About VolunteerNearMe and FAQs

A free platform for finding volunteering near you and keeping track of the volunteering you do. Groups list what they need help with, volunteers find it on a map, and the hours that follow can be recorded and confirmed by the group — so you end up with a record you can actually point at.

Everything on the platform is free, for volunteers and for groups. You can browse the map and read any opportunity without an account. You need one to book a place, save an opportunity, join a channel, log hours or post anything — registering takes a moment, and you can use Google or Apple rather than a password if you prefer.

Yes — the same account works on the website and in the Android and iOS apps. The app adds a couple of things the website cannot do: recording an activity live while you do it, with your route drawn on a map, and writing your bookings straight into your phone's calendar.

Open the map and put your postcode into the search box. The map recentres on you, every result starts showing its distance, and the Nearest sort becomes available. Until you search a postcode the app does not know where you are, so distances stay hidden and results appear in their default order.

Filters then narrows things down by category, day of the week, age restriction, date range, and whether the opportunity has a team channel. The chips above the results — All, Events, Ongoing, Help wanted — filter by the kind of commitment instead.

Events happen on set dates, each with its own time and a limited number of places, so you book the date that suits you. Ongoing roles are a regular commitment — the listing shows the typical days and hours, and the actual shifts are arranged inside the opportunity's channel. Help wanted has no dates at all: the group needs people and wants to hear from anyone interested.

It depends which of the three you are looking at. For an event, open it and press Book against the date you want; you can cancel again from the same place. For help wanted, press I’m interested so the group knows you have put your hand up. For an ongoing role there is nothing to book — join the channel and sign up for shifts there.

The heart on any opportunity saves it for later without committing you to anything. Saved items appear on your profile and, faintly, in your calendar.

A channel is the working space attached to one opportunity — where the group keeps its shift rota, announcements, tasks, shared documents and team chat instead of spreading them across email and spreadsheets. Not every opportunity has one, and a group only switches on the parts it uses, so channels vary.

Some channels are open to anyone, some are limited to members of that group, and some ask you to answer a few questions first. Your channels are listed under Channels.

Use Log Hours to record what you did, when, for how long and where. A description and a photo are optional. Everything you log counts towards your total hours and your achievement badges, whether or not a group confirms it.

In the mobile app you can also record an activity as it happens, and the hours are filled in for you when you stop.

An endorsement is a group confirming that you did the work — the difference between your own note and a record the organisation stands behind, which is what makes it useful for a reference, an award or an application.

There are three routes. Tag a group when you log your hours and wait for one of their admins to confirm. Or complete a shift in a channel, where an admin marking the session complete turns attendance into endorsed hours automatically. Or an admin logs the hours on your behalf. Your activity list shows each entry as endorsed, pending or unendorsed.

There are two separate ladders. Achievement badges come from your total hours, beginning at 5 hours and running up to 2,000. Endorsement badges come only from hours a group has confirmed, starting at 5 endorsed hours. Both fill automatically as your hours go in, and both appear on your public profile alongside the groups that have endorsed you.

Go to Groups and press Create New Group. You need a name and a description; a logo, a location and contact details are optional but worth adding, and ticking the map option gives your group its own pin.

Then post opportunities from your group's Events tab. The form asks which of the three kinds you are posting, the details and location, who can see it — public, members only, or private while you draft it — and whether to create a channel for the people doing it. The organiser guides walk through the whole thing.

Yes. In your group settings you can add other admins by email address — they need a VolunteerNearMe account already. Admins can do everything the creator can except delete the group. Channels have their own admins too, so you can let someone run one rota without handing over the whole group.

Posts have a menu in the corner with Report and Block User. Opportunity and group pages carry their own Report button, and the small flag in the corner of every page reports a problem with the page itself. Reports are reviewed, normally within 24 to 48 hours. Blocking takes effect immediately, follows your account across devices, and the other person is not told.

These tools are for content on the platform. If you believe someone is at immediate risk, contact the emergency services rather than waiting for a report to be reviewed.

The gear icon on your profile opens your settings, where you can change your photo, your name and your password. Privacy controls what visitors see on your public profile, and Blocked Users lists everyone you have blocked so you can unblock them. The same panel has Delete Account, which asks for your password to confirm and cannot be undone.

If the map will not load, go back to the home page and open it again. If that does not help, email contact@volunteernearme.co.uk and we will look into it.

If a group has not replied for some time, email us as well — contact details sometimes go out of date after a listing is posted, and we can usually help find the current ones.