Opinion July 2009 - Second glance: Mary's Orpington makeover miracle

Chairty shops thrive with good managers who have a positive and active relationship with their local volunteer centre which will advise, trouble shoot, broker volunteers, provide free training, support volunteers, market and keep up to date existing volunteering opportunities and suggest new ones to attract a greater diversity of volunteers into new roles. Charities need to keep up to date and pay their volunteer managers competative salaries, invest in training and development of their volunteers and reap the rewards of increased funds, raised profile of their cause and image. Volunteers will be attracted to bright and well managed shops ,with accrediated training programmes and a variety of volunteering roles on offer. For example finance and administration roles are often highly sought after and will help in the running a profitable shop