Employers encouraged to join pro-bono scheme to ‘upskill’ environmental charities
New research shows huge shortfall in resources for organisations working at the frontline of climate change in Britain.
According to the study almost two-thirds of environmental charities in the UK are actively looking for professional support. Overall, some 100,000 skilled volunteers are needed to plug the gap.
Smaller organisations are bearing the brunt of this, with half of those surveyed reporting they have no business plan for the year ahead and one-in-three are failing to measure their own impact. Marketing and fundraising are the areas most in need of support, according to the sector itself, but there are requirements across many specialist areas, such as evaluation, diversity and inclusion, strategic planning, and information systems.
Research was conducted by Pilotlight, a charity which amplifies the impact other charities, and includes the results from nearly 300 environmental charities. businesses and individuals can have through skilled volunteering. The organisation is now calling for corporate partners to join a pro-bono scheme which will match charities with skillsets they need to drive climate action. This would help facilitate upskilling of existing teams, with 40% of respondents in the study spending less than 1% of their time on training and development. One-in-ten has no allocation for this whatsoever.
‘Charities are a catalyst for action and are full of innovations for turning climate ambitions into reality,’ said Ed Mayo, CEO of Pilotlight. ‘But as our research shows, they lack the capacity, skills and resources to do so. We have found there is a clear appetite and call for skilled climate volunteers to close the skills gap. Now is the time to explore how businesses and charities can learn from each other, to generate greater impact faster.’
More on environmental training and upskilling:
Low carbon heating, cooling, ventilation training centre reopens in Birmingham
NatWest partners on free retrofit training for construction workers
Image: Pilotlight