Digital volunteering platform expands to Newcastle business hub

A digital volunteering platform is expanding in Newcastle after launching a base in The Catalyst.

onHand, a fast-growing company that enables businesses to seek out a range of worthy causes and projects for their employees to support has taken up hot-desking space for two members of its expanding team in Helix’s Catalyst building.

The tech firm, boasting a client base including Trainline, Newcastle Building Society, Softcat and Brewin Dolphin, is able to tap into the business centre’s facilities, as well as joining a cluster of businesses that is centred around data, and that can engage the support of the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD).

The company has offices across the North East, with The Catalyst now providing its Newcastle base.

onHand was launched by its parent company The Good Lab, after 12 of the UK’s most loved charities came together to form an organisation looking to solve some of society’s biggest issues.

onHand aims to make it easy for companies to identify meaningful volunteering opportunities for their team, that will also allow individualised choice about the volunteering options that appeal most, and for people who need help to reach out through a platform that can connect them to support.

With some 3,500 volunteering opportunities listed on the app at any one time, ranging from environmental projects to befriending support for lonely older people, businesses that sign up as part of their CSR activities can make it easy for their staff to choose relevant opportunities on their doorstep.

The business is one of almost 30 now based at The Catalyst, an exciting cluster of companies that operate from the £50m hub that opened in 2020. The building is in the heart of Newcastle’s Helix development, a vibrant quarter that stands in the shadow of St James’ Park.

Rebecca Robinson, centre manager at The Catalyst, said: “onHand is a brilliant business and one we are very proud to count among the exciting tenant list we have here.

“Innovation is at the heart of all the businesses that call The Catalyst home, and with NICD and NICA on hand to support and connect them, there’s a truly pioneering ecosystem here that it is just brilliant to see grow.”