Partnership
Supporting the third sector
Partnership
Supporting the third sector
Digital Volunteering Report
New Report: Exploring Cross-Sector Digital Volunteering Partnerships
We are pleased to share the publication of the Digital Fellowship Project Report 2025, which sets out new learning on how the tech industry, the VCSE sector, and statutory bodies can work together to create more inclusive and effective digital volunteering opportunities.
Read the full report here: Digital Fellowship Report 2025 (PDF)
Digital tools and online volunteering opportunities are now part of everyday life for many people. However, creating sustainable and inclusive digital volunteering requires real collaboration between different sectors. The Digital Fellowship Project set out to understand what this could look like in practice – identifying the challenges, the opportunities, and the shared values that can help make digital volunteering work better for everyone.
The Fellowship was funded by Include+ at the University of Leeds and delivered with the support of the Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership – a collaboration between:
-
Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL)
-
Forum Central
-
Leeds Community Foundation
-
100% Digital Leeds
-
Leeds City Council
What we did
Over several months, the project team carried out interviews, focus groups, and desk research with people across the VCSE sector, local authorities, and the tech industry. These conversations brought together perspectives from volunteers, staff, and leaders, and helped to capture the lived experiences of those delivering digital volunteering in real-world settings.
The research uncovered not just practical barriers – like knowledge gaps, digital skills differences, and communication challenges – but also the huge potential that comes when sectors work together with shared commitment and values.
What the report highlights
The final report provides:
-
Key challenges: including uneven access to digital tools, difficulties in aligning different working cultures, and the need for better support for volunteers.
-
Shared opportunities: new ways to collaborate across sectors, opportunities to link digital volunteering with wider inclusion goals, and ways to scale impact by pooling expertise.
-
Practical insights: ideas and recommendations for organisations who want to strengthen their digital volunteering offers, develop stronger partnerships, and ensure opportunities are accessible to more people.
The voices of contributors are central to the report. Their insights reflect the reality of digital volunteering on the ground and point towards practical next steps for making cross-sector collaboration more effective.
Looking ahead
This report is not the end of the journey but the beginning of a shared conversation. It offers a starting point for organisations that want to improve their digital volunteering practices, support inclusion, and build stronger partnerships across the VCSE sector, tech industry, and statutory bodies.
We encourage everyone interested in digital inclusion, volunteering, or partnership working to read the report and reflect on what it might mean for your own work.
Read the full report here: Digital Fellowship Report 2025 (PDF)
Stay connected and share
The report has also been shared across social media. You can help promote the learning by sharing the posts from Voluntary Action Leeds:
If you create your own posts, please tag Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) so they can amplify them.
For further information about the project or the report, please contact:
Andrina Dawson – Andrina.Dawson@Val.org.uk
