HASTINGS, UK, 8 September 2026: Hastings-based IT contractor and Audit Adventures founder Maphi Bayolo has launched an urgent appeal to the mayors of London and New York as she looks for support to help secure the future of Reach Volunteering, a 45-year-old UK service at risk of closure unless firm funding commitments are secured by 10 September 2026.
Bayolo has used Reach Volunteering on and off since 2024, both as a way to contribute her skills to charities and to gain further professional experience.
Only last week, she was accepted for a new volunteer position through Reach, working with a charity as an AI Architect.
Reach connects charities and community organisations with skilled volunteers and trustees, giving organisations that may not have the resources to purchase specialist expertise commercially access to professionals in areas including technology, data, governance, finance, communications and project delivery.
For volunteers, the platform provides opportunities to use their skills in real organisational settings, develop sector knowledge and gain practical experience.
Bayolo believes this type of infrastructure could become increasingly important as AI adoption gathers pace and the nature of the labour market continues to change.
She said: “Reach has allowed me to give something back, but it has also given me opportunities to sharpen my own skills and understand the nonprofit sector in much greater depth. Even now, I have just started working with a charity as an AI Architect through a role I found on Reach.
“For working professionals, that kind of experience is valuable. But I think the potential for young people is even bigger.”
Bayolo also believes services such as Reach could help address the long-standing experience paradox faced by people trying to enter the workforce.
Young people are often expected to have previous experience when applying for jobs, while at the same time finding it difficult to secure the opportunities needed to build that experience in the first place.
She added: “It is the classic chicken-and-egg problem. You need experience to get the job, but you need somebody to give you a chance before you can get the experience.
“Platforms like Reach create environments where people can contribute something meaningful while developing real-world capability at the same time. The charity benefits, the volunteer benefits and, ultimately, society benefits.”
Reach Volunteering has made clear that the threat of closure is not the result of falling demand for its services.
Instead, changes to the funding environment have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a national service supporting charities and community organisations across multiple sectors.
The organisation has said it requires approximately £200,000 a year for two years, with firm commitments needed by 10 September 2026 if the closure process is to be halted.
The required funding could potentially be secured through a consortium of organisations rather than a single funder.
Following the announcement about Reach’s potential closure, Bayolo contacted the organisation to ask whether it would welcome external introductions and approaches to potential strategic partners.
After Reach confirmed that it was open to introductions and a consortium-based solution, Bayolo began approaching organisations that she believed could have an interest in supporting the service.
Her outreach has focused on organisations working across technology, AI, nonprofit services, workforce development and education.
Among the organisations she has contacted are Claude Corps, linked to Anthropic, and OpenAI.
Bayolo said: “I genuinely believe that organisations at the forefront of AI advancement have a social responsibility to help empower the young people who will enter the workforce shaped by these technologies, as well as the wider population that now has to adapt.
“Teaching people new skills is important, but people also need somewhere to apply those skills, demonstrate what they can do and gain meaningful experience.”
The decision to take the appeal beyond businesses was prompted by social media.
A frequent social media user, Bayolo had repeatedly seen videos of New Yorkers publicly raising local issues with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with some receiving rapid responses.
The idea inspired what she jokingly calls a “bat signal from Hastings”.
She submitted an appeal to the New York Mayor’s Office asking whether Mamdani could help raise awareness of Reach or encourage London Mayor Sadiq Khan to take an interest in the situation.
Bayolo has also contacted Khan and City Hall separately.
She said: “I appreciate that Mayor Mamdani is thousands of miles away and Reach is a UK organisation, so geographically this may have absolutely nothing to do with him.
“But I kept seeing people online sending him problems and getting responses incredibly quickly, and I thought: why not send a bat signal from Hastings?
“If a little healthy competition between New York and London gets more people talking about Reach before the deadline, then great. So I am very happy to see who responds first: Mamdani vs Khan.”
Bayolo is not asking either mayor to personally provide funding for Reach.
Instead, she believes mayoral offices could potentially help by raising the profile of the situation, bringing relevant organisations together, facilitating introductions or drawing the issue to the attention of funders and other people who could contribute to a rescue package.
She also stresses that she has no financial interest in the campaign and does not expect to personally benefit from her efforts.
Bayolo said: “This is much bigger than me. If I had the financial power to simply write the cheque myself, I honestly would.
“I don’t. What I do have is a network, a voice and the ability to connect people, so that is what I decided to use. I really hope somebody, or several organisations together, can save Reach.”
With the 10 September deadline just two days away, Bayolo hopes the campaign will generate enough attention to put Reach in front of funders, businesses, technology companies, philanthropists and policymakers who may be able to help secure its future.
