Frequently Asked Questions

Media Trust’s Volunteer Platform connects charities with media, digital, comms and creative professionals looking to share their skills and experience in support of a positive cause. You can find out more about the Volunteer Platform and how it works through reading this FAQs, and there is further information on our website here.

There are lots of reasons why people choose to volunteer with Media Trust:

• To make a positive impact and affect change in society
• To build awareness around a certain social cause that they are passionate about
• To ‘give back’ and make a difference by supporting charities who do vital work
• To expand their work portfolio with new projects
• To feel part of a wider community of volunteers

To volunteer, you must have a minimum of two years’ professional experience working in media, digital, tech or communications fields, and you must be based in the UK.

When you sign up to volunteer, you will need to tell us about your skills and experience, availability, and the kind of volunteering opportunities you are looking for. Once submitted your profile, we will then start finding a suitable charity to match you with, based on your criteria. The more information you can provide on your sign-up form, the higher the chances of finding a suitable match.

Your skills are invaluable to the charities we support. We are looking for:

• Communications: brand and visual identity, comms strategy and planning, internal comms.
• Content creation: film production and editing, graphic design, social media, and general digital marketing.
• Copy: copywriting, editing and proofreading.
• Media outreach: PR and journalism.
• Website management: web design, web maintenance, data, and analytics.

You can offer various levels of commitment including:

• Quick Fix: 1-4 hours
• Focused Help: 5-8 hours
• Mini Project: 9-12 hours
• In Depth Project: 13 -16 hours

Please select the option that you feel is manageable for you alongside other commitments.

1. Set up your Volunteer Profile
   This will take about 10-15 minutes to complete. You’ll need to provide a clear summary of your skills and experience – this helps charities understand exactly how you can support them.
2. Apply to a Charity Opportunity
   Opportunities on the matches page have been filtered to show opportunities that suit your skills and volunteering preferences. Once you’ve found a volunteering opportunity you like the look of, apply!
3. Match with your Charity
   After you submit an application, the charity will be able to accept or decline you as a volunteer. Remember, they may have interest from multiple volunteers for each role. If they choose to accept, you’ll be introduced to the charity so you can arrange a kick-off meeting to get started.
4. Keep in touch
   We would love to hear about your progress and share success stories with our networks, so please share the difference that volunteering has made to you and the charity you’re supporting. You can do so here [link] if you’re logged in. We’ll also be in touch at the end of the opportunity to ask for your feedback, and we’d really appreciate your views. 

Yes, if you feel you have the capacity and can manage the time commitments of the roles. You can change your volunteer status from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ on your volunteer profile at any time.

Media Trust’s Volunteer Platform connects charities with media, digital, comms and creative professionals looking to share their skills and experience in support of a positive cause. You can find out more about the Volunteer Platform and how it works through reading this FAQs, and there is further information on our website here.

If you are a UK registered non-profit such as a Charity, CIC, CBS, Trust, or Foundation then you are welcome to sign-up to the Volunteer Platform.

We have 25+ years of experience in harnessing the skills and resources of the media and creative industries for social good, with a network of 30+ media, creative and tech industry partners including the BBC, Channel 4, Edelman, Facebook, Google, ITV, Sky, Twitter and WPP to name a few, who we work closely alongside to deliver our programmes.

Our volunteer network is wide with a diverse range of skills – from planners like digital strategists or PR consultants, to hands-on technical skills including filmmaking, graphic design, and content creation. Some of our volunteers will be volunteering alongside their full-time professional roles, while others may be freelance creatives offering a helping hand between projects. To be eligible for the platform, volunteers must have at least two years of professional experience in the media and creative industry and be UK-based.

There are lots of reasons why people choose to volunteer with Media Trust:

• To make a positive impact and affect change in society
• To build awareness around a certain social cause that they are passionate about
• To ‘give back’ and make a difference by supporting charities who do vital work
• To expand their work portfolio with new projects
• To feel part of a wider community of volunteers

Volunteers on the platform have a range of professional skills, including:

• Communications: brand and visual identity, comms strategy and planning, internal comms.
• Content creation: film production and editing, graphic design, social media, and general digital marketing.
• Copy: copywriting, editing and proofreading.
• Media outreach: PR and journalism.
• Website management: web design, web maintenance, data, and analytics.

We advise that our volunteers offer short-term/project-based support in these three ways:

• Mentoring organisations to develop more effective communications strategies
• Creating compelling content, from films and photography to branding and logos
• Training people to develop their own communications skills, confidence, and capacity

• We do not advertise for Trustee or Board Member roles. We would recommend using Reach Volunteering as a good place to advertise these types of roles.
• We do not advertise in-house regular volunteer roles, such as a social media volunteer to create and post content on a weekly ongoing basis. If you are looking for a volunteer role which equates to the responsibility of a full-time role, your opportunity may be better suited to a paid freelance opportunity. Fiverr is a great platform for finding paid freelance creative support.

The availability of volunteers will vary. It can range from:

• Quick Fix: 1-4 hours (usually one day of time)
• Focussed Help: 5-8 hours (usually over 1-2 weeks)
• Mini Project: 9-12 hours (usually over 1-2 months).
• In Depth Project: 13 -16 hours (usually over 2-3 months)

Before creating your opportunity, think about where you have a gap, the type of skills you need to fill it, the time commitment required and what might motivate a volunteer to join your project (for example, how this support may help you achieve your charitable mission).

Bear in mind it may take a little while to find a volunteer match. We recommend posting your opportunity at least 3-4 weeks ahead of when you need a volunteer.

Please consider the practicalities of managing a volunteer such as:

• Vettting: We do not carry out a vetting process, so you will need to follow your organisation’s usual vetting process for volunteers and carry out steps that are appropriate to the role such as interviewing the volunteer, requesting references, and carrying out a DBS check if required.
• Risk assessment: It is worth carrying out a risk assessment to consider how you can deal with any risk related to the volunteer activity, such as a secure process for managing social media account passwords, should a volunteer have access to these. If your volunteer may work with the people your organisation supports, consider how this might affect your safeguarding practices.
• Expenses: Consider if there are any out-of-pocket expenses that will need to be reimbursed to the volunteer such as travel, and lunch if they are volunteering on location.
• Information sharing: If you are working with your volunteer remotely, consider how you will share information in a secure way.
• Creative/intellectual property: If you are asking the volunteer to create content for your organisation, such as text or photos, it is important to make an agreement about the ownership of this content. You can find further advice from NCVO on this subject here.

When you have identified the type of support you need from a volunteer, you can create an account on our Volunteer Platform, and set up a new opportunity. Here are some guidelines for a successful opportunity advert:

• The more specific you are with your volunteer request, the more likely your matched volunteer will accept the opportunity. Please bear in mind that our volunteers are busy working professionals, often with a niche specialist area of expertise, so be clear about what you need.
• The more information about the time that is being requested the better. For example, if you have a particular deadline you are working towards, or you need the help on specific days only, be clear about this.
• Be realistic about the amount of support you are requesting and if it can be completed in the time allowed.
• Bear in mind what might motivate a volunteer to accept your opportunity; see our list of typical volunteer motivations above.
• For more information on how to write a great volunteer opportunity, check out this resource from NCVO.

You’re welcome to create as many opportunities as you like, but we advise aiming to publish one communications request per opportunity. For example, if your organisation is looking for support with developing a campaign around a key awareness date, you may opt to publish one opportunity looking for a social media mentor who can work with you to develop and deliver a social media strategy. You may then need further support to deliver the campaign, such as content creation, videography, or graphic design. For each volunteer opportunity that you request, you will need to complete a new opportunity.

It’s simple. Follow these three steps:  

1. Register and set up your charity profile
   Give a clear summary of what your charity does and the people or causes it supports. It should be easy for volunteers to understand your mission and how your charity’s work makes a positive difference.
2. Create a Volunteer Opportunity
   Outline the specific communications challenge you’re looking for help with. Explain how you think a volunteer can help, and the impact their work could have on your charity and the cause it supports. Looking for examples? Check out our current live opportunities [link] and read up on how to write a great volunteer opportunity [link].
3. Connect with your volunteer
   If a volunteer applies to your opportunity, you can review their profile and choose to accept or decline the volunteer match. If you choose to accept, you’ll be introduced via email.Once you’ve accepted a match, you’re ready to get started. You’ll work directly with your volunteer to deliver the agreed project or piece of work. We try not to interfere in this process too much, but if challenges come up, our team will be on hand to help you resolve them.
4. Keep in touch
   We want to hear about your progress and understand how your matched volunteer has supported your charity. Whether you’ve made a beautiful film with your volunteer, launched a report, created a campaign or sent your first social post, let us know! We can share your success with our networks and help you spread the word.  

We also offer:

• Events – Check out the upcoming masterclasses and workshops on our events page
• Resource Hub – find free guides, toolkits, and blogs on all things digital, marketing and comms
• Training Sessions – we offer a range of free or low-cost communications training and workshops We also provide bespoke communications training tailored to your organisation’s needs
• Newsletter – stay up to date on future events by subscribing to our emails

If you need to change the email address for your charity’s account, please get in touch with us at volunteering@mediatrust.org.

We ask that each charity has one shared account for the volunteer platform. If you’re a larger organisation, we recommend using a shared mailbox such as the volunteering email address of your organisation. For smaller charities, we recommend using the email address of your charity administration inbox. If your charity can no longer access your account, please get in touch with us at volunteering@mediatrust.org.