Volunteer roles

Join our brilliant volunteer community and use your data skills to make the world a better place!

As a volunteer, you can get involved in different ways depending on your experience, skills, and availability. You might join a one-off event, a several-month project, or even a committee.

“Working with totally new people and seeing how they approach new problems is fascinating.”

Lydia Monnington | Data Science Lead, Google DeepMind | DataKind UK Committee member
Read Lydia’s Volunteering Story

Data project opportunities

DataKind UK’s staff and committees scope the most impactful projects we can find, and match them with the best volunteers for the job. These projects support the third sector - charities, voluntary organisations, community interest companies, and social enterprises - any organisation whose mission is to change the world for the better. Read about some of the projects we have worked on.

If you’re a data professional who loves cleaning and joining messy data sets, digging into the relationships of a regression, or building a trial dashboard to explore a tough social issue, you’ll fit right in here. If you’ve also got the know-how to lead a team and keep projects on track, we’re definitely looking for you!

Most of our roles can be done remotely, but we also have some in-person events. If you’re looking for other online opportunities, DataKind UK is one of six global DataKind chapters. DataKind chapters in Bengaluru, Singapore, Washington DC, and San Francisco offer a mixture of other remote volunteering. Find your local chapter!

Other roles

Annually, we recruit volunteers who support our organisation to run day-to-day, such as our committee members. Take a look at our team structure.

Joining the community

  1. Fill in the form below 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.

  2. If your application is successful, we’ll send you some short training about working with us, and what kinds of things to expect when working with third sector data.

  3. Once you’ve completed the training, we’ll finalise your volunteer agreement by email, and add you to our Slack space.

  4. You’ll also be invited to the next monthly onboarding call to learn how to apply for specific opportunities and roles, and meet other new and current members of our community.

  5. You’re in! Enjoy our community Slack space, and look out for projects to join as they come up.

1) Application form

More questions?

Our FAQ has you covered!

  • 'Data for good' is what happens when DataKind UK connects skilled volunteers like you to the third sector, bringing the power of data science where it's needed most.

    The third sector includes charities, public and civic services, Community Interest Companies, social enterprises - any organisation whose mission is to change the world for the better!

    Despite their essential work, these organisations struggle with low resources, a huge skills gap, and a lack of development and investment when it comes to data use. You help us to close these gaps.

  • Our volunteering opportunities are very popular, but your team is welcome to volunteer individually by signing up to our mailing list to hear about opportunities as they happen. You can also support us as an organisation.

  • As a small charity, we aren’t set up to provide work experience or student placements. If you’re looking for placements, ways to develop your skills, or other volunteering opportunities, take a look at our other suggestions.

    We’re a very small charity team, so don’t recruit new staff very often. But, as more and more third sector organisations see the value of data, the chance to work in ‘data for good’ roles grows! This excellent jobs board is maintained weekly, capturing the best opportunities in the third sector across the UK.

  • Definitely! Check out our map of data for good communities around the world.

“DataKind UK is a special place to work. We have a fantastic team with a deeply inclusive culture that gives rise to creative, reflective, and effective delivery of our programmes.”

Tariq Khokhar | Head of Data for Science and Health, Wellcome Trust | Chair, DataKind UK Board of Trustees