5 Unique Ideas For Employee Volunteering (London)

When it comes to giving back as a business, corporate volunteering is one of the most impactful ways to make a difference... if it's done right.

Central London and the surrounding areas are full of neglected green spaces, community groups, social impact organisations, and resource-lacking charities that could be entirely transformed with the support of a corporate team.

Still, with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to know how to organise your employee volunteering, where your staff are going to create the most impact, and which cause will resonate and be the most rewarding for your team.

Not only do traditional, 'fence-painting' corporate volunteering opportunities rarely create much impact, they’re also expensive, time-consuming and complicated to organise.

With 1000's of projects available on the Matchable platform, in London and across the world, we've collated 5 far more unique, modern and innovative approaches to corporate giving to seriously engage your team and help them get the most out of their volunteering event.

Support Local Black-Owned Businesses: Black Culture Market

Black Culture Market are one of the newer organisations to join the Matchable platform, and we're really inspired by what they're doing!

Based in Brixton, they're working to bridge the wealth gap for black-owned businesses through their quarterly events, giving visibility to entrepreneurs of African or Caribbean decent.

Volunteering with them, you’ll not only be supporting systemic advancement for African and Caribbean communities in your city, but will also be increasing accessibility to cultural products.

Black Culture Market are looking for corporate partners to help with the setup and organisation of their upcoming events, so that they run smoothly and have the biggest impact that they can. If you're looking for a South London volunteering day requiring practical work, and your team are especially passionate about equality, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Supporting Young Refugees: Refugee Youth Service

Helping young refugees to re-build their lives, Refugee Youth Service are an amazing non-profit, founded by two friends in the Calais 'Jungle' camp in 2015.

They support displaced children and young people trying to re-start, and have launched a UK training course to improve the care and reception of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK.

They're currently looking for volunteers to help out with maximising the reach of their 'Journey with an Unaccompanied Child' training initiative. 

This is a brilliant opportunity for any employees wanting to apply their creative branding and marketing skills to a good cause and create another positive impact case study for their CV.

Connecting People With Green Spaces: The Conservation Volunteers

This is the perfect corporate volunteering programme for any large or small groups looking to get involved with green spaces in their local areas.

The Conservation Volunteers are looking for corporate partners to partake in practical conservation activities to help encourage biodiversity in green spaces in north London.

Whether it's litter picking, habitat management, or surveying wildlife meadows, your rewarding day will make a massive difference to the wildlife and local community.

Tackling Digital Exclusion: Catbytes Community

CatBytes is an innovative organisation in Lewisham, providing 1:1 digital training and recycled computer equipment to people from marginalised or underserved backgrounds in London.

This is a really unique volunteering project for any teams with branding and design expertise, who are happy to review and give feedback on CatBytes' current branding and brand design assets, and help to further their work increasing digital access across London.

This project can be done fully remotely, and also provides a satisfying challenge for anyone interested in digital marketing.

Help Disadvantaged Youths Access Education: The Access Project

With this Wapping based organisation, you can get the chance to tutor a disadvantaged young person aged 14-18 online, and help them access more education and employment opportunities.

This is the perfect project for any company seeking to make a significant contribution to the next generation in their local community, and support them in securing graduate-level jobs and a higher income in the future.

You only need to volunteer 1 hour per week towards your tutoring, and it's a fantastic way to help your employees feel more valued and motivated in their role.

Why Is Corporate Volunteering Important?

A fun and successful volunteering event can have multiple, real-world benefits; not only for the charity your employees are supporting, but also for your company itself!

Your team can grow new skills and confidence through volunteering, develop a deeper sense of fulfilment in their work, feel more valued in their current role, and cultivate a stronger sense of unity across the entire company and workforce.

Projects range from skilled remote advising to practical, team building projects, but they all help you find new paths towards hitting your CSR (corporate social responsibility) goals and improving employee wellbeing.

Want A Bespoke Volunteering Project?

If you're looking for volunteering that perfectly matches your team's experience and the causes they care about, then a platform like Matchable - that matches individuals based on their personal skills and interests - could be exactly what you're looking for.

But we can also help with more custom solutions too! Maybe you have an existing relationship with a charity in your area and you'd love to help them in a bigger way?

We can take the stress out of corporate volunteering and completely manage the organisation of your volunteering event, catered specifically to the new skills you want your team to develop, and your availability. See below for further details:

How To Get Started with Employee Volunteering Across London

So you're seriously considering implementing volunteering opportunities for your team? There are lots of ways you can give back as a company, from corporate giving to sustainable office practices, but with an average of £1,920 impact value per employee project, skills-based volunteerism like the kind here at matchable is really in a whole world of it's own when it comes to creating a tangible positive difference.

If you're curious about exactly what we do, and how we connect you with charitable organisations and social impact orgs in London, then let's set up a chat and we can see what's possible for you!