Posting an opportunity

Who can post an opportunity?

You must have joined the Reach community and either registered your organisation, or joined an existing organisation in the community. Need to join an existing organisation as a contact?

If you think your organisation may already be registered but you are not sure, try logging into your dashboard or contact us at [email protected] or 020 3943 9901 to find out.

What type of opportunity can I post?

You can use the Reach platform to post skills-based volunteer opportunities for short term projects, longer term or ongoing roles, and trustee positions.  

Our focus is on skills-based volunteering, and our volunteers join the community to find opportunities to use their professional skills. Because of this, we are only able to accept roles that require three years of professional experience. 

When you submit a role, you will be asked to tick a box  to confirm that your role requires at least three years of experience. In addition, it’s important that you use the role description to explain what experience you need, that it’s clear that you’re looking for existing expertise and ideally why. As well as making your needs clear to volunteers, this information is important in enabling us to review your role properly.

We are unable to accept roles where experience in one of our skills areas might be nice, but isn't necessary.  

Still not sure if Reach is the right place to post your opportunity? Our criteria should help.

Is there a cost? 

Reach Volunteering’s services are free or heavily subsidised thanks to the generosity of our funders, in line with our mission to support organisations with a social purpose.

When there is a fee, our charges are per opportunity, and are based on the service chosen and type of organisation. We only charge for trustee roles, and there is never a charge for volunteers.

When and what we charge 

How do I post an opportunity?

1. Log into your Reach account and go to your dashboard
2. Choose Opportunities  on the left side panel.
3. Click Create new Opportunity

4. Confirm that your role requires three years professional experience.

5. Choose the type of opportunity you are posting from the list provided and click Next. You will be able to choose from:

• Short term project - A project that can be completed within about six months.
• Ongoing role - A longer lasting role within the organisation that does not sit at board level.
• Trustee/ Governor - A trustee, governor, director or committee member who sits at board level

6. If you are recruiting for a Trustee you will be asked to select a service. You can choose from:

• Standard - Your role listed on Reach, is streamed to LinkedIn and our other partner sites and you can suggest your opportunity directly to volunteers on our platform.
• Enhanced - Everything included in our standard package, plus external advertising, an extensive candidate search and social media promotion.
• If you select a paid service you will be asked to confirm the charges and let us know how you would like to pay; by card or invoice.
• If you select to pay by card, you will be taken to the card payment window, so please have your details to hand. Once you have paid, you will be able to proceed to the opportunity form. For more information, please scroll down to the “How do I pay” section on this page. 

7. The form will then take you through the steps below, please complete the form giving as much detail as you can:

• About the opportunity - summarise what you need the volunteer to do.
• About the volunteer/trustee - talk about the qualities and experience you would like your volunteer to have
• When and where - talk about when you need the volunteer and where they will be working
• How to apply - explain how the application process will work

8. Review and submit your opportunity.

• Read through the role, and if you are ready to send it to Reach for review, choose Submit.
• If you want to, choose Save and Continue to  save a draft of the opportunity before submitting it. You can access your draft through your dashboard and submit it when you’re ready. 

When you submit your opportunity, our team will review it before it goes live on our site.  We aim to be in touch within two to three working days to confirm your role has been shared on Reach, or to ask any follow up questions. 

If you have selected a paid service and have opted to pay by invoice, we will be in touch.

How long are roles advertised for?

• Opportunities can stay open for a maximum of 6 months
• When posting your opportunity, you must select a deadline within six months in order to submit it for approval.
• We will close your opportunity once this date has passed, but don’t worry: you can extend this deadline if you need to, up to a maximum of six months. Read more about deadlines here.

How do I pay?

If you qualify to pay a fee for Trustee recruitment, you will be notified at the start of the process and you will be given the choice to pay by card or request an invoice. Volunteer roles are always free. More on what we charge.

If you wish to pay by card

• Once you have opted to pay by card, you will be asked to enter your card details to pay for your opportunity. Once you pay, you will be redirected to create your new opportunity.
• We will send you a tax invoice to confirm receipt of payment 

If you wish to pay by invoice

• If you have asked to pay by invoice, we will send you an invoice once your opportunity has been approved by the service team. Payment terms are 30 days.

Can I make a copy of an existing opportunity?

Yes. If you are submitting a new opportunity, but would like to use a role that you have already posted to help you get started, you can. You can make a copy even if the old role is closed or still at draft. Note that you cannot change the opportunity type, so you cannot copy a trustee role to form the basis of a volunteering role, or vice versa. 

To make a copy:

• Go to the Opportunities tab on the left side panel of your dashboard
• Find the opportunity you want to copy and under More and click on the icon with three dots
• Click on the option to Duplicate the opportunity. You will then see the opportunity form with most of the fields pre-filled. Be sure to update fields such as the title, description and skills to reflect your new role.
• Make your changes, and  and when you are happy to send it to Reach for review, click on Submit

What next?

The Reach team will review your role. If we have any questions about your role, and are not able to approve it straight away, we will get in touch, otherwise, we will make your role live within two to three working days.

Your role will be live on Reach until your closing date. We'll let you know if you receive any applications, and you can reply to them or message volunteers through your dashboard.