Become a volunteer

  • Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

    - Dr. Jane Goodall

Volunteers are essential to our work and we cherish each and every one of them. If you are interested in volunteering with us, you can find an overview of our teams hereunder and apply to be part of a team. If you don’t know which team you want to join, just sign up below and we will send you more information. Take a look at our manifest to get a feel for who we are and if we are the right fit for you. We work together in small groups or teams to have better communication and get to know each other. We have monthly online meetings and meet up every quarter for a team building activity.

Please note that we are a diverse organisation with different nationalities and backgrounds. Therefore we use English as our main language of communication with the volunteers.

Tree Planting Team

Our main goal is to get as many people excited about tree planting as possible. We plant trees in Belgium, but with every tree we plant here five additional trees will be planted in Burundi. This means we need a volunteer team that supports our tree planting efforts.

This team will be called upon for tree planting events. Expect to get your hands dirty and to get up close and personal with the forest. You have to love being outdoors and have a hands-on approach. You need a basic understanding about trees and planting. An active lifestyle is part of who you are. You will help people plant trees at these events, so you need to be social and approachable .

The team will also work on making tree planting events more fun, brainstorm on how to connect more with our tree planting activities in Burundi, look for new tree planting opportunities and work together with the Roots & Shoots teams to get more kids involved.

Availability: 4 full days/year

People needed: 5
Roots Team

The Roots Team is the foundation of our Roots & Shoot program. This team will be essential to getting more children and youngsters excited about what we do. We are looking for people who can help us to expand our network of schools, youth groups and other youth organisations. You need to be proactive, know the local (or international) school system and youth organisations and easily make connections. Your task will be to reach out and visit these groups or schools when necessary. You can get people excited about our Roots & Shoots programs, helping us to reach as many kids as possible. This will also require you to do some research.

NOTE: Currently we are looking for people from the Brussels or Vlaams-Brabant area. If you are from a different area, you can also contribute if you want to focus on one of these areas. In the future, we will expand R&S also to other provinces.

Availability: 2 hours/week

People needed: 4
Shoots Team

The Shoots Team are the people who work closely with the youth groups in our Roots & Shoot program. This team consists of people who have experience in working with children (age 4-16) . You will be giving workshops related to nature, biodiversity, animals etc. to different age groups. 

This team also focuses on developing workshops and our educational content. This requires specific skills and knowledge of educational programs and a close connection to the subject. We welcome students, retired teachers or people with other experience in creating content for children. 

NOTE: Currently we are looking for people from the Brussels or Vlaams-Brabant area. If you are from a different area, you can also contribute if you want to focus on one of these areas. In the future, we will expand R&S also to other provinces.

Availability: 1 hour – workshop/week

People needed: 4
Fundraising Team

Team Fundraising supports the Jane Goodall Institute in its current and new fundraising activities to help us meet our fundraising targets in support of JGI’s activities in Belgium and in Africa.

You will have a close look at our donation options online and develop ideas on how to market these better. As a fundraising champion you can also help to work out project ideas and programs including a bequest program, and identify (project) funding opportunities from foundations, public and private institutes. Reaching out to potential donors/sponsors will primarily be done by JGI’s staff and/or board members.

People needed: 3

Availability: 1 hour/week
Communications Team

Write, write, write. You will help to create newsletters, press releases, articles for the website and small texts for socials.

And translate. We live in Belgium, so we always need to communicate in three languages (EN/FR/NL). You are available to translate texts on a regular basis, because news topics pop up unannounced and we need to be able to act accordingly.

Also people with expertise on social media and graphic designers who love to create cool visuals are more than welcome to apply as a volunteer!

Availability: 1 hour/week

People needed: 6
Outreach Team

In order to reach as many people and spread the word of Jane’s Goodall’s message, we need people to share our work. We have divided the tasks in an online and offline team.

Online: This team helps boost our social media posts (likes, shares, comments) and repost them on interesting groups or pages. The people in this group are mainly active online. If social media is a big part of your life and you want to make a difference, this is your shot. Social presence also means analyzing results.

Live: This group of people actively recruits new volunteers, donors and spreads our message. Social butterflies who love going to events and talking to people. 

Because these are two very different profiles, we have created different sign-up forms.

Availability: 2 hours/week

People needed: 4

Availability: 2 hours/week

People needed: 4
Events Team

This team represents JGI Belgium at small and big events. You have an extensive knowledge on everything that the Jane Goodall Institute Belgium does or you are eager to  learn this. You need to be good with people and get them excited about our cause. Events are the ideal place to get people to donate, sign up or spread our message. You also need some creativity and be hands-on to build the stand and attract people’s attention. There will be other volunteers at the event, so you can work well with others. Events take place all over Belgium, and it is no problem for you to get around by public transport or car.

People needed: 4

Availability: 2 hours/week
Campaigns Team

This team will help us to translate (online) campaigns from our global network to our local audiences. They also support our advocacy work in Belgium by advising on topics including biodiversity, deforestation, wildlife, etc but this will vary. You will support us in our advocacy work addressing a broader audience as well as specific, so you need good knowledge of all the stakeholders, have a network in the environmental space in Brussels and abroad. We also work on campaigns that have been created by Jane Goodall Institute Global and are able to translate those towards a local level.

People needed: 4

Availability: 2 hours/week
Support Team

You will be working behind the scenes and support the Institute on a range of activities supporting the organisation of events, day-to-day tasks and research. This research includes looking for new venues, new merchandise, doing research on projects/subsidies, and helping coordinate events. You are able to work independently and good at finding gems, making reports and working with Google Workspace. You are available at least one hour a week.

People needed: 2

Availability: 1 hour/week
Jane’s Team

The only requirement for this team is that you are Jane’s biggest fan! You need to have a good knowledge of Dr. Goodall’s work and research, and her extraordinary life. You have read all her books, have seen all the documentaries or are willing to dive into them to help us create content for our newsletters, social media, website etc.

Availability: all the time

People needed: 1
Network Team

As much as we’d like to see it otherwise, there is only one Jane. She knows it all, but she cannot be with us in Belgium as often as we’d like to. Our network team is composed of experts and ambassadors who help us to overcome this hurdle. Our experts can represent the Jane Goodall Institute Belgium on topics dear to us (primates, biodiversity, animal welfare etc.) as speakers, on panel discussions, podcasts etc, and are our go-to contact for advice on their specific topic. Our ambassadors  have a high profile to reach out to a wide audience including press.

This team is an invite only team. If you want to be part of this team, please contact anouska@janegoodall.be.

If you are unsure of which team you want to be part of, don’t worry. You can fill out the sign-up form and we will give you a clearer outline of all the teams and we can decide together what the best fit would be.

Images: UIi Schillebeeckx / JGIB