Volunteering: An opportunity to learn, discover new talent and escape.

Media Trust has a pretty simple idea at its heart which is about skills-based volunteering.  I’ve been involved with Media Trust since the 1990s, based on the belief and hope that the time and expertise of those in the media world can be of benefit to charities and third sector organisations – especially those that maybe don’t have the funding or resources to invest properly in telling their story with impact and communicating it to as wide as audience as possible.

I’m the Economics Editor of the BBC, so I deal in supply and demand.  The demand for media skills is obvious, from all the great organisations working for positive causes. The supply is on our side of the fence, whether it’s in the print media, television, digital, or in advertising.

But, what’s really interesting about volunteering through Media Trust is that it’s not a one-way journey. It’s an opportunity to learn, to get as much out of it as the people to whom we can offer our support.  Of course, people in the media are always seeking to engage with the world around them. Volunteering offers access to a wide and diverse range of voices and viewpoints – you can discover new talent, uncover and learn new skills and generally escape your own work bubble and appreciate things from a different perspective. All those things are vital to working in the media industry.

That’s why I got involved with Media Trust. I’ve been very lucky to be recently invited onto the Board of Trustees, which I am very proud to do.  There is so much that both you and your organisation can gain from volunteering your skills, so I would encourage everyone to sign up and get involved!