An independent evaluation report analysing the learning impacts over ten years of a leading skills-based volunteering programme has revealed outcomes that are “overwhelmingly positive and long-lasting.”
The report analyses ten years of the Weston Charity Awards, founded in 2014 by Pilotlight and the Garfield Weston Foundation. The Awards offer a regenerative support package valued at over £22,000.
The Awards include free access to the Pilotlight 360 programme – a remarkable eight-month package of charity leadership coaching worth an estimated £16,000. The support is led by business professionals who volunteer their expertise to help around twenty small charities each year.
The latest findings show:
· 93% of business volunteers report improvements in creative skills, such as their ability to look at challenges with a fresh perspective, while 80% report improvements in their coaching skills and 75% report improved personal well-being.
· 94% of charity participants report improvements in creative skills, including seeing things from a new perspective, ability to analyse their own thoughts critically and confidence as an effective leader.
· These learning outcomes endure over time. For charity participants, where there is longitudinal data over ten years, four out of five participants state that for their organisation, the improvements are still felt to this day (83%).
Long-time Pilotlight supporter Richard Goff, Chair of The People Director Partnership and HR Magazine’s Most Influential Thinker in HR, said:
“This latest evaluation report confirms that skills-based volunteering is an innovative way for talented employees to tap into their enormous potential while simultaneously making a meaningful difference in the community. This hands-on support not only delivers real value to charity leaders and their organisations—it also cultivates distinctive coaching and interpersonal skills in volunteers, developed through immersive, real-world learning that no amount of theory or case studies can replicate.”
Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Pilotlight, said:
“While volunteering is as old as the hills, using skills-based volunteering challenges as an integral part of leadership development is a genuine innovation. Can you make a difference to homelessness in Manchester or gender-based violence in Coventry? The results support charities in doing this and lead to authentic learning gains for business participants. This is learning by doing good.”
The 2025 cohort of charities, recently announced, are working across diverse specialisms, including mental health, homelessness, reoffending, poverty, health, neonatal care, community support, equality and diversity, safety, education, parenting, disability, self-esteem and sustainability.
The independent evaluation of the Weston Charity Awards was carried out by Inside Impact, who state that “the Weston Charity Awards are achieving impressively positive outcomes… with most of the planned outcomes still being experienced today, even by the first cohort, a decade later.”
Analysis completed for Pilotlight in 2024 by the economics charity, PBE, concludes that because of the learning and well-being benefits, for every £1 spent on skills-based volunteering programmes through Pilotlight, businesses gain up to £3.60 as a return on investment.
This short video explains how the Weston Charity Awards have supported learning outcomes for both business and charity participants.
