How office volunteering can help you develop

Office-based volunteering is a fantastic way to develop your professional skills while also providing incredible support and an invaluable fresh perspective for Turn2us.

On the one hand, office volunteering helps you experience first hand the way organisations work. It often allows you to get involved in a flexible way, enabling you to learn about the areas which interest you most.

On the other, organisations also increasingly welcome the opportunity to have the extra help and unique perspective of a volunteer with them in the office.

Mutual benefit sits at the heart of so many incredible volunteer opportunities. At times, it almost seems too good to be true – how can volunteer and organisation benefit so much from something?

Turn2us office volunteering

To find out more, we spoke with one of our amazing office volunteers, Kostas, and Matt, the manager of the Communications team he volunteers with.

Kostas

Kostas was looking for a role which could provide him with relevant experience: “Generally, my interests were in being creative in any way I could, while also getting involved in the community by offering my services. Thus, in this way I could practise my skills and I could become experienced to the subject I wanted to.

“I chose to get involved with Turn2us because I liked the idea of working in a creative field while in an office environment that could improve my skills. At the same time, it allows me to get involved in an extremely interesting and important area of work. I find the website and tools the charity provides incredible.

“I would say to anyone thinking of volunteering in the office as I have, it’s a great opportunity to explore new abilities in the charity field and the skills you learn can be applied anywhere – professionally or elsewhere in your community.”

Matt

Matt, who has been working with Kostas, said: “Having volunteers in the Communications Team has been a real asset. The very nature of a lot of our work means that we speak to a large number of internal and external stakeholders every day. Having the extra resource to help organise and disseminate marketing materials, track engagement with partners and the media, update journalists lists has been a huge benefit and something that we will want to continue. We owe a lot to our volunteers."

Positive impact of volunteering

So there we have it, volunteering in the office is a great way to develop your own skills and understanding of an organisation’s work - and a huge help to the organisation itself. The ultimate win-win!

Here, at Turn2us, we believe wholeheartedly in celebrating the positive impact volunteering can have not only on those it directly supports but on the volunteers themselves. We’ve seen office volunteers grow, learn and do incredible things – it’s something we simply can’t celebrate or shout about enough.

Think about those organisations you hold closest to your heart or whose work interests you, perhaps volunteering with them in the office could be the perfect way to get involved.

Interested in becoming a Turn2us volunteer?

Find out about other volunteering opportunities with Turn2us

Email us at volunteer@turn2us.org.uk if you have any questions.