voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
Volunteers creating original content for your organisation
Created: 08/02/2024Many volunteers create content for the organisations they volunteer for, such as taking photographs, writing blog posts, or filming videos. This can be a brilliant source of content, helping to promote the work of your organisation and keeping websites and social media up-to-date with your latest activities.
However, ownership and copyright of this content needs to be considered.
Copyright normally belongs to the person or people who make the work. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says that material made by employees belongs to their employer, but it doesn't mention volunteers, so they (not their organisation) have copyright of their work.
Organisations should ask their volunteers to assign (transfer) copyright to them (in writing) to agree a licence in which copyright stays with the volunteer but the organisation can use the work within agreed limits. Without this, volunteers can refused for organisations to use their work.
Read more about the topic and the steps your organisation can take.