Volunteering Matters

Volunteering Matters is a UK charity focused on "the advancement of citizenship and community development for the public benefit through the promotion of volunteering". It was founded in 1962 as Community Service Volunteers (CSV) by Mora and Alec Dickson. In the 2018/2019 financial year, Volunteering Matters engaged around 20,000 volunteers through its hundreds of voluntary projects across England, Scotland and Wales. As of 2021, the president of Volunteering Matters is Lord Freud. He succeeded Lord Levy, who had been President from 1999, in 2019. The charity is led by a Trustee Board headed by Anne Heal. Its Chief Executive since 2019 is Paul Reddish. History In 1958, Dr Alec Dickson founded Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) which focused on international volunteering projects. After leaving VSO, in 1962, Dickson and his wife Mora Dickson formed Community Service Volunteers, which focused on UK-based volunteer projects. Elisabeth Hoodless was appointed Assistant Director of CSV in 1963, becoming the only paid staff member, since the founding director Alec Dickson (1914–1994), and his wife, Maura, were volunteers. Hoodless became CSV's Deputy Director in 1972 and Executive Director in 1975, a role she held until 2011.