In our first Volunteers’ Week UK blog , we explored how volunteers can become powerful fundraising campaign amplifiers when charities give them simple, meaningful ways to get involved (read here).
But there is a deeper opportunity many organisations still overlook.
Volunteers do not just share campaigns. They often bring relationships, credibility and access to networks of potential supporters that charities may never otherwise reach through traditional channels.
The volunteer helping at reception on a Tuesday morning may also work for a company with an active CSR programme. The mentor supporting a young person each week may be connected to local schools, businesses, community groups or professional networks. Someone giving a few hours of their time may quietly hold social capital that charities never meaningfully engage.
Volunteers are often viewed through the lens of operational delivery: the role they perform, the shift they cover, the immediate task at hand.
But organisations with strong fundraising cultures think more broadly. People are recognised not only for the hours they give, but for the wider value, perspective and relationships they may bring with them.
Many people simply never get asked
One of the biggest barriers is not reluctance. It is visibility.
Many volunteers are open to supporting causes in wider ways, but charities often never start those conversations or make the opportunities visible.
Too often, volunteering and fundraising sit in separate parts of the organisation. Service delivery teams focus on operational support. Fundraising teams focus on income generation. The connection between the two is rarely explored deliberately.
That means opportunities are missed.
Mobilising Volunteers can open doors into workplaces and networks
Many volunteers are already connected into workplaces and professional networks that charities do not always think to engage more intentionally.
The volunteer supporting an event on a Tuesday evening may also work for a company with:
- a charity of the year programme
- a CSR budget
- a matched giving scheme
- employee volunteering initiatives
- staff fundraising groups
These connections can create opportunities not only for fundraising and income generation, but also for wider advocacy, partnerships and future volunteering support.
Sometimes the opportunity lies simply in helping volunteers feel confident and equipped to open conversations where they feel comfortable doing so.
Community fundraising may already be sitting around your organisation
Volunteers are often connected into schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods, faith groups, clubs and wider community networks.
Community fundraising can become a natural extension of those existing relationships when organisations create simple, low-pressure ways for people to get involved.
That might look like:
- organising a non-uniform day at a child’s school
- setting up a birthday fundraiser online
- taking part in a sponsored challenge event
- organising a local coffee morning or sponsored walk
- encouraging a local business to donate raffle prizes or host an event
- sharing campaigns within local communities and networks
These moments may seem small in isolation. Collectively, they help build visibility, trust and locally rooted support.
More importantly, they work because they are rooted in personal connection. People are far more likely to engage with a cause when it comes recommended by someone they already know and trust.
This also reflects wider giving behaviour. The Charities Aid Foundation’s Giving Report 2026 found that recommendations from friends, family members and colleagues remain among the strongest drivers of charitable giving, reinforcing the importance of trust and personal relationships in supporter engagement.
The opportunity is relational, not transactional
This is where many organisations get the balance wrong.
Volunteers should not feel pressured to fundraise, “sell” the organisation or constantly open their personal networks.
But many people do want to support causes they care about more deeply. They simply want to do so in ways that feel comfortable and authentic.
For some, that may mean sharing a campaign online. For others, it may mean making a quiet introduction behind the scenes. Some may organise community events. Others may never want to fundraise publicly at all. Some may simply want the opportunity to share their volunteering story through their chosen charity.
All those responses are valid.
The goal is not to turn volunteers into fundraisers in a formal sense. It is to create opportunities for wider engagement where people actively want them.
Connecting volunteering and fundraising
At its core, this is about fundraising culture.
In organisations where fundraising is seen as the responsibility of one department, opportunities like this are easy to miss. Volunteers sit in service delivery. Fundraising sits elsewhere.
But organisations with mature fundraising cultures understand something important: people who believe in your work often want multiple ways to support it.
That support may come through time, advocacy, introductions, influence, fundraising or community connections.
Much of this is less about major new systems and more about making a few intentional shifts across the organisation.
Organisational readiness
Charities can start by:
- creating stronger alignment between volunteering and fundraising teams, even where those functions sit with the same person
- including volunteering teams in campaign planning conversations
- carrying out light-touch network mapping to better understand the communities, organisations and relationships already connected to the charity
Volunteer management
They can also build this into volunteer engagement by:
- asking volunteers about workplace and community connections during onboarding or check-ins
- creating low-pressure opportunities for people to share campaigns or make introductions
- thanking and stewarding volunteers in the same thoughtful way they would any other supporter group
Communications and fundraising support
Finally, charities can make it easier for volunteers to engage by:
- providing simple resources, messaging and language to talk about the charity, should they wish to
- providing opportunities for volunteers to share their stories about their time and commitment to your organisation.
- creating simple fundraising or campaign toolkits people can use if they choose
- making clear that wider support is always optional, never expected
None of this requires volunteers to become formal fundraisers.
It simply requires organisations to think more intentionally about the relationships and trust already surrounding their work.
A volunteer’s value is not limited to the hours they give.
Sometimes the most important thing they offer is trust, and the ability to carry your mission into communities you may never otherwise reach.
If you would like to discuss how this could work in your organisation, please do get in touch with Craigmyle.
