Volunteering in Manchester

Manchester has a long habit of organising itself. From the co operative movement to today’s homelessness charities and community food projects, the city’s response to a problem has usually been to set something up, and those groups still run on volunteers.

Popular causes in Manchester

• Homelessness, where Manchester’s outreach teams, night shelters and day centres are among the busiest outside London
• Food poverty, through neighbourhood pantries and community meal projects
• Arts and culture, with festivals, galleries and grassroots venues that recruit volunteers each season
• Mental health and peer support, including listening services and community wellbeing groups
• Sport and youth activity, in a city where club football and community sport reach deep into every district

Browse every cause on the impact areas page, or start from a skill you want to build.

How to start volunteering in Manchester

1. Browse the live roles on this page and open anything that looks like your kind of thing.
2. Apply in a couple of minutes. There is no CV stage and no interview for most roles.
3. Log your hours as you go, so your contribution becomes a record you can show.
4. Earn verified badges and certificates for your CV, your UCAS application, or your LinkedIn profile.

About volunteering in Manchester

Manchester’s voluntary sector has a strong centre of gravity. The city’s council for voluntary service, Macc, coordinates a lot of it, and there is a genuine sense of a sector that talks to itself: organisations refer volunteers on, share training and run joint campaigns. For someone starting out, that means a first role often leads to a second one you would never have found by searching.

Homelessness is the cause the city is best known for organising around, and volunteering here is more varied than people expect. Alongside the visible work of shelters and street outreach there are advice sessions, move on support, catering, and the administrative and fundraising roles that keep those services running. Manchester also has a large arts and events scene, and festivals, venues and galleries take on volunteers in numbers each summer, which is a good route in if you want something time limited to begin with.

Greater Manchester’s ten boroughs mean the city’s edges matter as much as the centre. Salford, Stockport, Oldham and the rest each have their own volunteer infrastructure and their own priorities, so it is worth looking at the borough you actually live in rather than defaulting to the city centre. The commute you do not have to make is usually the difference between volunteering once and volunteering every week.

Common questions about volunteering in Manchester

What kind of volunteering is Manchester known for?

Homelessness and food poverty projects have the highest profile, and the city has an unusually well connected voluntary sector around them. Manchester’s arts and events scene is the other big employer of volunteer time, particularly over the summer festival season.

Do I need experience to start volunteering?

Almost never. Most organisations are looking for reliability and interest rather than a background in the work, and they will show you what to do. If a role does need a specific skill or a DBS check, it says so on the listing.

How much time do I have to give?

As much or as little as suits you. Some roles are a single afternoon, some are a couple of hours a week, and some are one off events. You can filter by how much time you have before you apply.