Free UK Genealogy
Project Manager - Volunteer
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Help deliver meaningful digital projects for a national charity
Use your project management skills to support volunteer teams, guide delivery, and help make millions of historic records freely accessible to everyone.
What difference will you make?
Free UK Genealogy’s impact depends on our ability to deliver complex projects in a way that is sustainable, inclusive, and rewarding for volunteers. Without clear coordination, even the best ideas can stall or place unnecessary strain on people’s time and goodwill.
As a Project Manager volunteer, you will help ensure that
- Volunteer effort is focused, valued, and well supported
- Progress is visible, realistic, and shared across the team
- Decisions are made with clarity and recorded for future reference
- Projects move forward in manageable, sustainable steps
Your contribution will directly support work that delivers public benefit rather than commercial gain. The systems and services you help bring into being will be used by researchers, families, and communities across the UK and internationally.
Beyond individual projects, this role also strengthens the charity as a whole. By improving how we plan, coordinate, and learn from delivery, you will help Free UK Genealogy grow its capacity to take on ambitious work while remaining volunteer-led, human, and values-driven.
What are we looking for?
You do not need to be a genealogist or subject-matter expert. We are much more interested in how you work with people and complexity. We would particularly welcome volunteers who bring
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- Experience managing or coordinating projects, in a professional or voluntary context
- Confidence working with technical or specialist contributors, even if you are not one yourself
- A pragmatic, collaborative approach, with an understanding of volunteer-led delivery
- Strong organisational skills, with an ability to clarify priorities and next steps
- Clear, thoughtful communication around progress, risks, and decisions
- Enough time and continuity to stay involved over several months
You will be comfortable working in an environment where plans evolve, targets are indicative rather than fixed, and success is measured by steady progress, shared understanding, and positive volunteer experience.
If you enjoy creating the conditions for others to do their best work, and want to apply your skills to projects with genuine public value, this role could be an excellent fit.
Remote
What will you be doing?
Free UK Genealogy is a UK charity providing free online access to hundreds of millions of family history records. Everything we do is supported by volunteers. Our services include FreeBMD, FreeREG, FreeCEN, and a growing portfolio of new and evolving digital projects.
We regularly run complex, volunteer-led projects. These range from developing new online services and platforms, to improving existing systems, digitising and publishing historic records, and strengthening the tools our volunteers rely on. To support this work, we are looking for volunteer Project Managers who can help bring structure, clarity, and momentum to delivery.
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This role focuses on coordination rather than hands-on technical work. It is well suited to someone who enjoys enabling others to succeed, keeping work moving, and balancing ambition with realism in a volunteer environment. We use a hybrid approach to project management.
Depending on the project, you will work with a mix of technical volunteers, data specialists, editors, coordinators, and charity leadership. Typical responsibilities may include
- Translating an agreed project vision into clear, achievable milestones
- Coordinating work across multiple volunteer-led workstreams
- Supporting delivery of MVPs or phased releases, with scope appropriate to volunteer capacity
- Identifying risks, dependencies, and practical solutions with contributors
- Maintaining lightweight documentation such as plans, priorities, and decision logs
- Producing simple monthly progress summaries, keeping reporting proportionate and useful
- Acting as a bridge between technical, operational, and organisational perspectives
The role is home-based, with meetings held online. Time commitment is typically around 3 to 5 hours per week, depending on the phase of the project. We work flexibly and pragmatically, with an agile approach that respects volunteer availability and wellbeing.
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