Superhighways is working with London’s volunteer centres and other organisations that connect people with volunteering opportunities. Together, we are looking at how national volunteering platforms could work with local systems and services.

Through a small number of time-limited discovery and testing projects, we’ll investigate practical ways that GoVo, a national volunteering platform developed by Royal Voluntary Service, might work alongside London’s local infrastructure, including their existing databases, websites and brokerage processes.

This project is supported by the Mayor of London.

What the project sets out to do

The aim is to understand what good collaboration between national platforms and local volunteer brokerage could look like in practice, ultimately to help volunteers find opportunities in their local communities.

Local volunteer centres do much more than publish volunteer opportunities. They help organisations develop safe and appropriate roles and provide personalised support to volunteers. This makes volunteering more accessible to people who may face digital, language, confidence or other barriers.

An important part of this work is understanding how technology can extend reach without losing that local support.

We are considering how volunteering platforms and local systems could share information safely and practically, for example through an API that connects GoVo with a local volunteer brokerage system, without creating significant extra work for volunteer centres.

Although the immediate focus is GoVo, the learning will help identify requirements that could apply to other national, regional or emerging volunteering platforms.

We want to understand the potential benefits, limitations and practical requirements, and what would need to be in place for local infrastructure organisations to benefit.

Our work since spring 2026 has focused on questions such as:

  • How can volunteers have a simple and accessible experience, with a clear route to local support when they need it?
  • How can opportunities shared more widely continue to benefit from appropriate local checks, quality assurance and safeguarding?
  • Can volunteer opportunities be shared between local systems and a national platform without creating significant extra admin?
  • How can local volunteer centres and brokerage organisations stay visible and properly credited?
  • What data needs to be shared, protected or made available to support local decision-making and impact reporting?
  • What technical, capacity and funding support would organisations need for any future integration to work well?

About GoVo

GoVo is a national volunteering platform developed by Royal Voluntary Service. It is designed to bring volunteering opportunities from different organisations together in one place and is being used by a range of organisations.

Many volunteer centres and brokerage organisations have already been part of conversations about GoVo, including questions about uploading opportunities, integrating existing systems and what this could mean for them.

Superhighways’ role

Superhighways is leading this work as an independent digital and data specialist, with the sector’s needs in mind. Our role is to support London’s volunteering infrastructure to test, question and help shape how GoVo (or other platforms) might work with local systems such as databases, websites and volunteer opportunity listings.

We bring over 25 years’ experience helping small charities and community organisations build digital confidence, make practical technology choices and develop useful systems, from websites and databases to dashboards and online tools.

We’ll keep the work practical, collaborative and in plain English. Learning from the pilots will be shared so the wider sector can understand the opportunities, limitations and risks.

An independent exploratory approach

Participation does not commit any organisation to adopting GoVo or pursuing future integration. The project provides a funded space to test ideas, raise difficult questions and gather useful evidence.

We recognise the challenges

Volunteer centres and specialist brokerage organisations have raised important concerns about national platforms and local volunteering infrastructure.

These include:

  • the potential impact of national platforms on local services, their visibility and their funding
  • duplication of effort and limited capacity to engage
  • uncertainty about data ownership, attribution and access to outcomes data
  • technical complexity and overly “techy” language
  • questions about long-term sustainability and business models.

These concerns will shape the pilot work and help inform recommendations linked to the London Vision for Volunteering.

What we’ve done so far

We’ve already started this work with London volunteer centres and specialist brokerage organisations.

So far, we have:

  • held two expressions of interest workshops with London volunteer centres to invite them to take part in small pilot projects
  • held two detailed requirements workshops with London volunteer centres, identifying current ways of working, accessibility, quality assurance, volunteer journeys, data sharing, reporting and the support people may need
  • mapped the role of local volunteer centres in the volunteering ecosystem
  • developed a picture of what a good volunteer journey could look like
  • identified key requirements, concerns and potential stumbling blocks
  • mapped the different volunteer brokerage systems currently used across London

A consistent message from the work so far is that any national or London-wide platform should support national discovery and local delivery, making opportunities easier to find while keeping trusted local relationships, support and expertise at the centre.

Next steps

Next, we’ll share the requirements gathered from London’s volunteering infrastructure with GoVo and other relevant partners.

As suitable functionality becomes available, we’ll explore practical testing with volunteer centres and system providers. This will help us understand the benefits, limitations, costs and support needed for any future integration.

The project has included funding to recognise the time organisations contribute to the discovery and testing work. A key part of the learning is understanding the true capacity, technical support and ongoing funding that future approaches would require.

We’ll then share findings with partners, London volunteering infrastructure networks and relevant GLA forums.

Want to stay updated?

We will send occasional updates about this work via email.

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