Date published: 14 July 2026 by Pauline Bolt
A Day in the Life
"I joined Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity in July 2023 having retired 3 months earlier that year. The received wisdom is that you shouldn’t rush into too many commitments when you first retire, that you should let your life settle down into a new normal first. But I found that I missed working much more than I had expected to. I missed the purpose, the sense of achievement and most of all I missed the people. So I decided to start volunteering quite quickly after retirement and can honestly say I haven’t regretted that decision.
I chose the role of Volunteer Community Champion with the Thames Valley team for a number of reasons. Firstly, having spent my career in financial services building relationships with large organisations and delivering presentations I felt I had some skills which would transfer well to the role. As the Thames Valley team had not been operating for many months it was effectively a greenfield site and I felt I had the energy and enthusiasm to drive things forward and find out “by doing” what worked well and what didn’t. Most of all the opportunity to volunteer with Rainbow Trust jumped out at me because of the truly wonderful work the charity does. It might be tempting to think that our Family Support Workers largely help very sick children but the truth is that the work they do helps also helps the mental health of parents and carers and helps ensure the wellbeing of siblings. I’m an identical twin. I don’t really know anything about my twin sister. She died not long after birth and my parents would never talk about her or the circumstances of her passing. I guess the only way for them to deal with their grief at the time was to simply lock it away. So I can’t help wondering how different things might have been for them if support from Rainbow Trust had been available at the time. They’d have had someone to talk to who truly understood and ultimately, maybe my late sister might have existed in a much more real way for me. Rainbow Trust Family Support Workers - they’re beautiful ripples in a pond.
My role is pretty much to champion our charity, and in particular our local team, within the communities we serve. This means the role can head off in all sorts of different directions depending on the specific needs at any particular time. Our team was just getting going when I joined so to start with I spent a fair bit of time finding local publications in which I could place articles about our work for free. I also did email drops to local schools in our area giving Head Teachers a gentle nudge that they could refer any life-threatened child or sibling to us with the permission of the family. I can repeat or refresh these email drops if our waiting list falls or just simply to help ensure that the Rainbow Trust name remains known and understood.
Since those early days our name has become known with an ever-increasing number of small local organisations which raise money for charity. We’ve had donations from a local amateur theatre group, tea rooms, a running club, church bellringers and a gardening club. People know people who know people. So the more people I get to talk to either face to face or though article placement, the better. I’ve also found that there are a number of small local trusts and foundations which can provide smaller grants to the third sector for purposes which meet their specific requirements. As a volunteer, it’s much more effective for me to try and secure small grants of this size than it would be for the central fundraising team in Head Office. They clearly have to focus on finding awards of the sort of size that will keep the whole show on the road. But the local grants I’ve been fortunate enough to secure have been sufficient to organise a selection of special events for families which I hope have made a difference to their quality of life and raised some smiles in one way or another.
Because my role is based at home and doesn’t require a commitment to any specific working days or hours, I can normally fit things in to suit myself although some flexibility is needed. Community partners don’t always give much notice, so I do need to be prepared to respond quickly if need be. Today, I’ve got a mixed bag of things to move forward or to check are still on track for the team. I’m quite excited because I’ve just heard from some Trustees that we’ve been awarded a grant to fund some trips to the Living Rainforest. So I’ll be sharing the good news the Thames Valley Care Team and checking with Mia in the fundraising team that she has everything she needs to ensure the funds, once paid, can be held as the Trustees require.
I’m also going to write our application to the Coop Community Fund today so I’ll be getting in touch with the fundraising team for that too as I need some documents which aren’t available on the intranet. Pretty much every funding application is different. The format, the information required and maximum wordcount can differ from application to application. Most importantly, trustees will typically have specific preferred project types they wish to fund so research and understanding the trustees’ “sweet spot” is essential.
We’re hoping that our local corporate partner, Procter & Gamble, will be able to provide some volunteers to help with an accessible boating event and our 40th Anniversary family picnic. Some queries have been raised by them about risk assessments so the last thing I need to do today is some liaison work with Louise and Naomi from the fundraising team to ensure that doesn’t fall between the cracks and to see if there’s anything I can do to help.
Of course, for every success finding a new partner, new grant or new donor there are 10 times as many which are unsuccessful. Sometimes it can be frustrating to put a lot of effort into finding support and having nothing to show for it. But chats with the team always help. Hearing real life stories of the challenges faced by some of families helps. But most of all seeing the delight on the faces of parents and children alike when something I’ve arranged comes together helps."