The best places to find volunteers in 2024

Volunteers are the heart and soul of many charities and non-profits. From founders to trained service providers or event supporters they are a vital resource for the sector – but they can be very tricky to find.

If you’re posting volunteer ads on every site you can find and getting nowhere with recruitment, pause for a minute to think about why.

Try having conversations with a few people who fit the profile for your volunteer target audience. Ask them to look at your opportunities and tell you what might appeal to a potential volunteer and what might be off-putting.

If you can learn what the barriers to volunteering with you are, you can work out how to break them down. Getting the opportunities seen by more potential volunteers might not be the only issue.

The people most likely to volunteer for you are probably already connected to you in some way. In a study by the Stanford Center on Longevity on why people don’t volunteer, one of the main reasons was that they hadn’t been asked. Think carefully about groups on your database that you think could be interested in volunteering and test your theory.

Another issue that you might be bumping up against is how much time people have available to volunteer. Could any of your current volunteer roles be broken down into micro-volunteering opportunities? Micro-volunteering programmes set volunteers tasks that:

• Take less than 30 minutes to complete
• Can be completed remotely
• Don’t require a volunteer application process

Once you’ve discovered and removed the barriers preventing people from volunteering with you, it’s time to shout about your opportunities.

Here are ten places you can post your volunteer roles to reach new audiences:

Your website

Try reviewing your volunteering landing page to make sure it’s doing the job you want it to. Have a look at your site analytics data to see how users are behaving on the volunteering page.

Think about what the audience might need from the page and how easily their needs are met at the moment.

SEO

Make sure you research the keywords and questions that potential volunteers are searching for and include them in the web page copy to help search engines rank your site.

If you have a budget for paid search or a Google Grant you could try investing in paid search to improve your volunteer landing page’s ranking on Google.

Check out our simple guide to SEO.

DoIT

DoIt is the UK’s largest volunteer network and a really good site to get your role seen by lots of people who are already interested in volunteering. Volunteers have to show some commitment by registering with the site to view volunteer opportunities.

Reach Volunteering

Reach Volunteering is a UK-based volunteering organisation. It has a searchable database of volunteer opportunities that charities can add to. Reach has a particular focus on recruiting trustees, who are also volunteers. They have a partnership with The Clothworkers Company on good governance and another with Action for Trustee Racial Diversity.

Volunteering Matters

Volunteering Matters is a charity working in partnership with other organisations on community projects that tackle:

• Social isolation and loneliness
• Improving health
• Developing skills and opportunity
• Making sure young people can lead change

If you need volunteers for a project that fits with their criteria you can contact them about partnering. There are separate sites for projects based in Scotland and Wales. 

Just Serve

The increase in remote working after the pandemic hasn’t been restricted to paid work. Remote volunteering opportunities are on the rise too. The Just Serve site has a specific section dedicated to remote opportunities. As a US-based organisation with a focus on inclusion and faith-based organisations, Just Serve may help you reach volunteers in different communities and locations.

Volunteer Match

Volunteer Match is one of the largest volunteer databases serving charities and non-profits and has helped generate $14bn worth of volunteer time. It promotes volunteer opportunities worldwide.

Points of Light: Engage

Engage is part of the Points of Light initiative set up by US President George Bush in 2009. It was adopted by the UK Prime Minister’s Office under David Cameron in 2014. The site lists volunteer opportunities across the world and Points of Light Awards are granted to people doing inspirational work as volunteers.

Catchafire and Digital Candle

If you’re looking for skilled digital volunteers or people with design, strategic planning or IT skills to help bolster your staff capacity, check out Catchafire and Digital Candle. Both offer charities and non-profits the opportunity to be matched with skilled volunteers who can support them remotely.

Catchafire has pre-designed project templates that range from a one hour call to a short-term project. Digital Candle offers one-hour calls with digital experts on a range of topics.

Local volunteer centres

Local volunteer centres can help you reach volunteers who are looking to give their time in their local area. Here is a handy map of local volunteer centres in England.