Call for charities to join pioneering new platform to supercharge volunteer recruitment
Royal Voluntary Service’s new volunteering platform opens for charities to register to upload volunteering roles
Royal Voluntary Service is issuing a call for charities of all sizes to supercharge their volunteer recruitment by signing up to join its new platform.
Following the March announcement of the production of a digital volunteering platform to streamline volunteer recruitment, thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, Royal Voluntary Service is inviting charities to register to join the platform.
The platform has been shaped by Royal Voluntary Service, incorporating ongoing feedback from numerous charities, both large and small, following workshops and user testing including, Highlands health and wellbeing charity Partnerships for Wellbeing and to include Blue Cross. This collaboration is set to continue, with the functionality of the platform being continuously improved over time, and developments such as free criminal record checking and integration with existing volunteer management systems to be introduced at a later date.
Charities will begin to be invited to upload roles to test the platform from June onwards, ahead of the public launch in the autumn, when potential volunteers will be able to browse, search, filter, click and connect with causes and charities they care about.
Charities of all sizes across Britain are being called to utilise the platform to increase their capacity without increasing cost, as the platform and its associated identity checking are entirely free for charities to access.
Royal Voluntary Service research has proven that there is a public appetite for volunteering if opportunities were to align with modern lifestyles. This is particularly true for younger generations, who when asked whether an app or platform offering the ability to volunteer on an ad-hoc-basis and fit in and around their life would make them more or less likely to volunteer, 74%1 of respondents age 16-24 and 78% 1 age 25-34 agreed it would make them volunteer more 2.
The research supports the charity’s goal of inspiring the next generation of volunteers by broadening access to volunteering. Royal Voluntary Service is engaging the sector to make the platform a hub of flexible, accessible digitally-enabled volunteering, in order to strengthen civil society in a moment where formal volunteering is in decline yet demand is increasing.
The platform will also be used to match businesses with suitable employee volunteering opportunities, to optimise their corporate volunteering and social impact activities. This could see the 140 million gifted hours of corporate volunteering that currently go unused 3, being fulfilled to the advantage of charities, causes and communities across Britain.
With these unused volunteering hours there for the taking, the sector is being urged to consider putting forward as diverse a range of volunteer roles as possible, ensuring opportunities are varied and inclusive, from one-off, remote and flexible roles, to team-based, skilled, and traditional volunteering roles. Charities of all shapes and sizes, from sporting or arts charities, to those supporting people living with health conditions, and environmental causes to animal charities, are encouraged to sign up.
"I know many in the sector will agree that it’s time we did things a little differently when it comes to volunteering and volunteer recruitment. It needs to be more accessible and more inclusive. The new platform will help to address what we know to be barriers to active citizenship and will enable volunteering to fit readily into modern lives so that we can empower more people to give their time and to click and connect to the causes they care about. Working with others, we want to create something to support the public, sector and businesses to transact volunteering. We are passionate about ensuring as many charities, causes and support organisations are a part of it as possible.
"It’s immensely exciting to think about what we could collectively achieve for Britain as a sector, if we inspired a new wave of volunteering, and thanks to support from Postcode Lottery players that vision feels within reach."
Catherine Johnstone CBE, Chief Executive of Royal Voluntary Service
"It's inspiring for us to think that our players are supporting something that could create a step-change in volunteering in Great Britain. We work with a range of amazing charities and are eager to see how they harness the power of the platform to recruit and mobilise more volunteers in support of their incredible work."
Clara Govier, Managing Director at People’s Postcode Lottery
"Small community-based charities like ours are always looking for new ways to recruit volunteers. It’s been so great to be involved in the early development of this project which has the potential to be a game-changing tool for people looking for ways to include an element of voluntary work in their lives and so make a difference to the lives of others."
Jeff Zycinski is a Manager at Highland-based charity Partnerships for Wellbeing, and has participated in platform workshops
Royal Voluntary Service aims for the platform to open access to a new generation and a broader pool of volunteers by removing unnecessary barriers and using the power of digital to fit volunteering around contemporary expectations and lifestyles. The charity is working on an ‘on-board once’ process for volunteers, meaning that once a person has registered and completed an identity check, they will be able to move seamlessly between volunteering opportunities, charities and causes through the platform, without the need to re-register and repeat basic assurances.
Charities interested in participating in workshops and webinars, or registering to upload their volunteering opportunities to the platform can find out more and sign up.
Research methodology
1. Combining answer options “1-3” to “More than 30, please specify”.
2. The research was conducted by Censuswide with a sample of 2,002 nationally representative respondents. Quotas were applied to nationally representative proportions for age, gender and region aged 16+. The survey fieldwork took place between 28 February 2025 - 3 March 2025. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.
Data footnotes
3. According to a Censuswide survey of 2,000 UK Adults aged 16+. 30.06% of UK workers are offered paid volunteering days. This equates to 10,176,504 people being offered volunteering days in the UK.* The average number of days offered is 2.34. This equates to an average of 23,794,124days a year being gifted, or 190,352,994hours (based on 8 hour day). The mean percentage of volunteering days taken in the last 12 months is 26.22% = 49,907,338 hours taken in the last 12 months with 140,445,656going unused. According to the latest Labour Force survey, during October to December 2024, the number of people aged 16+ in employment was 33.86 million.
