National Volunteer Week 2023

At Salvos Stores, our volunteers are at the heart of everything we do and achieve. If Australians hadn’t been generously donating their time to us for over 100 years, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today.   

This year, the 15th to the 21st of May is National Volunteer Week.

Because volunteers are so important to Salvos, this is a very big week for us! A week to show our volunteer team members nationwide how grateful we are for them and a week to show everyone else what it truly means to be a changemaker at Salvos Stores.  

Last year, Salvos Stores volunteers provided 2,350,260 hours of support within our organisation. That is equivalent to over 268 years of collective service. This staggering amount of volunteered hours amounts to a whole lot of time spent serving customers, sorting donations, organising stock, building relationships, giving back to Australian communities, and supporting the members of these communities who need it most.  

This amount of volunteered time and effort seems even more amazing when you consider the growing cost of living, health, and employment pressures that Australians have been under over the last few years. At Salvos, we know better than anyone that the everyday people who choose to volunteer are generous, kind-hearted, hard-working, compassionate, and dedicated. Yet, we are still constantly awestruck by the capacity our volunteers have to dedicate themselves to supporting those in need, even when times are tough for everyone.  

That said, we never want anyone to donate more to us than they can afford to - and that includes time. If you’re thinking about volunteering with Salvos but are worried that you might not be able to devote enough time to us amidst other commitments, we want you to know that doing what you can is always enough at Salvos Stores. Even if you can only give a few hours each month, you will still be making a difference and gaining access to all of the benefits that our volunteers enjoy. Think… 

✔️Discounts on all Salvos Stores stock, at any of our stores and online.  
✔️Meaningful connections with other team members and customers.
✔️Valuable work experience and retail skills that you can take with you beyond your time with us 
✔️Chances to attend social events and meet other like-minded people. 
✔️A sense of purpose and fulfillment.  

There’s a reason that we call our volunteers ‘changemakers’ - and it's not just that the name has a nice ring to it! It’s because every person who decides to volunteer at Salvos Stores contributes to creating change - for their community, for the planet, and even for themselves. Every donation received, every garment folded, every hour spent, and every item sold by our volunteers goes directly towards this change. Even our volunteers who only volunteer once a month are changemakers every single day of the year. 

If you’d like to volunteer, you can apply to volunteer at salvosstores.com.au/volunteer. If you are a volunteer, we hope that you take a moment this Volunteer Week to feel proud of yourself and everything that you contribute to social and environmental good - because being a changemaker is no small feat! And if you know a volunteer, please pass on that message for us.  

Yours in gratitude, 
Salvos Stores