A number of potential volunteers we speak to express concern at volunteering on their own. I guess that’s why it’s no surprise that more than 1 in 8 AfID assignments are now taken on by pairs (couples, friends, colleagues). Sometimes both volunteers are accountants, but more often they're not. We now have a very large network of charity partners with a wide variety of needs so there are always opportunities for couples, colleagues and friends to work together or close by at neighbouring partners.

If both volunteers are accountants, we will still ensure that each volunteer has their own scope of work and terms of reference. While there is often some crossover we feel it’s important that each volunteer can take ownership and lead on certain aspects of the assignment in order to make best use of their individual skills and experience.

If your friend or partner is not an accountant but would like to utilise his or her own professional skills, then we would be pleased to arrange an assignment for them too. All of our partners require finance and accounting support, but often they will have many other needs as well and would benefit from the support of volunteers from a huge variety of backgrounds.

Common non-accounting responsibilities can include one or more of the following;

• IT support/implementation
• Marketing and communications
• Office administration
• Trade skills such as carpentry, electrics or bricklaying
• Teaching English
• Coaching sports
• Business development & young entrepreneur skills training
• Healthcare focussed projects
• Project management

Please see below for a small selection of case studies focussing on assignments taken on by pairs: