Using your data skills to give back
Volunteers working on a data project
DataKind UK bridges the gap between third sector organisations - registered charities, voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, and public sector organisations - who need data support, and volunteers like you with the skills to help them.
We have over ten years of experience delivering data science solutions and projects, and working closely with third sector organisations to increase their confidence, knowledge, and skills in data science approaches. We also want to increase their understanding of the potential of data, and make sure they are able to decide when, how, and if to integrate data science into their organisations.
But things are always changing! Over the past couple of years, we’ve looked carefully at our mission, vision, and values to ensure we’re aligned with what the sector needs. We spoke with our volunteer community, beneficiaries, and other partners to ensure our support and services provide great experiences for everyone involved, and have real impact.
What skills do I need to volunteer?
When you fill in our application form, you will see a list of skills, which we ask you to rate in terms of how frequently you use them or how much experience you have. You don’t need to be excellent at everything, as we team up volunteers based on their combined skill sets. This means you can contribute based on your strengths.
We’re also tool agnostic and won’t ask you to work with any specific languages or systems. However, we may sometimes need people who can provide support on a specific tool that is being used by an organisation, such as Power BI. When we scope projects and opportunities, we’ll give you clear guidance on what is needed.
Our mission is to support third sector organisations, so you don’t need any specific volunteering experience, but you do need data skills! Volunteers must be over 18 and based in the UK. Unfortunately, we aren’t in a position to provide internships or work experience for people looking for further skills development.
What you might do as a volunteer:
Translate technical topics to less techy audiences.
Help a third sector staff member learn a particular tool.
Discuss an organisation’s goals and help to define a project scope.
Complete a short piece of analysis, working closely with third sector partner.
Carry out data processing and exploratory analysis, such as general data analysis, geospatial, or statistical analysis.
Deliver training or workshops to third sector audiences.
Represent DataKind UK at tech industry conferences or talks.
We also have some long-term roles on volunteer-led committees that help us run everything behind the scenes - more to come about those, soon!
What are the programmes?
We aim to achieve our goals with a few different types of support:
Signposting to relevant support organisations and toolkits, and sharing insights, information, and resources.
Scoping and identifying support needs, and providing tailored guidance and recommendations/
Additional specialist capacity to help third organisations progress on their data journeys.
Technical mentoring to enhance data understanding and practices.
Workshops and courses to build skills in particular areas of data and processes.
Bespoke tools, products, or in-depth analysis to generate sector-wide solutions.
Are opportunities remote, or do you need to be in the UK?
There are opportunities for both online volunteering and to join in-person events in London. A lot of our meetings and events are over evenings and weekends, so this might be more difficult if you are in a different time zone. If you want to take part in other remote opportunities, our sister org DataKind runs online-only, international events.
We’d love to host more events across the UK. If you have connections to venues or third sector organisations that would like to host an event somewhere outside of London, please let us know! [contact@datakind.org.uk Subject: Supporting DataKind UK]
What is the time commitment?
Depending on what you volunteer for, you might spend a day working on scoping, contribute ten hours during a month-long project, or spend five hours per week over a couple of months on an exploratory project. Many of our volunteers work full time, so meetings and events are usually on evenings and weekends, but you are free to work on other tasks whenever they fit into your life.
How do I sign up to volunteer?
Fill in the form to tell us about your skills and experience. This will help us to find you when the right projects come up! You must be over 18 and based in the UK.
If you are eligible, you’ll be invited to watch training videos about working with us, and what kinds of things to expect when working with third sector data.
Once you confirm you’ve completed the training, we’ll finalise your volunteer agreement to sign.
You’ll be invited to the next monthly onboarding call to find out more about our volunteer opportunities and meet other new and current members of our community. You can also join our Slack space.
I’ve already volunteered, do I need to sign up again?
If you have volunteered with DataKind UK, or DataKind, before, we ask you to please fill in the form from the beginning because having up-to-date data is, as we all know, crucial! We’ve included more information and training about how we work now, so even if you are familiar with us, we’d love you to refresh your knowledge. And because this is an updated process, we’re also keen to hear your feedback about how accessible and clear it is.
When projects and roles are available, we’ll share them so you can look at whether the timing and skills are the right fit for you. If your application highlights specific skills relevant to a project, we will also message you directly to see if you’re interested. Our aim is to match volunteers to the projects they will suit best.
I don’t have time to volunteer right now, how else can I support DataKind UK?
DataKind UK is a small charity, so is always looking for aligned organisations to fund our programmes and support our service delivery. Donate to us directly below, or find out more about how your organisation can help on our supporters’ page.
