As part of our corporate volunteering, we offer tree planting days in the Winter months and tree care days in the Spring/Summer. We can host large teams and are easily accessible from Bristol, Bath and the surrounding areas, which is rare for nature restoration projects of this size.
Working with ANT brings a wide range of benefits to your team:
- Make a demonstrable impact toward fighting the climate and nature emergencies and leave a local legacy for generations to come.
- Undertake a tangible project with a real sense of achievement at the end of it
- Upskill employees as they learn new green skills from our expert staff and Volunteer Leaders
- Connect with each other and work together as a team, socialise and network, with opportunities to bring clients along too
- Reconnect with nature, as volunteers immerse their senses in the natural environment, which is proven to reduce stress and provide benefits for mental health and wellbeing
Corporate volunteering is one of many ways to get involved with and support our work. We create long standing, mutually beneficial partnerships with our corporate supporters.
Please get in touch with us via corporates@avonneedstrees.org.uk to enquire about booking a volunteering day for your team or to explore a wider partnership with Avon Needs Trees.
Activities
Tree planting
Our tree planting season is from November to the end of March. A tree planting day is a wonderful way to blow the cobwebs away, get stuck into a hands-on task. You’ll have a real and tangible sense of achievement at the end of the day, seeing the young trees in the ground.
The day starts with an introductory talk about the site, its importance in the wider context of nature recovery and a detailed briefing of work that will be carried out that day. Volunteers leave tree planting days feeling fulfilled and reconnected with nature, having learned new green skills from our expert staff and Volunteer Leaders.
Tree care
From May, our tree care and habitat management season begins, running over the summer to the end of September. This is an opportunity for volunteers to see the lifecycle of ANT’s work, and help to care for the trees that were planted in previous winters. Our techniques and interventions contribute to our above 90% tree survival rate, well above the average of 60-70%.
Surrounded by grassland and wildflower meadows, you are immersed in nature and able to witness the biodiversity of these habitats, with butterflies, swifts and swallows flying around. Activities involve weeding, trimming, mulching, maintaining wildlife habitats and many other tasks that are vital to the survival of our saplings.
For more information, read our section below ‘More on what to expect’.
Benefits
An enriching volunteering experience – an engaging team building day, a change of scenery away from the desk where staff can learn new skills, reconnect with nature and each other, boosting wellbeing.
A certificate of impact – after each corporate volunteering day a certificate is provided including the number of attendees, hours volunteered and details of the task completed. These statistics can be used in impact and ESG reporting and can be shared internally, publicly and with stakeholders.
Promotion of your impact – celebrate your team’s contribution to ANT’s work on your comms channels, share your impact statistics and tell the story of the benefits this had for your team’s wellbeing and team working.
Longevity of impact – Contributing to ANT’s mission of permanence, supporting Avon Needs Trees financially and with volunteer hours ensures that the tasks completed by volunteers are truly impactful over time, as an investment in ANT allows us to continue to care for the trees that are planted into the future.
Fees and confirming your booking
There is a £75 +VAT charge per head for teams of 10-25 people. For teams of 10 or less there is a fixed fee of £750 +VAT. These fees enable us to recover the costs of time and resources used to administer and facilitate corporate volunteering days, ensuring that your volunteering has a net-positive impact to the charity. A 15% discount is available for teams from the emergency services and charities.
The fee entitles you to some exciting benefits such as a certificate of impact which you can share internally, publicly and on your company impact reports to celebrate your hard work and contribution. This and other benefits are outlined in more detail in the benefits section below.
Please note that this is a commercial fee and as such, cannot be reported as a charitable donation.
Enquiries
We will work with you to arrange a suitable date and agree your chosen number of attendees.
We can host groups or up to 25 people. For groups of 15 and under we will combine the day with public volunteers to ensure we have enough hands on deck to complete our ambitious planting and maintenance plans for the day.
We will work with you to arrange a suitable date and agree your chosen number of attendees.
Please email corporates@avonneedstrees.org.uk to request a booking or ask any questions.
Testimonials
95% of post-volunteering feedback respondents said the day benefitted their overall wellbeing!
“I had an amazing day. It was very well organised and we knew exactly what we had to do. The ‘officials’ were very friendly and welcoming. It was an amazing day – to be able to spend the day outdoors doing something physical rather than sat in an office all day AND knowing that we were doing something positive to the environment and wildlife – brilliant.”
“Thanks for a great day! We managed to plant 500 trees as a group, and that felt very powerful. The day was very well organised. We had everything we needed and were given very clear instructions about how to plant the trees, as well as information about how what we were doing fits in with the plan for the land overall. There was also excellent support from volunteers throughout the day.”
More on what to expect
Activities: Tree planting or maintenance and care. Please note that activities are subject to change depending on weather conditions and the changing demands of our planting and maintenance plans.
Tree planting is a physical activity, involving walking, digging with a spade and bending down/crouching. It is important that everyone is prepared for a physical day, has had a decent breakfast and brings some lunch and water bottles with them. Tree planting season takes place over winter, so the weather can be cold, windy, wet and unpredictable, so it is important to bring appropriate clothing and footwear.
Volunteer group days will be cancelled if there is a forecast for any dangerous or extreme weather, or if the weather becomes too unpleasant to continue on the day. Our volunteers are of course looked after with tea, coffee and biscuits provided. See equipment and facilities in the next section for more details.
Time: 10am – 3pm. Please arrive promptly at 10am so everyone is together for a team briefing. Lunch is around 12.30.
Location: Our Chew Valley sites are a 30-40 minute drive from Bath and Bristol where we are regularly planting and maintaining with volunteers. We also have sites in Wiltshire, if this is more suitable for your team please let us know as we perform regular maintenance of our more established woodlands. More information on our sites here.
What to bring: Water bottles and a ‘keep cup’ or mug if you would like a drink of tea or coffee. Please bring your own lunch – there are no shops nearby! Make sure to wear appropriate clothing listed in the Facilities and equipment section below and please bring gardening/work gloves if you have them, but we do have spares on site for you to borrow if you need to. Tools and equipment and tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided, but remember to bring your own mug or ‘keep cup’.
Parking: Our sites have limited spaces for parking, so we ask that you use public transport or active travel and car share wherever possible. There is safe storage for bikes on site and we will provide public transport information where appropriate when we have confirmed your volunteering date and location.
FAQs
What facilities and equipment do you provide?
Due to the physical nature of the work, volunteers must wear suitable and comfortable clothing. For winter tree planting days, we strongly encourage bringing your own work or gardening gloves, waterproof trousers, waterproof jackets and wellies, and to wear warm layers. We have a limited number of spare work gloves, waterproofs and wellies on site, in varying sizes. For warmer weather volunteering sessions, we recommend wearing light long trousers and a light long-sleeved top to avoid too much exposure to the sun and protect against tick bites. Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses with suitable UV protection are also advised. Tools and materials will be provided.
There are compost toilets on site with sanitary bins and hand washing facilities. Drinking water, boiling water, tea, coffee and biscuits are provided but please bring your own ‘keep cup’ or mug for hot drinks, your own lunch and water bottles.
Why do you charge a fee?
The fees enable us to recover the costs of time and resources used to administer and facilitate corporate volunteering days which ensures that your volunteering has a net-positive impact to the charity. This fee also enables workplace volunteering teams to contribute to our mission of permanence – by supporting Avon Needs Trees financially and with volunteer hours it ensures that the tasks completed by volunteers are truly impactful over time, as an investment in ANT allows us to continue to care for the trees that are planted into the future.
Once we have agreed your date and team size, we will issue an invoice and the payment acts as a commitment to secure the spaces you have booked in our planting or maintenance plans. We will then make arrangements for staffing, Volunteer Leaders and make plans for the activities accordingly.
What if we need to cancel?
Cancellations are fully refundable up to two weeks prior to the event. Cancellations made within two weeks of the event are non-refundable. This is because we will have secured staff, Volunteer Leaders and made plans for the activity to be completed for the group size that has been booked. If cancelled, will be unable to replace the group with public volunteers with less than two weeks notice and therefore are at risk of losing a vital planting or maintenance day in the season.
Avon Needs Trees will complete a risk assessment one day prior to the event and if weather conditions are forecast to be unsafe for volunteers to complete the planned activities, the day will be cancelled and your team representative will be informed as soon as possible. In this event, the event will be rearranged to an alternative date as soon as possible, ideally within the same season, ie. if a tree planting day is booked, we will endeavour to rearrange the event onto another tree planting day. However, in some instances, we may need to rearrange the date to later in the year into the next season and the activity may need to swap to tree care and maintenance instead of planting.
Where does the money go?
A proportion of the fee will be directed to the project budget of the project you are supporting, and the rest will support our core running costs which contributes to the time and resources used to administer and plan the event.
Can we still volunteer as a group if we can’t pay the fee?
Our public volunteering events are free and open for anyone to attend. Each individual volunteering must register with ANT as a volunteer here, they can then view our current public volunteering events and the team can choose a date that works best for them. Please note our public dates get booked up by regular volunteers so it is important to check the number of spaces available which can be seen when you click on the event and scroll to the bottom.
Each volunteer must book their own space on the event so we know the expected number of attendees and have the required information for health and safety and planning purposes. Individuals are representing themselves rather than attending on behalf of their employer, so we would ask that the activity is not celebrated or promoted publicly, for example on social media, as a company event or activity.
