills

Supporting volunteering development

Influencing stakeholders

Managing workload

Using data and metrics

Job description

Overview

Volunteering Business Partner role at Dogs Trust. This range is provided by Dogs Trust. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

The closing date for applications is 14th September 2025.

About this role

As Volunteering Business Partner, you'll:

• Be an advocate for volunteering, working with teams and individuals in their areas to support them in putting the volunteering vision and strategy into practice, to a consistently high standard
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders, acting as a trusted partner for volunteering advice to help them deliver high quality volunteer experiences that support Dogs Trust’s aims and objectives
• Take ownership of specific Dogs Trust-wide activities such as Volunteering L&D, Policies or Communication that support the volunteering vision and strategy
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and innovation across Dogs Trust through sharing observations, learning and ideas across the Central Volunteering Team to enable and ensure consistent standards of volunteering across Dogs Trust
• Promote the importance of volunteering metrics (for example from volunteer survey and volunteer database) and use these to spot trends, identify risks and opportunities and tailor guidance accordingly in their partnered areas.

About you

To be successful in this role you'll have experience in supporting volunteering development in organisations with a wide range of volunteer roles, with a thorough and up-to-date understanding of best practice in volunteering, current trends and relevant legislation.

You'll have a proven ability to influence, engage and empower all stakeholders from senior leaders to core, with experience of managing your own workload, with ability to take personal responsibility for progressing volunteering activities in partnered areas, taking this further and using data and metrics to make recommendations at a higher level, enabling the design and implementation of wider interventions.

About the team

The role sits within the Organisational Development department which includes Learning and Development, L&D (Digital) and People Experience. The department’s role in Dogs Trust is to drive the People agenda in terms of:

• Culture – ensuring DT is an amazing place to work and volunteer
• Capability – we are empowered to be our best
• Commitment – engaged in our work and committed to our aims and to each other

About Dogs Trust

We love dogs. That’s why we do whatever we can to make sure every four-legged friend gets the love they deserve. We’ll never put a healthy dog down, so our work is focused on helping dogs in need, supporting owners every step of the walk, and creating a better world for dogs in the future. It’s what we’ve been doing since 1891 and how we’ve grown to become the UK’s leading dog charity, helping 12,000 loyal friends find their forever homes every year.

This job can be based at any Dogs Trust site, with regional travel.

Requirements

Experience in supporting volunteering development in organisations with a wide range of volunteer roles; up-to-date understanding of best practice in volunteering, current trends and relevant legislation; ability to influence and engage stakeholders across levels; proven ability to manage own workload and progress volunteering activities; experience using data and metrics to inform recommendations at a higher level.

Details

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Human Resources and General Business
• Industries: Non-profit Organizations

Note: This position may require travel between Dogs Trust sites.