Volunteering With The Lifeboat Fund

Every 90 seconds, someone in the world drowns. Together with the RNLI, the Lifeboat Fund needs your help.

In 1866, a group of civil servants raised money to fund a lifeboat for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Over 150 years later and civil servants have funded 53 lifeboats for the RNLI, plus a range of lifesaving services and equipment for crews across the UK. In 2020 money, this is over £26million donated to the RNLI. 

The Lifeboat Fund – as it is known today - is still run by civil servants and is one of the two official charities of the Civil Service.  It exists for one purpose: to help the RNLI save lives at sea. It is proud to be the longest serving fundraising partner and largest regular contributor.

It is run by a board of trustees, lead fundraisers and council members.  The current chair is Jeremy Fleming.

The Lifeboat Fund is expanding its volunteers, and this is a call to action for new recruits to jump on board.

There are multiple benefits to volunteering with The Lifeboat Fund. There are networking opportunities with colleagues from other departments and Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs), and you can enhance your CV by expanding your experience in planning and delivering fundraising activities to support the charity, develop functional skills like finance or try a new profession.  You can also visit a local RNLI station and there’s even the chance to try out the famous RNLI sea survival pool.

The commitment is a one hour telephone meeting per month, a quarterly Trustee meeting, and a drive for organising/supporting fundraising events within your department or ALB. You can also use some or all of your volunteering days to support our activities or expand your knowledge of the RNLI.

The benefits far out-weigh the time you give, and we would like to welcome you to join our lifesaving charity and be part of the proud history that the Civil Service has created.

The Lifeboat Fund’s current appeal is raising money for three initiatives:

• Swim Safe helps children stay safe in the water by teaching them life-saving skills such as dealing with cold water shock.
• RNLI Lifeguarding sites across the UK help to defeat coastal drowning during the holiday season.
• International work in Bangladesh, a country where drowning is the leading cause of death for children aged 1-17 and where 50 children drown each day.  By training lifeguards and teaching children about water safety we can reduce this number significantly. 

To find out more, use our "contact us" page and we'll put you in touch with a departmental fundraising lead.