Why is it so hard to volunteer?

[happinessiseggshaped]

Ok I know this but..
Pretty much every volunteering opportunity I look at requires two professional references. If I had two professional references I wouldn't need to work for free!!!

A professional reference just means one that's not by friends and family doesn't it? Have you no previous employer or teacher you could ask?

Of course many volunteer opportunities need credible references. My company invests a lot in its volunteers and it's crucial that they are a good fit and can get references establishing their reliability, integrity and suitability for working with vulnerable people.

A lot of places use volunteers instead of employees and so they can often have responsible positions.

It's not unreasonable to ask for references - lots of volunteers are in positions of trust and responsibility so it's fair that the right people need to be chosen.

A professional reference can be a previous employer but could also be a teacher, a member of another organisation you have volunteered for, the leader of an activity or club you are a part of etc. If you have none of these it would still be worth contacting the organisation you want to volunteer for to explain why and see if there is an alternative they would accept.

I'm in the same boat. I haven't worked for 15 years, my old company has been bought and changed name, and most of the people I knew there have left, or retired. I don't go to church, I don't belong to any professional organisations, so what do you do?? I will be interested to see any responses, as I am looking to do the same. Perhaps it's just a case of phoning up and explaining....?

I totally understand this.
I am now retired. I worked in the same job for over 35 years. I can get a reference from my previous boss quite easily. However; don't go to any church or organised clubs (my job was full on). I was at university 35 years ago so I'm not sure that any of my lecturers would be available to give me a reference, that's if they remembered me! and I suspect a reference from someone I last saw 35 year ago would not really cut it!
I have lots of skills and energy but can't get a volunteering post because I only have one referee.
It's hard to even give away your labour these days.

Have you looked for a local volunteer centre, CVS or time bank? They will often help match volunteers with organisations and can help you work with places that don't require professional references. And 2 of those and you have 2 professional references.
I've worked for organisations that had volunteers and we didn't always ask for multiple references. But, while volunteers are incredibly valuble to charities they do cost a lot of money to train and they need to be very reliable if they're really going to be of use. We had lots of people "volunteer" for us because it would look good on their CV but they would let us down so regularly that we couldn't ask them to do anything that was important to the organisation or they had to be closely supervised. Volunteers take quite a lot of management so organisations need to be sure they're getting people who will ve able to commit and are trustworthy.