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SEEK Volunteer
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Help & Support

Common Questions

For Volunteers

On the homepage click on the 'Opportunities' tab, from here you can search by organisation name, opportunity name, key words or location. To further assist you find a suitable opportunity, you can also refine your searches using the filters based on your requirements (category, day & time, duration etc).

Once you have found a suitable opportunity click on the 'Apply' button at the bottom of the page. You will then be required to enter details about yourself which once submitted will be sent on to the community organisation .

We understand that there may be a few opportunities that you are interested in. However, there is a limit to how many you can express interest in at one time. We recommend you choose your top two or three and then wait to hear back. This limit is in place to prevent organisations becoming overloaded with expressions of interest and to help you prioritise your selections.

This depends on the organisation who is listing the position. Some organisations only have part time staff/volunteers. If you haven't heard anything at all from them after one week then we recommend you contact them directly.

When you first communicate with the community group, be open and honest about your level of commitment (make sure you really consider your professional and personal commitments). If you think that it's too much of a commitment, then you are entitled to withdraw. However, once you agree to proceed with the volunteering, the community group will be relying on you and it costs them time and money if you pull out of the project.

Yes, when you search for an opportunity/ organisation on SEEK Volunteer there is the function on the site that allows you to sign up for notifications on that search. All you need to do is enter your email address to subscribe (the option to sign up for notifications will appear at the bottom of your search result).

You can also flag opportunities as favourites , so you can revisit them later. So if you like it but you’re not quite sure yet click on the 'Favourite Opportunity' button and when you visit the site next time you'll be able to easily view the opportunity under the 'Favourites' tab.

No. There are no charges to use SEEK Volunteer for volunteers or community groups.

Your personal details are passed on to the organisation who listed the position you have expressed interest in and a copy kept in our database. For more information please read our privacy statement.

It is important to ask the organisation you are volunteering for if they have insurance to cover you in the case of accident or injury, as Volunteers are not paid employees and are therefore not covered by WorkSafe. You should ask the organisation if they have both Public Liability (the policy must mention Volunteers) and personal accident insurance for volunteers.

Please ask the community organisation you are volunteering with to provide you feedback on your volunteering if you wish.

On SEEK Volunteer you are unable to provide feedback on your volunteering experience, however you can provide your feedback on your volunteering experience directly to the community organisation.

No SEEK Volunteer does not currently have a mobile app but our website is mobile friendly.

As SEEK Volunteer continues to support both organisations and volunteers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a new requirement has been added to the posting from for organisations to use in relation to a volunteer COVID-19 vaccination requirement.

Due to laws or public health orders that mandate Covid-19 vaccination we have provided this option to organisations who have a requirement for their workforce to be vaccinated in their respective industries. Including this requirement allows organisations to be transparent around their needs which may include compliance to a government health directive.

Yes, some organisations may have, or may be moving to, a mandatory vaccination policy for their workforce. Whether organisations can introduce mandatory vaccination will largely depend on the industry they operate in and on the nature of the specific volunteer role. Organisations must have legitimate grounds to ask for a volunteer's vaccination status in light of the role being advertised. It is up to organisation to ensure that they are legally permitted to ask about volunteer’s COVID-19 vaccination status as part of their recruitment process.

A summary version of an individual's SEEK Profile that is shareable with organisations outside of SEEK via a unique link. Learn more

At this stage you must using SEEK on a web browser to create the link.

For Community Organisations

To sign up a new organisation for SEEK Volunteer please complete the online application on our website.

  • SEEK Volunteer has been operating in New Zealand since 2015
  • We are free service to both Not-for-profit organisations and Social Enterprise
  • SEEK Volunteer works collaboratively with Volunteer New Zealand to enable more individuals to volunteer
  • We continue to promote volunteering in the community
  • There is no costs involved for Community organisations and Volunteers and
  • We have a feature on our site that allows potential volunteers to be emailed when new opportunities are posted on our site.

No, there is no cost involved for community organisations using SEEK Volunteer.

To reset your password simply click on the 'Forgot your password' link on the sign in page of SEEK Volunteer

To update your details please contact our support team by emailing them at [email protected]

To consolidate your accounts please email our team at [email protected]

Yes, organisation are able to have multiple email addresses link to their profile.

Organisations should only have one profile on SEEK to avoid duplications. However if your organisation has different locations across New Zealand you can have multiple profiles, we would recommend the new profiles include your location in the organisation title.

SEEK Volunteer works collaboratively with Volunteering New Zealand, who have a number of really useful resources to help you work with volunteers more. To check them out visit www.volunteeringnz.org.nz

No SEEK Volunteer is only for New Zealand based opportunities. If you are interested in posting opportunities in Australia please have a look at the SEEK Volunteer Australia website www.volunteer.com.au

CSRF token error messages

The SEEK Volunteer website uses a token to prevent 'Cross-Site Request Forgery'. This is a standard technique to ensure requests coming from your browser are legitimate. If you're seeing a CSRF error message when logging into your SEEK Volunteer account, you can try resolving it yourself by following the simple solutions below:

Invalid or missing CSRF token

This error message means that your browser couldn’t create a secure cookie, or couldn’t access that cookie to authorise your login. This can be caused by ad- or script-blocking plugins, or if the browser security preferences have been set to not allow to cookies.

To address this issue, follow the instructions for your browser.

Chrome

  1. Open Chrome Settings.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and click on Advanced.
  3. In the Privacy and security section, click on Content Settings.
  4. Click on Cookies.
  5. Next to Allow, click Add.
    1. Copy and paste "[*.]seekvolunteer.co.nz" and click Add.
    2. Then copy and paste "[*.]cloudfront.net" and click Add.
  6. Under All cookies and site data, search for SEEK Volunteer, and delete all SEEK Volunteer related entries.
  7. Reload Chrome and log into SEEK Volunteer.

Firefox

  1. Open the Firefox Options menu.
  2. On the left, select Privacy & Security.
  3. Under Cookies and Site Data click on Manage Permissions.
    1. Copy and paste "https://seekvolunteer.co.nz" and click Allow
    2. Then copy and paste "https://cloudfront.net" and click Allow.
  4. Click Save Changes.
  5. Next, click on Manage Data.
  6. Search for "SEEK Volunteer" and select Remove All Shown.
  7. Click Save Changes and confirm in the pop-up window by clicking Remove.
  8. Reload Firefox and log into SEEK Volunteer.

Safari

  1. Open Safari Preferences from the drop-down menu in the navigation bar or by typing Cmd + , (command & comma).
  2. Click the Privacy tab and make sure that "Cookies and website data" is set to either "Always allow" or "Allow from websites I visit".
  3. Click on Manage Website Data to see all locally stored website data.
  4. Search for “SEEK Volunteer” and remove all SEEK Volunteer-related entries.

CSRF tokens mismatch

This error message is caused by privacy extensions. If you are running any privacy extensions such as Ghostery or Privacy Badger, make sure to add admin.seekvolunteer.co.nz and seekvolunteer.co.nz as a trusted website.

Still having issues?

If the above steps haven't fixed the issue, please send us the following information to assist in troubleshooting the problem:

  • what were you trying to access on SEEK Volunteer?
  • the steps you've taken so far, including screenshots* of each step and add them to your email to us
  • the browser/s you use
  • the anti-virus software you use
  • the operating system? (e.g. Windows 10, macOS10.15)
  • if you tried using another device, did you have the same issue?

If you're not sure of the answers, this website can help find your operating system and browser information for you - www.supportdetails.com

Once you have this information, please email it to us at [email protected]

*To take a screenshot of the current window press the Print Screen button – it’s located above the delete key on most Windows keyboards (or Command-Shift-3 on a Mac). Then press Ctrl-V to paste it into the email.

Yes. As SEEK Volunteer continues to support both organisations and volunteers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re providing an option to organisations who have a need for vaccinated volunteer in their respective industries. COVID-19 vaccination has now been added as an option to the requirements list. This list also includes requirements such as drivers licence and NZ police vetting.

When using the SEEK Volunteer Admin Centre to post your opportunity, you will come across a ‘Requirements’ section towards the bottom of the posting form. It’s as simple as ticking the check box next to COVID-19 vaccination and this will show on the right hand bottom corner of your volunteer opportunity once published on the site.

There will be certain situations where it is lawful and reasonable for you to request confirmation of a volunteers COVID-19 vaccination status. You must ensure that you are legally entitled to ask this question as part of your recruitment process. If you are unsure, you should seek independent legal advice.

**Useful resource **

Worksafe - Assessing whether a specific role needs to be performed by a vaccinated worker

Toolkit to help workplaces, non-profit groups and other organisations to support COVID-19 vaccinations in their communities: Tool Kit

Employment New Zealand - Vaccines and the workplace

A summary version of an individual's SEEK Profile that is shareable with organisations outside of SEEK via a unique link. Learn more

The link will be included in the application email and also in your dashboard in your SEEK Volunteer administration portal dashboard. Keep in mind, not all applications will have this link.

Yes. Any opportunities that do not meet the definition of volunteering. This may include but not be limited to anything that requires a time commitment of over 15 hours per week (including lead tenant and foster carers), requires volunteers to take part in medical or clinical trails and any opportunities that require volunteers to pay fee to enable them to volunteer (eg: A bond, donation, etc).