The Royal Voluntary Service’s new volunteering platform is now open for charities to register to upload their volunteering roles.
All charities across Britain, whether large or small, can now use RVS’ platform to promote their volunteering opportunities. Both the platform and its associated identity checking service are entirely free for charities to access.
The platform, announced in March, has been made possible by funds raised by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
It has been improved and refined by numerous charities, following workshops and user testing. Future developments after launch will include free criminal record checking and integrating with existing volunteer management systems.
Charities can upload roles to test the platform now, 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.
The Royal Voluntary Service hopes that the sector’s involvement will help make the platform “a hub of flexible, accessible digitally-enabled volunteering”, in order to strengthen civil society at a time when 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, being fulfilled to the advantage of charities, causes and communities across Britain.
Further information is available on the Royal Voluntary Service website.
Source: UK Fundraising