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Amelie Busch, Investment Director at Big Society Capital, shares her experience of Pilotlight 360, what she learned, and how the experience helped her become a trustee. 

Helping charities as a volunteer is a great way for people to give to the community. This is particularly the case for skilled volunteering – where you are using your workplace or professional skills to make a difference. Seven out of ten charities are looking for support in the form of professional skills, but only four out of ten find it. Charities need skilled support.

Some writers predict that the world cannot avoid an environmental collapse, others that we have it within our power to mitigate the worst effects of climate change and to make the transition to a sustainable economy.

In St David’s Bay in Wales, a community co-operative has formed that aims to change this. Its name is Câr y Môr, which means ‘love of the sea’, and its magic ingredient is seaweed.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, having a skilled workforce isn’t enough to guarantee success. Companies invest heavily in training and development programmes to enhance the technical skills, but these hard skills alone are not enough to guarantee success.

New research from Pilotlight estimates that 100,000 skilled “climate volunteers” are needed to accelerate environmental action in the UK. Published today, the findings reveal an urgent need amongst environmental charities for professional support from skilled volunteers.

As a social enterprise focused on supporting charities, Pilotlight is sometimes perceived as an outlier in the corporate learning and development sector. This year we’ve challenged ourselves to better understand the impact of our programmes on employees and the return on investment for their employers.

Little did I know that a seemingly simple email was about to change my perspective in a big way. It was from Pilotlight. Thanking their ‘Pilotlighters’, both past and present, for their contribution to the skills-based volunteering programmes they run in partnership with Barclays. And whilst reading it, the thought struck me that I actually had a lot to thank Pilotlight for.

"From a personal perspective and also the team’s perspective, to be able to go back and have full confidence in our plans to grow corporate support, following feedback from the Pilotlighters, allowed for a stronger pitch to recruit the additional team member required."

Everyone knows that you can give money to charities, but did you know that seven out of ten charities are looking for a gift of another kind?

Something I hear frequently from charity leaders, especially founders, is ‘We can’t say no to someone who needs help!

To mark the launch of NCVO's campaign on divestment for the voluntary sector - Fuelling Positive Change - NCVO spoke to Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the charity Pilotlight.