Skills-based volunteering has emerged as a crucial asset for nonprofit organizations. Unlike traditional volunteering, which often involves general tasks, skills-based volunteering leverages the specific expertise and professional skills of individuals to address the unique needs of nonprofits. This form of volunteerism not only supports these organizations in achieving their missions but also provides significant capacity-building benefits. By contributing their specialized knowledge in areas such as marketing, finance, IT, and strategic planning, volunteers help nonprofits enhance their operational efficiency, expand their reach, and ultimately create a more profound impact on the communities they serve. Skills-based volunteering represents a powerful synergy between the professional world and the nonprofit sector, fostering sustainable growth and innovation.
Skills-based volunteering supports nonprofit organizations in several ways:
Skills-based volunteers bring their professional expertise to the table, enabling nonprofits to streamline processes and improve their overall efficiency.
Nonprofits often face challenges that require specialized knowledge, such as legal issues, marketing strategies, or technology implementations. Skills-based volunteers provide access to this critical expertise without the financial burden of hiring consultants or full-time staff. For example, a volunteer with IT expertise can help a nonprofit implement a new database system, significantly improving data management and donor tracking capabilities.
By working closely with nonprofit staff, skills-based volunteers transfer valuable knowledge and skills that enhance the organization’s long-term capacity. This mentorship and training empower nonprofit teams to become more self-sufficient and capable of tackling future challenges independently. Over time, this capacity building fosters sustainable growth, allowing nonprofits to expand their services and deepen their impact within the community.
GSK and ViiV Healthcare have partnered with Catchafire to connect their employees around the world with nonprofits looking for pro bono consultants. GSK focuses their charitable investments with organizations that are closely aligned to their purpose - to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. Through skills-based volunteering, skills-based volunteers partner with like-minded charities and community organizations to support programs that have local, national, and international impact in the themes of Health for People, Health for Planet, and Innovators for the Future.
GSK’s partnership with Catchafire is two-fold: they provide nonprofits with access to the platform's capacity building resources, while also engaging their own employees to volunteer and lend their expertise. Organizations have received support in areas such as translation, organizational strategy, and tech systems, allowing them to focus on their missions and communities.
Thanks to GSK’s support, Child Bereavement UK’s access to volunteers on Catchafire has enabled them to complete multiple projects that have boosted their operations, capacity, and programming.
Child Bereavement UK’s mission is to tackle the inequalities that exist in the availability, accessibility, and quality of bereavement support and training across the UK. They provide training to professionals in health and social care, education, the emergency services, and the voluntary and corporate sectors, equipping them to provide the best possible care to bereaved families. Their goal is to ensure that all families have the necessary support and resources they need when experiencing child bereavement.
We spoke to Wendy Bray, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Child Bereavement UK, about their experience on Catchafire, and how skills-based volunteering has helped them advance their mission. Volunteers have provided critical support in areas such as data analytics, brand messaging, and partnership proposals.
Tell us about Child Bereavement UK and your mission.
Child Bereavement UK helps families to rebuild their lives when a child grieves or when a child dies or is dying to reduce long-term vulnerability to poor mental, physical, social, and financial wellbeing. We also train and support professionals working with bereaved families to enable them to provide the best possible care.
As well as delivering one to one and group support, we also provide a helpline which delivers free, confidential support and guidance to bereaved people and professionals. Our mission is to create a truly accessible and equitable child bereavement sector in the UK, building capacity within communities to manage the impact of child bereavement.
Our outreach work in the North of England and across Scotland focuses on identifying gaps in provision and current needs by engaging networks to enable us to innovate and develop our services according to the requirements of the community.
Can you describe the specific challenges your organization was facing before seeking volunteer support through Catchafire?
We have a varied skill set amongst our team with many of our practitioners having very limited computer skills, especially on Excel. Their main role is to support families, but as we need to continue to show efficiencies to our funders, the target number of sessions that a practitioner delivers each day is becoming higher. One of the things that is holding practitioners back is the writing up of case notes and documenting sessions. As one of the leading charities in the sector, we are getting more and more involved in research projects across the sector. Although we have the knowledge, expertise, and skills to do this, we need to ensure that our teams can articulate any learnings clearly to ensure that the sector moves forward and families benefit.
Our other big challenge is maximizing awareness of our charity in a very cluttered charity marketplace. We have very limited resources in terms of time, people, and budget to be able to raise awareness of our work and communicate its importance. People are often immediately put off by our name and the negative connotations of our subject matter and therefore reluctant to support us - especially corporate partners. Talking about death is still a taboo in the UK and many people feel very uncomfortable about it. How we position ourselves and talk about our work Is challenging.
What types of expertise and support did you seek from volunteers, and how were these selections aligned with your organization's goals?
We were looking for someone who was not only skilled in using Excel, but also had the ability to teach online and engage people who may not see the benefit of Excel learning. We also wanted people who weren’t afraid to embrace our cause, which can be very confronting. We have very varied skills here so we needed people who could appreciate that and work with it, as well as people who understood charities and the fundraising landscape in the UK.
Since engaging with Catchafire, what tangible benefits or changes have you noticed in your organization’s operations or project outcomes? What’s a metric you are really proud of?
The big advantage of having access to Catchafire has been the opportunity to get our teams to really think about those projects they want to deliver, but haven’t started because of a lack of expertise or time. It's really encouraging blue sky thinking. The way Catchafire is positioned has really helped this, in terms of the idea that we could be briefing a consultant to do a piece of work for us.
Could you share a particular success story where volunteer support directly contributed to a project or initiative’s success?
One project we asked for help with was ideas on the way the corporate pages on our website looked and flowed. We have been keen to update these for a while to make them more engaging for corporate partners and to make them easier to move around. We wanted them to be a place that potential corporate supporters could get value and would want to visit.
A volunteer from the US took on the project and went above and beyond in providing ideas for the pages. The real value in this was getting ideas from the point of view of a corporation. I was able to have an hour-long session, during which he also provided many tips for SEO maximization and how to engage people on the wider website. These have all been shared with our communications team.
Have there been any unexpected benefits or outcomes from the collaboration with volunteers that you didn’t originally anticipate?
On the corporate fundraising website pages project, we didn’t anticipate the number of tips we would receive on the way our website is set up and how to maximize SEO - that wasn’t the brief, but a very welcome addition. We were able to have a conversation that led to lots of ideas being generated, which wouldn’t have happened with a written proposal. This was possible through Catchafire being set up as it is.
Can you discuss any long-term relationships that have developed between your organization and any volunteers, such as repeat volunteering or other forms of continued involvement?
All the volunteers we have worked with have offered us the chance to contact them again should we need.
How has the integration of skilled volunteers affected your team’s dynamics and your overall organizational capacity?
Of the projects completed and the current ongoing one, we wouldn’t have embarked on any without the help of Catchafire.
Speak to a member of our team today to learn more about how Catchafire can help you scale your grantmaking impact and provide capacity building resources. Together, we can drive positive change in communities.