14. The number of hours of work time that Nationwide Building Society encourages its employees to use annually for volunteering.

Among those employees carrying out volunteering work is Jeremy Beach, who works in the Nationwide Building Society's finance department. Beach came up with the idea of Number Crunching, a programme to support children aged five to seven who are struggling with maths. 

His volunteering has helped struggling mathematicians, but the pupils are not the only beneficiaries. The project has required Beach to interact extensively with senior management at Nationwide, raising his profile and earning him an award from Involve Swindon, an organisation that helps employees volunteer. 

"It's improved my CV," he says. "I've been for a few internal employment interviews recently and one of the first things they ask about is Number Crunching." 

His maths initiative has ultimately led to a job promotion - and a nationwide roll-out for the volunteering scheme he helped design and set up. 

£1.3m. What the 74,000 work hours that Nationwide has committed to volunteering in the past year are worth.

More than half of its employees have taken part, and besides helping the communities in which they work, volunteers also feel they benefit personally, says Alan Oliver, spokesman for the society: "They report that it increases their sense of self-worth and feel it develops them in new and different ways," he says.

250. The number of volunteers whose career performance has been compared against non-volunteers in a study carried out by UBS that identified how volunteering may deliver tangible career benefits.

The study found that volunteers performed significantly better in their careers than non-volunteers. "Though they can't say there was a causal link, it is likely that those who volunteered had developed the soft skills such as teambuilding, listening, leadership and being more collaborative, that made them better management material, according to UBS," says Cheryl Chapman, Director of City Philanthropy, which aims to promote more effective giving among city professionals.

Chapman says volunteering experience can help an individual stand out at every stage of their career. 

93%. The percentage of volunteers that felt they had learned something new about themselves, students or society by taking part in a recent Smart Start Experience, a volunteering programme run by London law firm Allen & Overy.

The programme is designed to give 17- and 18-year-old students from non-privileged backgrounds the chance to gain insight into the world of business. Some 80 employees, along with 70 client volunteers, took part in the latest Smart Start Experience.

Kate Cavelle, Head of Pro Bono and Community Investment for Allen & Overy, which runs several volunteering programmes, says: "This helps our lawyers to get to know our clients in a more rounded way, building a broader base to their relationship and enabling them to have conversations that are not just work-related." 

The Smart Start scheme also enables staff to learn new skills and develop existing ones. In Allen & Overy survey of volunteers who took part in the scheme, 42% said the volunteering experience improved their networking skills, while 40% said Smart Start had improved their confidence. 

Sheila Fahy, who specialises in HR and works as a professional support lawyer for Allen & Overy, is accustomed to working with the elite recruits who are chosen to join the firm, but she says that the Smart Start scheme has extended her experience. "Working with students from a wide variety of backgrounds has helped with training by forcing me to tailor to my audience: when you are presenting, you have to pitch to the audience in front of you." 

Fahy is a firm believer in volunteering, saying it helps the firm's lawyers become multidimensional human beings. "If you are a 'human' lawyer, it makes you a much more approachable lawyer," she adds.

37. The age at which Amy Clarke became a trustee of Prime, the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise, five years ago. In an article for the BBC, she describes the role of trustee as being similar to that of an army general. 

"They work behind the scenes, they set the strategy, ensure people at the front line have what they need to do their jobs well. But ultimately the buck stops with them," she says.

Clarke was working in a full-time job when asked to take on this role, which involved a lot of dedication and, she admits, juggling. "Having a very hectic job means that I have often struggled to meet the time demands placed on me. But I have made it work for me and the charity, and the payback has been immense in terms of skills development, networking - and pride," she adds. "Being a trustee is an opportunity for anyone to broaden their skills sets, regardless of age, and is a great addition to any CV."

If you are interested in following in her footsteps and becoming a trustee, click here to read the Charity Commission's guide, which outlines what you need to know.

161,000. The number of registered charities in the UK. These charities, and many more organisations such as schools, hospitals, care homes and sports associations, need support, which means there is no shortage of volunteering opportunities.


How to volunteer When volunteering, it is important to make sure both that you have the skills an organisation needs, and that it can provide you with the support you require.

How to Volunteer, published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, provides useful guidelines on identifying the right volunteering opportunity. City Philanthropy's Chapman suggests the following four tips for selecting an opportunity to volunteer:

1. Volunteer in an area you are passionate about - you will be more committed.
2. Choose a role where you can use your professional knowledge, skills and expertise.
3. Consider how much time you can commit and do not overstretch yourself. You can volunteer for as little as 15 minutes at a time through organisations such as Slivers of Time, while Pilotlight engages with City executives for a few hours a month.
4. Take a look at GoProBono, a free searchable database that brings together more than 70 volunteer brokers who can match skilled volunteers with opportunities.

It's important to remember that although volunteering can be a good way to secure the next promotion or career that you have dreamed of, it can be just as - if not more - rewarding simply to give something of yourself to others.

For Allen & Overy's Fahy, the best volunteering experience has been a trip to Ghana, where she lived alongside Ghanaian families in mud huts with no running water or electricity, and taught in a local school where children had to share pencils.

"I went out there with a mix of Allen & Overy staff including partners and PAs - 75 people over a two-year period - and it was one of the best things I have done in my life."

Do you have experience of volunteering you'd like to share? Please contact richard.mitchell@cisi.org

The original version of this article was published in the December 2014 print edition of the Review.