Samenvatting

Executive summary
Promoting animal welfare has been one of the main missions of Four Paws International (FPI). Therefore, in 2016, Four Paws Viet built a bear sanctuary where former bile bears could have a good life after spending years in cages. After four years of development, bear sanctuary Ninh Binh (BSNB) has managed to provide a species-appropriate habitat for up to 30 bile bears. Also, the bear sanctuary has been attracting volunteers and tourists. With the main intention to spread awareness about animal welfare and the reputation of Four Paws Viet, they are planning to launch a professional volunteer program in 2020.
This thesis project could help BSNB by providing recommendations about the development of a volunteer program with the focus on the recruitment process, the collaboration between paid staff and volunteers, and the benefits of the local community. In the first step of the thesis, a literature review was conducted to find out the definitions of volunteer management and local based development. After this, the research methodology was described.
Then the results of both desk research and interviews were shown. The result helps to give two alternative solutions, they are A. Design a volunteer handbook and B. Implement a volunteer management software, C. Open English courses for the local and D. Organize dinners for volunteers at the local houses. To benchmark the two solutions to choose the most useful and suitable solution for BSNB, the multi-criteria analysis (MCDA) was used. The final result of MCDA shows that designing a volunteer handbook is a more suitable solution for BSNB at this moment. The main layout and its specific content were elaborated in the research paper and the appendix. Next, an implementation plan for the volunteer handbook was elaborated in the form of Plan, Do, Check, Act model is described. Then, the financial implications for the organizations were estimated. This way, BSNB could have an overall view on all possible solutions and see the recommendations for the execution plan of the most sensible solution.