What Skills Based Volunteering Actually Means
Launch library · evergreen read
Skills based volunteering involves offering genuine professional expertise, in fields such as accounting, design, legal knowledge, or specialised trades, rather than simple general labour, to organisations that urgently need a level of capability they could never otherwise afford to hire in on their own limited annual budget, however much they might wish they could.
This particular form of volunteering can have an outsized impact relative to the actual hours given, since a single afternoon of specialised skill can often accomplish more than several weeks of well meaning but entirely untrained effort ever would, or considerable expense to outsource the same work to a paid contractor elsewhere.
It also genuinely benefits the volunteer themselves in return for their time, offering a meaningful way to contribute without necessarily committing large blocks of ongoing time to a single cause, provided the particular skill offered actually matches what the organisation genuinely needs at that specific moment in its own development.