We Published a Report on Corporate Skilled Volunteering; Here’s What I Learned in the Process

Link UP's Corporate Partnerships Manager reflects on her top lessons drawn from the latest academic research and results from the field of corporate skills-based volunteering

Jan 2025

Two years ago, I started at Link UP London, tasked with developing and scaling our Corporate Skilled Volunteering programme, Social Impact Solutions. While I had background across both the charity and corporate sectors, I was new to the world of volunteering and Corporate Social Responsibility. As part of my onboarding, I made it my mission to get my brain across the latest research on skilled volunteering. From there, the Link UP team review of skills-based volunteering data and literature was born.

Fast forward twenty-four months and as our Social Impact Solutions programme has grown, we’ve been keeping a very close eye on the developments in the field. Skills-based volunteering in the corporate space is really taking off in the UK and along with it, there’s a growing body of qualitative and quantitative evidence to explain what it can do and why it’s important.

As the culmination of our internal review of evidence coming from the sector, we recently published our research report on the field of skills-based volunteering, “Building Bridges: The Intersection of Skilled Volunteering and Corporate Social Impact”. It’s chock-full of important data and insights but for the really busy among us the question remains: what do I need to sit up and pay attention to, today?

With that question in mind, I set out to summarise what I learned in compiling and publishing the report, distilled into three simple learnings:

Volunteering is changing, and skills-based volunteering is bucking the trend

There’s no denying it: volunteering in the UK is in decline.  There are 1.6M fewer people volunteering regularly in the UK than there was in 2018 before the pandemic.  This is a very troubling trend for the charitable sector, who relies so fundamentally on volunteering participation.

But there’s a fascinating silver lining: skills-based volunteering is on the rise! Against a backdrop of disengagement and decline, skilled volunteering has increased 20% in the UK in the past five years, according to the NCVO.  This is significant.  Skills-based volunteering is begging for our attention, and it’s managing to find resonance in the corporate sector even in troubling times for volunteering. Why? We’d contend, in the case of Corporate skills-based volunteering, it’s the win-win-win factor. Companies get seriously high-impact results from their volunteering programmes, employee volunteers get to do something deeply meaningful that utilises their skills and improves their health, satisfaction, and professional development.  Charities of course benefit hugely at the same time by accessing professional skills and expert advice where they need it most, making them poised to achieve their missions for the benefit of broader communities. Results like these really feel like the future of volunteering.

Skills-based volunteering can add real value for companies

Skills-based volunteering is only just taking off at any scale in the UK, and the savvy HR lead or social impact manager might assume there’s more buzz than substance here.   But the research in the field suggests the opposite.  Skilled Volunteering, or Corporate Skilled Volunteering, has actually been tied to a demonstrable boost in employee productivity – over £4,500 per employee per year – according to the Royal Voluntary Service.  On top of that, volunteering portal Benevity has found that skilled volunteers resign at less than half the rate of their non-volunteering peers.

So volunteering, and especially skills-based volunteering, makes people more productive at work, and less likely to leave – that’s legitimate value-add.  These facts alone should encourage companies to take a serious look at Corporate Skilled Volunteering as part of their plans and strategies around employee volunteering.

Cross-sector connections are really important

Corporate Skilled Volunteering is a cross-sector concept.  Companies put their skilled employees forward to provide advice to help charities develop, to the benefit of communities.  In that sense it requires trust and a leap of faith from all parties: companies to decide strategically to undertake this form of volunteering, employee volunteers to put themselves forward to share their skills, and charities to open their hearts, strategy documents, and balance sheets to their volunteers.   As with any major social evolution of this kind, things develop slowly, and only when the diverse parties come together around a shared goal.

The review of the literature and results in the sector all reinforce that cross-sector connections are so important. There’s a huge amount of good that comes from companies being open and willing to trial new volunteering formats, based on the immense body of skills within their employee ranks. Practically every review of the sector shouts for greater, and deeper collaboration between the corporate and charity sectors. We’re really only just scratching the surface of what’s possible here.

Building trust between companies, employees, and charities creates an environment where mutual goals are pursued leading to more innovative solutions and measurable impact.  

At Link UP London, we serve as an intermediary party, a matchmaker who connects skilled employee volunteers with charities and social causes, for the benefit of all involved.   We make it easier for parties to connect and make those matches even more high impact through structure and facilitation. And in keeping with the lessons above, we are here to further the rise of skills-based volunteering – and believe fundamentally in the real value it can unlock. 

If you are a business leader, HR champion, or just an interested employee looking to amplify your company’s social impact, skills-based volunteering is one of the most effective ways to engage employee volunteers and impact your local community.  

We’re always looking for our next interested, curious, and passionate corporate partner – will you join us on a skills-based volunteering journey?