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  • Animal Centre
  • Mon-Fri 10:00am-4:00pm
  • Emergency
  • Mon-Sun 8:00am-7:30pm

Volunteer

Volunteers are critical to helping us care for animals in need. Whether you work together with us at our animal centre or gift your time within our charity shops, driving animals to veterinary appointments, taking part in events or educating within the community, together we can make a difference.

Can you support our work as a volunteer?

Our volunteers play a crucial role in running our Animal Centre and raising funds. We currently have a variety of roles available from dog walking, cat socialisation, animal fostering, maintenance, events management, cleaning, reception and retail.   

Whatever time you have to spare, we are grateful for the helping hand which enables us to achieve positive change for the animals in our care.

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Volunteer in our shops 

We have four busy charity shops on the Island, based in Newport, Ryde, Ventnor and Sandown. These community hubs are a vital source of funding for us and every item purchased from our shops helps to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome animals in need on the Island. 

We are currently looking for volunteer retail assistants to lend a hand with sales, customer enquiries, sorting donations and merchandising. 

Have you considered Fostering? 

Animal foster volunteers are invaluable, providing a temporary safe place to animals that are not ready for adoption. Often. a spell in a caring home environment is all that is required to help them find their forever home. 
You may foster as often as you are able, this may be every few months or as the need arises, you choose when you can help. Specific details will be provided once you register your interest.
 
Find out more

Animal Carers

Our Animal Centre is always busy with dogs, cats, rabbits, small animals and wildlife to care for. Our team of volunteers support our small team of paid staff with a variety of tasks including cleaning, feeding and socialising. Our dogs always appreciate walks around our field and woodland, or time in our grass runs.
We’ll provide lots of training and support. Due to the nature of our work, all volunteers must be aged 18+.
 

Events Team

Our events programme is growing,  becoming very important to our funding.  This year we’re running a number of our own fundraising events, as well as attending the Chale Show and Garlic Festival.
Roles include running stalls, selling tickets and registering participants, selling refreshments and manning the checkpoints on our cycling challenge. Each event is lots of fun, and an opportunity to chat to the public about our work.
 

Reception Team

Our volunteer receptionists offer a warm welcome to anyone visiting our Animal Centre. Volunteers assist with answering telephone enquiries and checking-in dogs and cats staying at Bohemia Boarding.
Before each animal is adopted, we’ll prepare a pack of information including vet notes and an agreement which transfers ownership to the adopter. Seeing animals leave for their new homes is a particularly rewarding aspect of this role.
 

Drivers – Animal Transport

Could you spare a few hours to transport our animals? We work closely with other RSPCA branches and the national waitlist to help animals in need. Volunteer drivers can help us on an ad-hoc basis by transporting animals to and from the mainland – we have suitable vehicles and ferry crossings arranged. On other occasions, drivers help us by taking animals to the vets, or meeting adopters in Portsmouth.
 

Maintenance Team

We operate a large Animal Centre with extensive grounds. There are always plenty of maintenance jobs to keep the facilities in good condition, including keeping on top of grass cutting and vegetation management. In addition, there’s a variety of DIY jobs at our four charity shops.
 

Become a Trustee

As an independent charity we have have our own board of Trustees who oversee the governance of the charity. We’d be keen to hear from anyone with professional experience in any of the following fields: finance, HR, retail, charity law and governance, animal welfare,  fundraising. Please contact Branch Director, Steve Backhouse, for an informal discussion about the roles and responsibility of being a Trustee: steve.backhouse@rspca-isleofwight.org.uk
 
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FAQs for volunteers

Here are some benefits to volunteering with us.

  • Meet like minded people
  • Gain new skills or developing existing ones
  • The chance to try out something new
  • Doing something useful and rewarding
  • Gaining a sense of achievement
  • Putting something back into the community
  • Develop your personal skills and confidence
  • Creating positive change
  • Making a difference

Anyone can volunteer. We value diversity and encourage volunteers from all sections of the community. 

Regrettably, there are limited opportunities for anyone who is under 16 years of age and various restrictions apply for under 18’s. If you can’t find a volunteering opportunity to suit you, why not create your own fundraising opportunity?

If you’d like to express your interest in volunteering with us, to find out more please contact us at reception@rspcaisleofwight.org.uk.

As a professional animal welfare organisation we take our responsibilities to our animals, to each other and to our community seriously. Our guiding values are; 🐾 caring 🐾 professional 🐾 teamwork

Before you join us as a volunteer, you will be asked to complete a volunteer application form, attend an informal interview and if successful provide references for us to contact (depending upon the role you are applying for). When you start as a volunteer you will be provided with an induction programme and any job related training you may need to carry out the role.

  • There are no minimum or maximum requirements. You can help us make a difference a few hours a month or a few hours a week. It all depends on how much time you have available and the level of commitment you can afford to give.

    Read our full volunteering guidelines.

Register as a new Volunteer
Existing Volunteer Log in
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©2025 RSPCA Isle of Wight Branch. All rights reserved. Registered Charity No. 205311.
©2025 RSPCA Isle of Wight Branch.
All rights reserved.
Registered Charity No. 205311.
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