Carter Murray’s volunteering network: Interview with Janet Thorne, CEO of Reach Volunteering

When we first launched the idea of connecting our clients and candidates to skills based volunteering and trustee opportunities, we could never have imagined how popular the initiative would become. With so much growing interest from our networks, we need a constant supply of exciting charities keen to connect with Marketing professionals. 

After a few meetings with Janet we soon discovered a real synergy with Reach Volunteering and could see clearly the potential a partnership with the charity would have on the future of our the project. Carter Murray have teamed up with Janet and her fantastic team. Reach is the leading skills-based volunteering charity in the UK and the single biggest source of trustees for the voluntary sector. Marketing, Digital and Communications professionals can now join their community and connect with so many incredible causes that need your expertise!

We interviewed Janet to find our more about Reach Volunteering, her role within the organisation, why charities need skilled volunteers and why volunteering is important for both the charity and the volunteers self-development. Below is a snippet of Janet’s interview to introduce the Reach Volunteering. The full interview can be accessed by clicking the image below.

Can you tell us about Reach Volunteering?
We connect people who want to volunteer their professional skills with the charities which need those skills. A charity might be looking for a trustee, or for someone to help with a specific project, or they may just need some support and advice on how to run some aspect of their operations. We provide a free online service which supports both charities and prospective volunteers to clarify what they are looking for and to find their perfect match. 

This kind of skills-based volunteering is a win-win for both charities and volunteers. Charities need to be able to draw on the same range of skills as any other organisation, but they are often not adequately resourced to do this. At the same time, there are lots of people with useful skills who want the opportunity to contribute to a cause, or a community, that they care about. By volunteering their professional skills people can make such a big difference to a charity, and have a really rewarding experience themselves. Too few people are aware of skills-based volunteering, but we’re thrilled to see the idea beginning to spread. Through our online service, we are making a growing number of matches every year. Last year over 1000 volunteer opportunities were filled through our service. 

Click the image below to read the full interview.

Register for the Carter Murray Volunteer Network here: https://www.cartermurray.com/blog/2018/01/carter-murray-volunteer-network.https://indd.adobe.com/embed/54838d1d-56b8-41c7-a3d9-55023d95ad31?startpage=1&allowFullscreen=true