Charting growth: Career Compass’s success with Skilled Volunteers

Impact Story by Skilled Volunteer | Kimberly Ong

Katie Linshits of Career Compass shares a common challenge faced by growing charities like hers: “As a small charity, we needed to grow. But in order to do so, we couldn’t really hire someone. This created a bit of a chicken and egg situation, as we needed people to fundraise but needed money to bring on fundraisers.”

Career Compass is a London-based charity working to improve social mobility by boosting the employability of Year 12 and 13 students from less advantaged backgrounds. Through workshops, career sessions, and work experience placements, Career Compass gives young people the tools and confidence they need to succeed. Since 2019, they’ve worked with over 190 schools and reached more than 10,000 students within and outside London — with ambitions to grow and deepen their impact further.

The answer came from Link UP’s skilled volunteers. Since 2023, Career Compass has worked with skilled volunteers across multiple projects – to develop a social media strategy, a fundraising strategy, and a theory of change to support their ambitious visions for growth.

“Being able to work with professionals who are skilled in a specific area, but also very importantly have the passion and the desire to help — as they sign up for the projects themselves — is truly great for a small charity like ourselves. There would be no way that we could have hired someone and paid them money for all the projects that we have done with Link UP London. And it’s been truly great for a small charity like ours.”

The charity has witnessed how these projects delivered something crucial: focus. “Once we identify a specific need, getting a skilled volunteer who has very clear expertise in that area helps us produce documents that can be used and we can always go back to, whether that’s ourselves or our volunteers.”

The deliverables became essential reference tools. The fundraising strategy serves as a “cheat sheet” that could be referred back to anytime when answering tricky questions and applying for funding, while the social media strategy provides clear guidance for student volunteers managing their channels. The theory of change acts as a touchstone for evaluating organisational changes and informing strategic decisions, like their fundraising approach and strategy.

The impact has been both immediate and enduring. The projects tackled immediate challenges, but Katie emphasises their lasting value: “Some outcomes might need updating in a year or two, but the base will still be there.” She credits their long-term impact to careful prioritisation, identifying where Skilled Volunteers could deliver value beyond just a one-off and create foundations the charity can build on for years to come.

“It’s such a peace of mind to know that, if you are a small organisation with very limited funds facing sort of problem or issue, you don’t necessarily need to raise funds for it or even panic — because there’s someone out there that can offer you very good and quality support on those issues for free. I think that’s a really good feeling to have.”

On advice she would give to other organisations considering engaging with Skilled Volunteers Katie emphasises three main points:

1. Identify what you cannot solve internally: understanding what issues the charity has and prioritising the ones which are the most important or the most valuable in the long term.
2. Clearly define the problem, so that Link UP London can find a suitable volunteer.
3. Remember, it’s a joint effort: while the volunteer brings expertise, the organisation needs to be clear on what they need help with and guide and provide the skilled volunteer with the necessary background, so that they can produce the best output possible.

Career Compass’ experience with Link UP over the years is a great example of the power of Skilled Volunteering: a growing social mobility charity has been equipped with the tools to plan for a sustainable future, and passionate professionals were able to use their expertise to make a lasting impact.