Volunteering is a rewarding way to give back to your community and help those in need, and doing it as a group with your colleagues can also create a unique team-building opportunity. In this article, we will explore the different kinds of team volunteering opportunities in London, how to organise them, and which organisations need your help in your local community.

You can see some unique examples of volunteering other companies have been doing here.

What Is Team Volunteering?

Team volunteering is when a group of people volunteer together for a specific cause or project. It can be a one-time event or an ongoing commitment. Team volunteering can help build camaraderie, promote collaboration skills and improve overall morale.

Types of Group Volunteering Opportunities

There are a few different ways that you can give back in your local community through volunteering as a group. Below we’ve summarised the most common ways in which organisations typically volunteer:

• Environmental/Conservation Projects

If your team/company is particularly aligned with environmental or climate causes, then one option would be taking a day out of the office and finding local green spaces across London to help out in.

Perhaps your team could help with litter picking in a protected park, or maybe you can help with biodiversity in a community garden. There are multiple organisations out there looking for corporate conservation volunteers to help their cause. Not only can this kind of group project help with preserving your local nature and wildlife, but can you also often find environmental projects that help to educate young people about protecting the world they live in.

This is one of the team volunteering options that is the easiest to set up and find near you.

• Food Banks / Homeless Shelters

Another popular choice among businesses for in-person group volunteering is giving your time to help out at a local food bank, or soup kitchen. These organisations provide vital support across greater London to the vulnerable homeless community, offering hot food and drinks, essential resources, and a safe space to access emotional support. They are also a great option for any companies passionate about tackling food waste.

It’s a wonderful way to make a change in your back garden, and for volunteers to get some valuable face-to-face contact with the people they are helping on the day! In the current cost of living crisis, this is a popular choice for brands wanting to do their bit to help these struggling financially in the capital.

• Mentoring Programmes

If you’re looking for something a bit more skills-based that your team can get involved with, then a mentoring programme might be the perfect option to offer your team.

There are countless organisations doing amazing work supporting vulnerable and/or underprivileged young people across central London with educational and emotional support, and they need your help!

Whether you can commit to a regular 1-2 hours of mentoring a week, or you simply want to arrange a one-off day for your employees to utilise their skills to help mentor young people, this is a volunteer option that creates one of the higher levels of impact in local communities.

This option can be slightly more time intensive, and requires more skill than the traditional manual labour volunteering opportunities, but the reward for your team is equally more substantial. It can provide your staff with a new way to flex their specific skill sets, and also helps them to feel really valued for their work.

• Fundraising Events

While organising your own fundraising event is certainly a bigger and more complicated undertaking, there are some advantages. For starters, you have complete control over the date/time, duration, and location of your team volunteering, as well as the cause in which you want to support.

You might have a particular cause in mind that your business really aligns with, or perhaps you have an existing relationship already with a charity in your area that you want to collaborate with.