Across the UK, the way people find and take part in volunteering is changing. WCA hosted a series of sessions for our Wandsworth Volunteer Involving organisations in 2025 to look at the way society is changing and how we can respond.
New national platforms and digital tools uch as Reach Volunteering, long-established platforms like Do-it, and emerging platforms such as NHS Volunteering and apps like Govo are making it quicker and easier for people to browse opportunities and connect with organisations.
On the surface, this sounds like a positive step. And in many ways, it is. But for local community organisations, the reality is becoming more complex and, in some cases, more challenging. Instead of simplifying volunteering, the system is becoming more fragmented. Rather than reducing workload, new systems can shift the burden onto organisations and volunteers asking them to do more, in more places, with limited additional benefit.
A National push for more volunteers
In October 2025, Royal Voluntary Service launched the Govo platform, highlighting what it described as a 3 million shortfall in volunteers across the UK.
Raising awareness of volunteering is important and the ambition to grow participation is widely shared. However, from a local perspective, this raises an important question: Is the challenge really a lack of platforms?
From what we see working with organisations across our area, the barriers are more often about capacity to support volunteers, building relationships and trust, confidence and accessibility, time and resources, and safe recruitment and DBS checks. Adding more platforms without addressing these issues risks layering technology onto the problem, rather than solving it.
Volunteering is more than a platform
It’s also important to recognise that volunteering doesn’t just happen through listings.
Organisations like Volunteering Matters work directly with communities to design and deliver volunteering programmes, often supporting people who may not engage with digital platforms at all.
Many Volunteer Centres including WCA also support people, communities and organisations face-to-face, through tailored guidance, and over time, building confidence, skills and trust. This is a crucial part of the system that is often less visible and harder to digitise.
No wrong door
There’s a simple idea that many in the sector support: “no wrong door.”
That means whether you’re a volunteer or an organisation, you should be able to come through any door and still access the full range of opportunities and support. Right now, we’re not there yet. Instead, we have multiple doors and they don’t always connect.
Many of these challenges echo wider ambitions across the sector such as those set out in the London Vision for Volunteering which call for a more joined-up, inclusive system.
Our experience locally shows there is still work to do to make that vision a reality, and we are working behind the scenes to turn this “Vision for Volunteering” into practical action, alongside Volunteer Centre’s across our Capital and London Plus the central support and advocacy hub for London’s voluntary sector,
A system still being figured out and our role in shaping it
Work is also underway nationally including through our work with NAVCA to improve coordination between platforms. This includes exploring data sharing between systems, AI-enabled uploads, and a more joined-up “no wrong front door” experience.
These are positive ambitions. But they also raise important questions about who owns and controls the data, how local organisations are visible and recognised, whether this will reduce duplication or simply move it around, and who has the capacity to take part in these new systems.
At its heart, this isn’t just about platforms it’s about how the system works, including who holds the relationships, who carries the workload, who has visibility, and who benefits.
Without careful design and investment, there is a risk that work is shifted onto already stretched organisations, data is fragmented or extracted without clear benefit, smaller groups are left behind, and the system becomes harder not easier to navigate.
This is where WCA plays a critical role, actively working to ensure that local organisations are represented in these national conversations and that the system develops in a way that works for communities.
We are championing the needs of Wandsworth organisations, highlighting the challenges of duplication, data, and workload, sharing real experiences of what’s working and what isn’t, supporting organisations to navigate an increasingly complex landscape, and advocating for a system that is joined up, fair, and grounded in local reality.
We know that for many organisations time is limited, digital capacity varies, safeguarding responsibilities are complex, and relationships matter more than systems. We are making sure those realities are heard.
Why local volunteer centres still matter
In a complex and evolving landscape, local support is more important than ever.
At WCA, we provide a trusted point of contact, support tailored to your organization and potential volunteers, help navigating different platforms and requirements, guidance on safe recruitment and volunteer onboarding, and ways to reach volunteers who might not use national platforms, and a focus on long-term, meaningful involvement.
We’re here to help make sense of the system and to make it work for you.
Let’s keep the conversation going
Your experience matters.
We’d really value your feedback on whether you are using multiple platforms, how you are managing onboarding and DBS checks, what’s working well, and what’s proving difficult.
Get in touch with us at WCA to share your thoughts or get support admin@wandcareall.org.uk Together, we can build a volunteering system that works for everyone locally and nationally.
