Volunteering through vvast
By James Friedlander-Boss
Sometimes opportunities just present themselves to you. Sometimes it’s not clear what the best opportunity is. Other times your significant other says something like “I was talking to Amelia from Sustainable Fashion Week and suggested she talk to you about her digital strategy”. We’re lucky that vvast allows us the time to dedicate to volunteering opportunities so I was able to get involved with a cause that I care about (vvast donates over a months worth of the teams time to charities and NGOs as part of its Bcorp commitments). I didn’t really know how to go about volunteering before this opportunity came along but it opened my eyes to ways of utilising my skills to help charities and these are the things that are key to help you decide how to approach volunteering.
Pick a charity that interests you
You might want to push a whale back in the sea or paint a fence both of which are solid choices but I’m a bit more interested in how to push a sustainable fashion agenda, working out what that even means and supporting a Bristol charity that could have national and international impact.
Picking something that means something to you will help you find a volunteering opportunity that means something to you and you’re more likely to stick with. You need to know how much time you can realistically dedicate to volunteering and whether you prefer short-term or long-term commitments. The advisory board meets 3 times a year which was an achievable amount for me to commit to.
Sustainable Fashion Week is about raising the awareness of sustainable fashion in the UK and providing a counterpoint to the international fashion weeks, this year the focus for the charity is on ReWear. We all know we should be wearing our clothes a bit more so there are going to be workshops on how to repair or reinvent your wardrobe and shopping opportunities at Sparks, all with the goal of reducing fashion waste going into landfill.
Skills for Volunteering
It isn’t essential to use your workday skills when you volunteer, often doing something different can break you out of your comfort zone and surprise you with new opportunities. For my first venture into volunteering I wanted to test using my skills for a charity which has included:
- Setting up GA4 instance
- Linking with Google Search Console
- Linking SEMrush to GA4 and GSC
- Prioritising keyword selection for blog content
- Reporting on progress
These are all things we do at vvast for both our 360 clients and Paid Media clients so being able to use my knowledge to support a charity is really special. There a lot of charities that need support with their strategic direction in specific areas, like the Arnolfini who are looking for trustee members. Searching for advisory board roles with give a good indication of opportunities in your area.
