About us

Launched in 1997 as an independent charity, Windsor & Maidenhead Voluntary Action (WMVA) provides the integrated services of a Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) and a Volunteer Centre. Our membership comprises 501 voluntary & community organisations and 4000 registered volunteers in the Royal Borough.

WMVA is known as an ‘infrastructure organisation’, i.e. we support voluntary and community organisations by providing a range of services: information and advice on governance, charity law, funding/fundraising, good practice, facilitating multi-agency network meetings and, importantly, a volunteer brokerage service that is also offered to the public services.

As a volunteer centre, WMVA has been helping people to find suitable volunteering activities for 15 years. We consistently find suitable placements for 75% of the volunteers we interview. Every year we respond to 1100 new volunteer enquiries.

WMVA works closely with all the directorates in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, individually and through the Community Partnership. Our work with Social Services includes finding volunteering opportunities for supported clients with mental health and learning needs. We also provide information and contact details on support services in the voluntary & community sector, through our directory of voluntary organisations and in response to individual queries.

WMVA works closely with the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, strategically and directly, with a special focus on encouraging more people to volunteer. We also work in close liaison with our partners in the NHS.

In addition, WMVA is pro-active in encouraging local businesses to get involved in our community by picking up our popular ‘One-day Team Challenges’ for employee volunteers.

In current times, both the voluntary and statutory sectors are seeking more and more volunteers to help to sustain services in a widening range of roles and WMVA is here to match an individual’s interests with volunteer users’ opportunities. In this difficult environment of cutbacks and rising unemployment, WMVA’s successful volunteer brokerage service plays a significant role in the introduction of new enthusiastic helpers to voluntary/community groups responding to increasing demands on their services. It is WMVA’s privilege to help voluntary & community groups with their volunteer recruitment needs and to enable the recently unemployed to find that volunteers are valued for who they are and for what they do – a WIN-WIN situation indeed!