Nick Hurd has leant his support to a new twitter topic aimed at thanking members of civil society. The minister made his comments in support of the launch of ThankQThursday, a creation of i-volunteer launched to help charities and individuals show their support for those within the sector.

"Volunteering is a great way of getting involved in the local community to make a real difference," Hurd said.

"i-volunteer’s latest campaign #ThankQThursday is a really innovative campaign capitalising on the power of social media. It not only celebrates the work that volunteers do everyday up and down the country, but also provides an avenue to spread the word on getting more people involved in volunteering." 

i-volunteer launched the hashtag to "start a trend" of charities and volunteers using Thursdays to say thank you to any volunteers or organisations providing support. They have already seen success with #FollowFriday and #CharityTuesday which see countless twitter users offering their support to charities.

Jamie Thomas, CEO of Red Foundation, the organisation behind i-volunteer said: "Social media is practically custom-made for volunteering and social action, enabling people everywhere to come together behind a common cause or issue.

"#ThankQThursday is a great example of how we can harness the power that Twitter has to reach millions and use this to promote the fantastic work that volunteers and charities are engaged during the nation’s biggest celebration of volunteering, Volunteers’ Week."