Volunteer Your Time

Our Somerset charity shops play an important role in helping us generate vital funds to support our care services. Each year our shops raise significant funds to help us deliver our palliative and end-of-life care services to provide care and support for patients, their carers, and families impacted by a life-limiting illness in Somerset. There are over 700 dedicated retail volunteers who are central to the success of our 31 retail shops, eBay and warehouse operations across the county. 

Every day, our volunteers help to sort through tons of pre-loved items, steam clothes in preparation for selling, price and display stock and serve customers at till points. Our volunteers also help with furniture collections, list donations on e-commerce sites, and provide administration and logistics support in our warehouse.   

Are you interested in fashion, fascinated by antiques or collectables, passionate about books or music, talented at creating amazing window displays, or you just happy to meet and chat with people? There is a role for everyone in our charity shops. 

If you’re looking for a fun and varied volunteer opportunity in Somerset and want to be part of a great team volunteering in Taunton, Yeovil or the surrounding areas in the heart of the local community, we would love to hear from you.  

Our fundraising volunteers play a vital role in helping generate funds to support our hospice care services. Each year it costs £15m to deliver our services across Somerset to provide care and support for patients, their carers and families impacted by a life-limiting illness in Somerset.  

Fundraising volunteers are an essential part of the St Margaret’s team, and we rely on their support and dedication to help raise our profile in their local communities, place collection tins in the local area, distribute leaflets and publications to help market our fundraising events and carry our bucket collections in local supermarkets.  

By becoming a St Margaret’s fundraising volunteer, you can use your spare time to help people get the care and support they need at the end of their lives. Whether you would like to volunteer on a weekly, monthly, or ad-hoc basis, we would love to hear from you.  

Hospice volunteers play a vital role in helping to ensure our hospice hubs in Taunton and Yeovil run smoothly. There are a variety of volunteer roles available in our hubs, including roles that work directly with patients and their families on our In-Patient Unit, Bereavement Support or Spiritual Care, and roles that work alongside staff and patients in our Sunflower Centre Day Hospices. We also have a wide range of non-clinical roles including, administration, reception, maintenance, finance and gardening.  

Whether you want to develop your skills and experience, enhance your CV, meet new people or simply have some time on your hands, we would love to hear from you.   

We are pleased to be able to support participants aged 14 years and over in completing their DofE volunteering, in some of our retail shops. We are currently unable to provide DofE placements in our hospice hubs.

We do require a minimum of 2 hours per week of volunteering and if participants are under 16, we will need parental permission. Places in our shops are limited, and we may not be able to fulfil every request we receive. You can either pop into your local shop to see whether there are any opportunities available or contact the Volunteering Team for further information [email protected]  or call 01823 346959.

Short term work experience opportunities of one week or less are limited in our in our non-clinical hospice departments. Occasionally, some of our retail shops may be able to provide a short-term work experience placement but this is not always guaranteed. If you are interested in work experience, please contact the Volunteering Team [email protected]  to discuss.

Occasionally we are able to accommodate opportunities for students looking for an industry-related work placements that help lead to a qualification.  Please contact the Education Team, [email protected] for more information.