Do-it, an online volunteering platform, has been transferred to a new social enterprise to “secure a long-term future” for the service.
Vivo Life, the new social enterprise was formed to bring together digital services offered by Vivo Technology and Do-it Trust. Vivo Life will be registered as a B corp – a relatively new form for social companies.
Do-it Trust acquired the platform from YouthNet in 2013 and relaunched it 2014. It was developed by YouthNet in 2001.
In an email to service users yesterday, Do-it said the service will remain free and that opportunities will now be made available to students using the Vivo platform.
Vivo plans to endow Do-it Trust as its corporate foundation and told users that the Do-it Trust charity will, over time, become Vivo Life's charitable foundation, "with activities likely to include becoming a grant maker to support initiatives to encourage social change and development through the use of technology".
Do-it Trust’s chief executive, Jamie Ward-Smith, has become a trustee of the Do-it Trust and will also be the non-executive chair of Vivo Life. Do-it’s other staff have been transferred to the new organisation.
The charity’s latest accounts for the year ending March 2016 show it had an income of £411,000 and expenditure of £409,000.
Half its income was in the form of a transitional fund grant from the Cabinet Office, which had been awarded to “support the transitional costs involved in transferring Do-it service from YouthNet to Do-it Trust”. It was the final payment in a three-year arrangement.
Last year the charity spent nearly £180,000 on the Do-it website.
‘Really excited’
Today those involved said that the new arrangement would help the platform to scale up its activity.
Ward-Smith said: “Vivo are a really good fit for our ambition for Do-it.org. Their passion for helping individuals to realise their true potential is in no small part driven by the recognition and commitment to enabling more people to volunteer so that they benefit communities as well as themselves. They also believe that technology is a key tool to enabling and inspiring volunteering and social action and have got the expertise, reach and innovation to help us create a step change in the impact Do-it.org can have. I’m really looking forward to working with them.”
George Grima, chief executive of Vivo, also welcomed the agreement of the new partnership: “We are incredibly ambitious about the positive impact we can make as an organisation and have been looking for the right partners that share our vision to create a step change in the way that people do good in the UK. I’m incredibly proud that Do-it Trust has chosen to partner with us so we can work together and, with Vivo’s digital tools and reach, ensure that Do-it.org becomes the most successful volunteering platform in the world.
“We have hit the ground running with the new company and are already planning some exciting new enhancements and developments that will hugely benefit the Do-it.org service and its stakeholders, which we’re looking forward to announcing in the coming months.”
Meanwhile NCVO urged the new owners to listen to the volunteering community. Karl Wilding, director of public policy and volunteering at NCVO, said: “We want it to be easy for volunteers and charities to get together. Websites such as Do-It help to achieve that so it’s important that it is as successful as possible.
“We hope the new owners will take the entire volunteering community and their needs into account while making changes. We are keen to hear from charities with any concerns about the transfer and how it may affect them in order to ensure those concerns are heard.”
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