Volunteer with a charity
Looking to give back by sharing your time and expertise? With our volunteer platform, it’s easy to find a cause that aligns with your values and skills.
About our charities
There are thousands of charities across the UK doing incredible work. However, many lack the resources, time, and skills to tell their stories and demonstrate their impact. What’s more, the rapid growth of online media has made it a challenge for charities to make sure their messages are cutting through the noise. Professional volunteer support has never been more crucial.
How you can help
Our platform makes it easy to volunteer your time and share your skills and experience with a charity looking for media and communications support.
Whether you can give a couple of hours of your time or are looking to provide strategic support on a long-term project, you can help by:
- Mentoring a charity to develop more effective communications strategies.
- Creating content to help bring their work to life – from films and photography to logos and branding.
- Training their people to build their skills, confidence, and storytelling ability.
Media Trust are a great organisation who really help charities. We wanted to get involved and help them to support even more great causes. We were matched with the fantastic charity, Voice Collective, who we clicked with instantly and have been helping ever since.
Colin Grist & Thomas Nadin, Founders of creative studio, Few & Far
Eligibility:
Volunteers should be based in the UK and have a minimum of two years’ professional experience in media, digital, tech or communications.
Find a charity
Step 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.
Step 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!
Step 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.
Keep in touch
We love to hear about your progress and share success stories with our networks, so please share the difference volunteering has made to you and the charity you’re supporting. We’ll be in touch at the end of the opportunity to ask for your feedback, and we’d really appreciate your views.
If you have any questions or require further help, please get in touch with us at volunteering@mediatrust.org.
Register todayGet the most out of volunteering
Here’s our top tips to ensure you get the most out of your volunteering experience:
- Get to know the Charity: Once you’ve matched with a charity, take time to research the work they do and revisit their brief. Prepare some initial questions for your first meeting to understand the communications challenge they face
- Discus your timetable: Be open and realistic about how much time you can commit. Agree when and how often you will speak and confirm key deliverables and dates. If your plans change, be honest and clear about your circumstances
- Be realistic and creative: Often charities have no budget and no staffing resource for their communications work. You might need to think creatively to find low-cost solutions
- Think from the charity’s perspective: Your charity contact might be the only person responsible for the organisation’s communications. Please bear this in mind when giving tips and advice and ensure they are practical to implement
- Speak the same language: Establish clear and direct communication. Forget corporate jargon and confusing acronyms
- Communicate regularly: Keep in touch and update them with progress, challenges and deadlines
- Agree on ownership of work: if you’re going to be producing creative content or assets on behalf of the charity, make sure you discuss who has final ownership of the work
- Have fun: Volunteering is a fun and meaningful way to explore your interests and passions
Our Corporate Partners
We enjoy outstanding support from the media industry. Our partners include:
