Volunteer Charter
Please read before continuing

We ask that every volunteer reads and accepts this agreement. By registering as a volunteer, you agree that:

 

• You, or companies from which you receive direct benefit, or in which you have a personal interest, will not be introduced for commercial purposes to the Charity clients of CITA. You will immediately disclose to the Charity client if you have any actual or potential conflict of interest.

• If you mention any particular technology or pricing, you must ensure that the Charity is aware that this is not a recommendation but merely market intelligence that you are sharing. You must ensure that they are aware of the need to conduct their own due diligence in any supplier selection process.

• You will only use this site for voluntary activity and not as a way of finding paid work.

• You will engage with the Charity in a spirit of exploration. A placement works well if it's a good fit for everyone and you can only find this out by discussion. An application for a role does not imply commitment, and it's always OK for either party to decide not to proceed.

• You will reply quickly and politely to all communications from the Charity you are volunteering for and will never leave them unclear about your intentions.

• It is acceptable to use work email addresses and communication technology (online meetings etc.) to contact and communicate with charities, we have been clear in our charity terms this in no way implies you are acting as a representative or on behalf of your employer.   

• You will always be realistic about what you can offer, especially time commitments to complete an assignment within a reasonable time period. Often the requesting charity is unaware of the time requirement to complete a project, should you feel that you will not have the availability to begin a project upon first engagement please inform CITA admin as quickly as possible and the project will be reposted.

• If, during the course of any assignment you become aware that you do not have the necessary skills or experience please notify both the Client and CITA immediately and it is imperative that you withdraw from the engagement. The same must apply if you don't have the necessary time available for whatever reason.

• You will maintain your information with CITA to ensure it is always current especially with regard to availability and skills. By submitting information to the CITA portal, you warrant to CITA for the benefit of its Charity clients that such information is accurate, up to date and not misleading and that you are happy for that Charity client to conduct due diligence (including where relevant, DBS checks) on you as they consider appropriate.

 

By expressing an interest in working for a particular Charity or a particular project:

• You will ensure that the information requested from CITA about an engagement is always kept up to date.

• You must ensure that by volunteering you are not breaching the terms of your employment and, where appropriate, you are responsible for getting permission from your employer.

• You will ensure that confidentiality is maintained by not sharing with anyone any information that the Charity may disclose during your project or which you discover during a project. You must take reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of any information. You must never download, copy or remove any personal information which the Charity controls from their systems and must not seek to access any such personal information unless given explicit approval by an authorised officer of the Charity in writing or via email. If such approval is given you must ensure that you put in place appropriate security measures to safeguard any personal information. Upon the conclusion of a project, you must ensure that all information that belongs to the Charity client is deleted from any IT equipment that you own or control.

• You agree to provide advice and guidance to CITA's Charity clients to the best of your ability. CITA contracts with its Charity clients on the basis that volunteers will have no personal liability for the advice or guidance given. However, this exclusion from liability will not apply should you do anything fraudulently, deliberately or in bad faith which causes or may cause the Charity, their supporters or beneficiaries any harm or damages their goodwill.

• You agree that any work that you produce must be delivered to the CITA Charity client at the end of the engagement, even if it is not complete, and grant a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly display and distribute any intellectual property which you create in connection with the engagement.

• It is acknowledged by both the Client and the volunteer that either party is free to terminate any engagement simply upon notice given in writing or via e-mail at any time. Such notice can be effective immediately and no justifying reasons need be given.

• You acknowledge that any Charity client of CITA for whom you undertake a volunteering role is an express third-party beneficiary of the commitments expressed in this Volunteer Agreement and can enforce the same under the terms of the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

• In addition, there are a few things which will avoid misunderstandings and provide CITA with helpful information to ensure the overall process is as efficient as possible:

• If you will need travel expenses, please agree these with the Charity before committing to the volunteer role.

• The Charity must book an appointment within 10 days of you first contacting them. If they do not, then please inform the CITA Admin (contact@cita.org.uk) who can chase up on your behalf. Charities using the CITA service sign up to an obligation for professional communication and appointment management.

• If a Charity cancels or fails to attend an appointment more than twice then please inform CITA Admin (contact@charityithelp.org.uk) who will contact the Charity and cancel their requested service.

 

DATA PROTECTION ACT 2018

The information which you provide will be used for the following purposes: to enable CITA to create an electronic record of your application; to enable the application to be processed; to enable charities to assess offers from volunteers to support them in their requested engagement and to enable the CITA administrator to support the volunteering process and assess and improve services. The information will be kept securely and will be shared with charities when a volunteer has signed up to a particular engagement request. Details of use, retention periods and lawful basis for processing are outlined in CITA's Privacy Policy available here.