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Businesses urged to embrace skills-based volunteering as report highlights mutual benefits

Three women sit around table chatting with plates and mugs. They are from the charity Ella's house
Ella’s House

Skills-based volunteering has the potential to revolutionise corporate social responsibility, providing significant advantages to businesses, employees, and charities, according to a new report from Lloyds Bank Foundation for Volunteers Week.

Volunteers’ Week starts today, running until Sunday 9 June, and with this year its 40th anniversary. It is organised by the UK Volunteering Forum, a partnership between NCVO, WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action), Volunteer Scotland and Volunteer Now.

Skills Based Volunteering: A Win, Win, Win analyses mutually beneficial rewards offered by skilled volunteering to businesses, employees, and charities. It highlights the value added when employee volunteering goes beyond a one-off physical activity, to volunteers sharing professional expertise, such as management, finance, IT, HR and marketing, to help charities strengthen and develop their work.

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The report aims to encourage businesses and charities to work together to embrace skilled volunteering as an opportunity for mutual growth that offers potential for helping transform communities. It provides insights and evidence of the benefits of skills-based volunteering for charities, volunteers and their employers: 

Holly Quincey, Talent Acquisition Director, Lloyds Banking Group, said:

“Skills-based volunteering is a brilliant way for professionals to deepen expertise and develop new skills; connect with a community and learn about some of society’s most complex issues. The impact to the organisations supported is often immediate too, with genuine expertise and knowledge in areas such as finance, marketing and project management helping to support long-term solutions and creating a lasting impact. I’d encourage more businesses to build this into their employee development planning and recognise the power of skills-based volunteering for all involved.”

The report also shares learnings and recommendations for developing impactful skilled volunteering programmes, including: 

André Clarke, Director of Charity Development at Lloyds Bank Foundation, said:

Often, when businesses want to help a charity, they opt for a team day and some form of physical activity. Our experience shows there is another way: providing opportunities for employees to share their professional skills that can be of mutual, even greater benefit for employers, charities and volunteers themselves. We’ve seen from the 700 charities we support each year that they are overstretched and find it difficult to find or afford professional skills. Skills-based volunteering offers huge payoffs not only for charities tackling complex issues, but for businesses themselves and their employees working together to help communities thrive.”

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